No one can deny the star power of James Wood. He cemented himself as a top prospect in the league. After a solid debut in Washington last year, he emerged as an All-Star and Home Run Derby participant. But throughout the second half of this season, Wood hasn't carried the lineup in the way he did in the first half.
Instead, fellow outfielder Daylen Lile has risen to the occasion as the team's most consistent hitter. Despite having much less fanfare, he's been hitting at an exceptional level for the last couple months. As crazy as it might sound, it's led to fans legitimately questioning whether Lile might in fact be a better hitter than Wood.
James Wood
We all know how much upside Wood has. There's no one in this franchise with as much slugging potential as him. Even during his time in the minor leagues, it was evident that he had superstar ability.
Frankly, that's still true. Heading into the All-Star break, Wood had already hit 24 home runs and was among the most productive and fearsome hitters in the entire National League. He can hit the ball as far and with as much authority as anyone in the sport. He ranks in at least the 94th percentile of all hitters in average exit velocity, hard hit rate, bat speed and barrel rate.
The second half of the season hasn't been nearly as favorable for Wood. He's batting .218 with only three home runs in 54 games. But even as he's faded in the second half, he still ranks in nearly the top 20 percent in batting run value over the course of the season.
The biggest concern by far is his strikeout rate. It was a struggle for him in the first half, but it's been worse than anyone could've imagined most recently. He's averaging close to two strikeouts per game since the All-Star break, and it's led to him being likely to break the all-time strikeout record.
James Wood goes 0-5 with 4 Ks in the afternoon game to get to 209 strikeouts with 11 games to play. https://t.co/MXSn3sf61N
— Talk Nats (@TalkNats) September 16, 2025
While it's hard to imagine that Wood won't improve to some extent in this area, the last two months have served as evidence of how much this can limit his productivity. Wood has been a significantly below-average hitter over this span. That shouldn't be expected to continue, but it still paints a picture of Wood's potential streakiness as a hitter.
Daylen Lile
Lile's progression has been the opposite in many ways, and that makes it easy to dream on continuing. He's never really been a bad hitter, but his first month in the majors was a bit of a struggle. Through 33 games, Lile was batting .234 with only eight extra-base hits.
In his last 50 games, a lot of that has flipped, as he's batting .319 with 22 extra-base hits including nine triples. While he's not the slugger that Wood is, his overall consistency and his combination of gap-to-gap hitting ability and speed has provided a much-needed spark to the Nationals lineup. As a result, he's risen up the ranks and become the team's cleanup hitter.
It's obviously unrealistic to expect him to hit triples at a rate that high, but there's plenty of progression this points towards in other areas. Lile hasn't tapped into the home run hitting upside he holds, and his speed hasn't translated into a ton of stolen bases yet. On top of that, it's important to consider what rounding second for a triple as much as Lile does says about his self-confidence. That's not something most rookies have.
22-year-old Daylen Lile is having a breakout rookie season for the @Nationals and leads @MLB with a 1.318 OPS in September!
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) September 16, 2025
Lile stopped by #MLBCentral to take us through his pregame hitting routine and mindset since getting called back up to the Big Leagues. pic.twitter.com/HuTovhTsQW
It's not as if Lile has emerged out of nowhere, either. He was a top 50 overall draft pick in 2021, and he batted .273 with 62 stolen bases in 302 minor league games, and he seemed to continue to stand out compared to the opposition more and more every year and with each level he advanced to.
Here's the reality. James Wood is the more likely player to become a superstar, but can we really expect him to tap into that potential? His strikeout tendencies are alarming, whereas Lile is striking out less than half as frequently. He'll never hit the ball over the fence nearly as frequently as Wood, but it seems like he'll be the more consistent hitter, including plenty of extra-base hits. His triples should not go understated, as he ranks fifth in MLB in this category, despite having more than 200 fewer at bats than the hitters ahead of him.
What do you think? Could Daylen Lile end up being a long-term lineup standout on par with James Wood? Let me know your thoughts @stephen_newman1 on X.