James Wood is Making His Major League Debut Monday Night
After it looked like James Wood might have a shot at making the Nationals Opening Day roster, the young lefty has conquered AAA and will finally get the call this Monday.
We have finally made it.
According to Grant Paulsen of 106.7 The Fan, James Wood is getting called up this Monday for his Major League Debut as the Nationals begin an 8 game homestand.
Sources: James Wood will be called up to debut in DC with the Nats on Monday. The long wait is over. Wood will play his first big league game against the Mets at Nats Park in three days.
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) June 28, 2024
One of the best prospects in baseball, Wood is hitting .346 with a 1.036 OPS in Triple-A.
This has been a long time coming as James Wood looked MLB ready even back in Spring Training, hitting .364 with a 1.214 OPS and 4 home runs in 44 ABs. Wood might have gotten the call earlier this month had he not injured his hamstring and landed on the injured list. Now back and proven healthy, Wood has finally gotten the call.
The Nats opted to take it slow with Wood, which not many can blame them considering how young Wood still is (turns 22 in September), but Wood had no problems adjusting to life in AAA. In 51 games, Wood hit .346 with a 1.036 OPS and 10 home runs.
Mark Zuckerman of MASN Sports pointed out that Wood has been playing Left Field exclusively since his return from the injured list when he was playing Right Field most of the season. This likely means Wood will slide into Left Field come Monday, pushing Jesse Winker to the primary DH role.
James Wood has only played LF since coming off IL last week. Safest bet is he'll play LF for Nats, with Jesse Winker shifting to primary DH role (perhaps platooning with Harold Ramirez). Could also play some CF if Jacob Young gets a day off. Eddie Rosario likely the odd man out.
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) June 28, 2024
This also likely signals the end of the road for Eddie Rosario, who the Nationals gave a plethora of opportunities to in order for Rosario to turn his season around. In early May, Rosario seemed like he was about to do just that after winning NL player of the week for the first week of May after a dreadful April performance. Unfortunately for Rosario, he could not continue the performance and has been one of the worst players in baseball this season with a -1.2 fWAR and a .556 OPS.
While not exactly a trade deadline acquisition, swapping Rosario for Wood will provide a huge boost for the Nationals. After getting swept by the Padres earlier this week in an eventful series, the Nationals have some more work to do in order to get back into the Wild Card race. Adding a spark such as James Wood could be just the jolt the team needs to ignite the offense and finally support the strong pitching staff the Nationals have cultivated this season.
Even if the playoffs are not in the cards for the Nationals this season, calling up Wood at this point in the season shows more light at the end of the tunnel helps usher in a new era of Nationals baseball, one that Nats fans have been waiting on for a while now.