Nationals Rise In MLB Power Rankings With Star Emerging Early This Season

The Washington Nationals are heading in the right direction thanks to an emerging star.

Apr 13, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Washington Nationals left fielder James Wood (29) returns to the dugout against the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

After a slow start to the season, the Washington Nationals are starting to pick it up a bit.

This past week for the Nationals was a strange one. To begin the week, Washington was able to win two out of three games against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Due to the Dodgers being considered as the best team in baseball, taking a series from them is a great accomplishment early on for a Nationals team looking to prove themselves.

However, after the great series against Los Angeles, they ended up dropping two out of three games against the Miami Marlins.

Furthermore, the team will be without their All-Star shortstop, CJ Abrams, for a little while with a hip injury.

While losing Abrams is a tough blow for the lineup, the Nationals are fortunate that they have another young star emerging this year.

Will Leitch of MLB.com recently placed the Nationals in 24th in his MLB Power Rankings, a four-spot increase from last week. Furthermore, he highlighted the performance of outfielder James Wood and his rising stock.

“James Wood has been heralded as a future star, but it’s sure looking like he already is one. He hit four homers in four games last week and is currently eighth in the National League in slugging.”

Coming into the campaign, Wood was one of the most-talked-about young players in baseball. At just 22 years old, he was able to come up and put together a strong second half of the season in 2024.

With the ability to hit for power and steal bases, the sky is the limit for his potential in the league.

While last year was a great audition, Wood is looking to take his game to the next level in 2025.

So far this year, he has slashed .246/.377/.561 with five home runs, 12 RBI, and three stolen bases.

In the second game of the series against the Dodgers, the young slugger had a special performance, going three-for-four at the plate with two home runs.

The development of Wood is one of the top things to watch for the franchise this campaign, and he has been exciting early on.

However, while the 22-year-old is playing well, Washington needs more around him to help win some more games.

The pitching staff gave up a lot of runs this past week, especially against the Marlins. While the lineup has a lot of young talent, they are still developing and can’t be expected to out-slug everyone this year.

Even though the second half of the week wasn’t as good, the Nationals showed some nice improvements of late.