Washington Nationals Emerging Star Projected To Lead Team in Home Runs

The Washington Nationals have several players that have the talent to lead the franchise in home runs in 2025.

Sep 29, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Nationals second baseman Luis Garcia Jr. (2) celebrates at home plate with left fielder James Wood (29) after hitting a home run against the Philadelphia Phillies during the first inning at Nationals Park. | Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images

With spring training underway for the Washington Nationals, some of their top young players have already been showing some improvements. 

Coming into the 2025 campaign, hopes are high for the Nationals. For the past several years, Washington has been one of the worst teams in baseball. However, things do appear like they might be getting a bit better. 

Last season, some of the young players for the Nationals really started to make an impact in the lineup. CJ Abrams was able to make it to his first All-Star team with a great first half of the campaign. 

Also, second baseman Luis Garcia Jr. put together a strong overall campaign that proved himself in the Majors.

With the middle of the infield appearing to be set for years to come, Washington also got to see their top two outfield prospects get called up in the summer. 

Both James Wood and Dylan Crews were able to make their debuts and, for Wood especially, his time in the Majors was impressive. Now, expectations for both are very high coming into the campaign. 

As two of the best outfield prospects of the past two years, Washington will be hoping they can both emerge as stars. 

Andrew Simon of MLB.com recently projected that Wood would lead the Nationals in home runs this coming season with 21.  

Slugging has been a major issue for Washington during the rebuild and appeared to be a bit of a focus for the team this winter. 

With additions like Nathaniel Lowe, Paul DeJong, and Josh Bell, the team is trying to support their talented young core with some veterans that can hit the ball out of the park. 

The power numbers in 2024 for the Nationals were rather poor, with Abrams leading the team in that category at 20. Furthermore, the only other player with 15 home runs was Garcia. 

That should be a much different story this year with the new additions and the young talent that will hopefully be making an impact. 

Last year for Wood, he slashed .264/.354/.427 with nine home runs and 41 RBI. However, at his size, hitting for more power seems like it should come naturally to him. 

Reaching the projected 21-home run mark seems realistic for him. However, whether that will be enough to lead the team remains to be seen. 

The Nationals are certainly hoping that they have multiple players reach the 20-home run mark this year. However, they would be pleased if it was one of their young stars like Wood leading the way.