Washington Nationals Star Outfielder Set To Make Grapefruit League Debut
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The Washington Nationals are set to play their sixth game of the 2025 spring training on Friday afternoon against their National League East rivals, the New York Mets.
While the record and statistics don’t mean much in these exhibitions, today’s contest is one that fans could be a little more invested in than normal.
That is because their star left fielder, James Wood, is set to make his Grapefruit League debut. He has been dealing with tendinitis in his right quad and has been limited in camp to just swinging for the most part.
But, last week he was cleared to do some light running as things headed in the right direction. Now, he is healthy enough to be in the lineup, but he won’t be patrolling left field.
Instead, the team will be using him as the designated hitter, as they are exhibiting an extreme amount of caution. There is no incentive to push him for an exhibition game, as it is encouraging enough to see him in the lineup at all taking swings and hopefully running the bases.
As shared by Mark Zuckerman of Masn, Wood’s anticipated debut was actually pushed back a day.
The original plan was for him to be the designated hitter on Thursday night against the Atlanta Braves, but manager Davey Martinez didn’t want to disrupt the routine that he had gotten into.
So, they decided to hold him out one more time and get him his first game action this afternoon against the Mets.
Wood will be in the leadoff spot and likely receive two or three at-bats before giving way to another player.
He will be facing off against New York’s top prospect, Brandon Sproat, to start the afternoon.
Wood and catcher Keibert Ruiz are the only projected Opening Day starters who are in the lineup for the Nationals today.
There is a lot of attention on the young left fielder heading into the 2025 season as one of the foundational pieces of the franchise.
He was stellar during his debut in 2024, registering a slash line of .264/.354/.427 with nine home runs, 13 doubles, four triples and 14 stolen bases. 43 runs were scored and 41 RBI were recorded as Wood has a dynamic skill set that he is only scratching the surface of.
His only blemish was defensively, where he was a surprising letdown. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to put too much work into that skill this offseason, but a small sample size of 79 games isn’t going to diminish his outlook too much.
