2025 Fantasy Baseball: James Woods Profile, Preview, Predictions

The Nationals have two exciting young outfielders ready to help Washington climb the NL East standings over the next few seasons. James Wood played well in his rookie season, setting the stage for a long major league career.

JAMES WOOD. FIRST HOME RUN. and it's beautiful. pic.twitter.com/ukxgDqpFpI
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) July 6, 2024

OF – James Wood, WAS (ADP – 56.3)

2025 James Wood Hitting Stats Profile | Shawn Childs

The Padres drafted Wood out of high school in the second round of the 2021 MLB June Amateur Draft. Over his first two and half seasons at the lower levels (RK, A, and High A) of the minors, he hit .318 over 529 at-bats with 121 runs, 23 home runs, 120 RBIs, and 38 stolen bases, painting a high-profile bat. The Nationals acquired him at the trade deadline in 2022 in the Juan Soto deal with San Diego.

In his first experience at AA in 2023, Wood lost his edge at the plate (.248/48/18/55/10) due to a much higher strikeout rate (33.7). The following year. His bat dominated at AAA (.353 with 44 runs, 10 home runs, 37 RBIs, and 10 stolen bases over 190 at-bats) while showing a much better approach (40 walks and 42 strikeouts – 18.2% strikeout rate).

Washington called him up on June 28th after battling a hamstring issue. His batting average was an issue in July (.245/12/2/16/2) and September (.248/13/4/10/3) while flashing a higher ceiling in August (.302 with 18 runs, three home runs, 15 RBIs, and nine steals over 96 at-bats). His strikeout rate (28.9) regressed while maintaining a high walk rate (11.6).

Wood graded well in exit velocity (92.8 mph) and hard-hit rate (52.0%), but he hit a ton of ground balls (55.6%) with a low fly-ball rate (22.2). His HR/FB rate (20.5) shows his power impact when the ball is in the air.

Fantasy Outlook: In his whole minor league career, Wood had an elite contact batting average (.443), allowing him to have a reasonable floor in batting average until his approach catches up in the majors. Pitchers will have a better handle on him in 2025, forcing Wood to be more patient at the plate. If not, they will expand the strike zone on him, creating more swings and misses. The Nationals are rebuilding their offense, pointing to Wood getting a chance to bat in the upper half of their lineup. He is certainly tempting due to his baseline skill set in power and speed. I expect a couple of down months, but Wood should help fantasy teams in four categories (runs, home runs, RBIs, and steals) this season.

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