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Nationals prospect James Wood set to make his long-awaited MLB debut

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5 months ago

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Nationals prospect James Wood set to make his long-awaited MLB debut

James Wood, the highly-touted Washington Nationals prospect who has developed into a force in the minors, is expected to make his MLB debut Monday when the Nationals meet the New York Mets at Nationals Park, a source familiar with the matter told The Washington Post on Friday.

Wood, 21, began the year with the Class AAA Rochester Red Wings. The 6-foot-7 outfielder, whose long-awaited major league call-up has generated buzz throughout the season, is hitting .346 with a 1.036 OPS in 51 games for the Red Wings.

The Nationals, in the middle of a long road trip, are set to meet the Tampa Bay Rays in Florida later on Friday.

A powerful left-handed hitter, Wood hit 51 home runs in his minor league career, including 26 a season ago. Wood, who grew up in Maryland, landed in the Nationals’ system in 2022 — one of the prospects the San Diego Padres sent to Washington as part of the trade for superstar Juan Soto. Also part of that deal: MacKenzie Gore, the left-handed pitcher in line to start Monday.

Wood, bright and soft-spoken, has long carried with him the weight of tremendous expectations. And his mother, Paula, has said that he has “always been obsessed with baseball in a different way than anything else in his life.” Earlier this year, his Class AAA manager indicated that he might be ready for a bigger stage.

“Obviously that’s not my choice,” Red Wing Manager Matt LeCroy said at the time. “But he’s done enough right now that I would feel confident, if they asked me [about calling him up], [to say], ‘Hey, man, might as well.’ ”

Wood is in the middle of his fourth season in the minors. He started the 2023 season in high Class A Wilmington and jumped to Class AA Harrisburg after just 42 games. This year, he participated in his first big league spring training and impressed in West Palm Beach, Fla., Washington’s spring training home.

Wood didn’t make Washington’s Opening Day roster — the Nationals wanted to give him more time to develop. But as he cruised through Class AAA, the noise around him continued to grow. Wood suffered a right hamstring injury in mid-May, which sidelined him for a few weeks. He returned on June 18 and has played in just six games.

When the Nationals traded Soto, they hoped to build a young core that would make them competitive again. Two pieces of that core — Gore and shortstop CJ Abrams — are already in Washington and having strong starts to the year. Now Wood is set to join them, as Washington’s years-long rebuild takes another big step.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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