Last June in Los Angeles, James Wood walked to the plate in a crucial spot — two runners on with two outs in a one-run game against the Dodgers.

Before the Nationals outfielder could reach the batter’s box, he was turned away. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts showed Wood the ultimate sign of respect, intentionally walking him for only the third time early in his career.

The thought of what Wood, who’d homered one inning prior, could do with a bat in his hand evoked fear. Wood’s dad, Kenny, sitting behind home plate, looked into the Dodgers dugout. Roberts spotted him.

“I kind of just looked over there and shook my finger, like, I’m not going to let him beat us,” Roberts said this month at Nationals Park. “And they got a kick out of it.”

Wood’s blend of power, contact and speed earned him the respect of his peers and managers across baseball in 2025. He became the first National to hit 30 homers since Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto in 2019, making his first All-Star Game in his first full season in the major leagues.

A strong final week salvaged a poor second half that left a bitter taste in Wood’s mouth. Now, Wood is hoping the lessons learned in 2025 will result in a more consistent version of himself in 2026.

“I got a lot of respect for him. The game needs guys like him,” Roberts said. “The skill set is incredible. There’s nothing he can’t do on a baseball field. The more experience he gets, he’s just going to be a scary player to play against for years to come.”

‘Mostly mental’

Wood’s 2025 season was one most hitters would envy. Yet he ended the season feeling he could’ve done more.

After he hit 24 homers and finished with a .915 OPS in the first half, Wood’s whiff rate skyrocketed in the second half and he nearly set the major league record for strikeouts in a season. Nagging knee and quad injuries contributed to his struggles.

“There were good spurts; there were not-so-good spurts,” Wood said. “It was just really trying to be more consistent and find more ways to do that.”

During the offseason, Wood trained in Rockville with Gerardo Caceres, whom he’s worked with since he was in high school. He spent time in Miami and at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, where he played his final two years of high school baseball.

Wood made physical tweaks to create a more efficient swing. He wants to minimize waist movement as much as possible. John Ford Griffin, IMG’s hitting coordinator, said the goal is for Wood to keep his upper body calm and react with his lower half.

Yet, to ensure his second-half struggles didn’t linger, Wood felt his biggest adjustments needed to be mental. He wanted to slow the game down; he felt he sped himself up at the plate in the second half.

“Especially here, everyone’s good enough physically,” Wood said. “But I just think, as far as staying consistent, that’s mostly mental.

“That’s kind of what makes the great players great. That’s what separates guys. They’re able to stay in that zone for longer.”

Griffin said Wood’s unusual demeanor has made him misunderstood since he was in high school. Wood isn’t outwardly expressive, so someone can’t gauge his performance strictly on his body language.

“As we know, his disposition never shows stress or frustration,” manager Blake Butera said.

That’s also why, when scouts recruited him ahead of the 2021 MLB draft, some labeled Wood lazy. Others asked Griffin if Wood really cared about baseball. Yet it’s his relaxed demeanor that works to his advantage.

When Wood is at his best, he trusts his hands and his eyes. If he doesn’t like a pitch, he won’t swing. If a pitch is in his zone, he’s aggressive. And he knows he won’t get beat by any pitch.

“Ninety-seven feels like 92,” Wood said before laughing. “I feel like, when you feel like that, you’re usually in a good spot.”

Wood’s approach resulted in him entering the 2025 All-Star break ranking in the top 10 in the major leagues in homers, RBIs and OPS.

In the second half, he didn’t maintain that demeanor. He chased hits. Griffin sensed Wood was trying to force his way out of slumps.

He trusted his instincts less and uncharacteristically swung at pitches out of the zone. He’d get antsy and force contact on pitches he couldn’t hit hard. Other times, Wood would be too selective and not swing at all.

Wood’s first-half whiff and strikeout rates were 30.2% and 27.6%, respectively. In the second half, those figures jumped to 36.8% and 39%.

Griffin said every big league hitter experiences what Wood did. They start to overthink about pitches and cheat to a specific one. Or they tweak their swings instead of trusting what led to their success.

“The minute you start getting out of your swing, or that first swing you take in that day, and it’s like, ‘Oh, that didn’t feel right,’ there is a fear,” Griffin said. “Like, ‘Oh, crap. I don’t want to lose this.’ ... All of a sudden now, we bring doubt, we bring hesitation, we bring overfocus, which means I’m overfocusing on a specific thing.”

The antidote to those thoughts is discipline. For Wood, that’s building trust in his routine and sticking to it. Griffin said it’s about Wood’s approach: remaining an offensive hitter and focusing on himself instead of reacting to the pitcher.

“We don’t know what the pitcher’s throwing, so we can’t control that,” Griffin said. “The one thing a hitter can control is moving as fast as he can under control with the intent to barrel up a baseball. Period.”

Striking fear into opponents

Wood had an immediate opportunity to test his ability to maintain discipline in 2026.

He had a .125 batting average in his first nine games, with a .572 OPS and 17 strikeouts. He took extra swings before games in Philadelphia. Wood and the Nationals’ coaching staff believed he was close.

Then he was named NL Player of the Week for April 6-12 after batting 12-for-22 (.545) with six extra-base hits, including three homers, eight RBIs, six walks and a 1.746 OPS.

After Sunday’s game, Wood has seven homers and a .931 OPS. He also has 35 strikeouts, most in the major leagues.

Remaining disciplined in a 162-game season can prove difficult. Yet Wood’s ability to do so will determine his ceiling — and just how much fear he’ll strike into opposing pitchers and managers this season and in the years to follow.

“How do we shift it from being, we look like the person who has the fear to making the pitcher look like he has the fear?” Griffin said. “When the pitcher has fear, he’s going to miss. It’s all a game. And so how do we play that? It’s discipline. The more we can attack each at-bat the same way ... I’m not straying from this, and I’m going to stick with this the whole year, I guarantee you those numbers start to escalate by doing so.”