Washington Nationals All-Star slugger James Wood didn’t swing.
Not once during his first at-bat in Friday night’s loss to the Padres did the bat leave the top of Wood’s shoulder. Padres right-hander Lucas Giolito tried and failed to get Wood to chase.
And, in years past, maybe Wood would have given in and relented. Not this year. Not with the way the Rockville native is locked in.
He stayed to his approach, drawing a leadoff walk. He used his speed to go first-to-third on first baseman Luis García Jr.’s single and scored on Curtis Mead’s homer. That play is the exemplification of why Wood has been so good this season. His rigidness is paying off.
“I’m just being stubborn in that if I don’t get my pitch to hit, like, I don’t have to sweat it,” Wood said.
Wood is off to one of the best starts in the National League this season. Entering Wednesday, Wood is leading the National League in walks. He’s also slashing .267/.403/.534 with 16 homers.
He’s on pace for a 43-homer season and posting a career-high walk rate (17.5%). When he does get pitches in the zone, he makes contact at a career-high 82.1% rate, a testament to the quality swing decisions he’s making.
“Patience and trust has been the biggest thing,” manager Blake Butera said recently. “He does a really good job of walking and getting on base, and he just keeps getting better and better [in] understanding how he’s getting attacked.”
Wood has been working with hitting coach Matt Borgschulte and the coaching staff over the past couple of weeks on being prepared to jump on the fastball while also staying ready for off-speed pitches. The 23-year-old is performing better against off-speed pitches than last season (.281 batting average vs. .174), while still crushing fastballs (.342 batting average with a .632 slugging percentage).
To improve against non-fastballs, Borgschulte said that Wood has adjusted his training and spent more time on the Trajekt, an advanced pitching device that can play any pitcher’s windup and spit out all of his pitches from different arm angles. It helps him get familiar with the pitch shapes that he’s going to see in the batter’s box.
So now when Wood faces the pitchers, it’s almost second nature.
Wood is crushing sinkers (.323 batting average) and changeups (.333), and has improved against sliders this season over last season (.233 vs. .224).
“[Pitchers] don’t have anything to get him out with,” Borgschulte said. “Add to that the plate discipline that he has of being able to lay off those borderline pitches that they try to get him to chase just makes for a really dangerous hitter.”
Given Wood’s stature as one of the game’s preeminent young power hitters, pitchers are going to be more reticent about giving him anything in the zone. But Wood is also being more decisive at the plate. He’s being patient, but not passive.
That control of the strike zone is rooted in Wood’s pregame work studying pitchers. It also stems from confidence in his teammates that if he just draws a walk, they’ll drive him in — Wood leads the majors in runs scored.
“It feels like on any given day, anyone can be the hero, anyone could be the guy that gets the winning hit, or a big hit, to extend the lead," Wood said.
That comfort has allowed Wood to stay within himself and not stray from his plan. Last year, he might have chased pitches to try to ignite the offense. With a more selective approach, Wood has decreased his strikeout rate this season (29%) from 2025 (32.1%) as his power output has increased (.534 slugging percentage).
“It’s not easy for a guy that has that kind of power and really might only get one or two pitches to hit the whole game, to stick with the plan, stick with the approach, and he’s done a great job of that,” Borgschulte said. “That’s one of his strengths, and that really makes it beneficial in the leadoff spot.”
The new coaching staff is also challenging Wood in all facets of the game. He is second on the team in stolen bases, behind only league leader Nasim Nuñez. And though his defense still is graded out negatively in terms of outs above average (minus-7), he did rob a homer last week in Cleveland and advanced metrics show he has a strong arm.
Consistency is key for Wood. He had an All-Star first half last season that was torpedoed by a subpar second half. His continued improvements at the plate, driven by discipline and persistence, are helping him find it.
“The thing that’s impressed me the most about him is that he doesn’t just want to be a good player, he wants to be great,” Borgschulte said. “Everyone can see the potential that he has to do that. He’s already one of the best hitters in the league at such a young age.”
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