In 2025, Nationals outfielder James Wood had a dream start to his second MLB season, batting .278 with 24 home runs and a .915 OPS in the first half to earn his first career All-Star selection.
But when the All-Star break ended, Wood’s momentum evaporated. He struggled at the plate. The strikeouts piled up. Wood wasn’t himself. He hit just .223 with a .690 OPS in the second half, fanning 105 times in just 62 games for a 39% strikeout rate.
After an even better first half in 2026 -- in which Wood was one of MLB’s best hitters -- he and the Nats will have to hope the pattern doesn’t repeat.
Six games is far too small a sample to cause much concern, but Wood enters Friday batting just .148 (4-for-27) in the second half. In 30 plate appearances, he has struck out 12 times.
“After a break like that, sometimes the timing can be off a little bit,” Nationals manager Blake Butera said on Sunday in West Sacramento, after Wood went 1-for-14 with 10 K’s in three games against the Athletics. “He’ll be OK.”
On the upswing
There are plenty of reasons to believe that this time, Wood has built a foundation good enough to last through the tribulations of a 162-game season.
For one, he has shown improvement in practically every statistical category. This season, Wood is swinging harder, hitting the ball harder, walking more and striking out less than he did in 2025. He’s put himself at or near the top of MLB hitters in numerous key Statcast metrics.
Wood’s Statcast ranks among qualifying hitters, 2026
Entering Thursday
Expected wOBA: .426, 2nd
Expected slugging percentage: .602, 2nd
Barrel rate: 22.1%, 1st
Hard-hit rate: 59.3%, 1st
Comparing just Wood’s All-Star first halves in 2025 and 2026, the 23-year-old star has been superior in ’26, with a higher expected batting average, expected slugging percentage and expected wOBA.
He’s been a key reason the Nats enter Friday leading the Major Leagues in runs (567), slugging percentage (.443) and home runs (150).
“The offense has been outstanding, and James is leading that charge,” Butera said.
Running wild
During the Nats’ series against the A’s, second baseman Nasim Nuñez recalled seeing the Major League leaderboard for runs displayed at Sutter Health Park. Wood’s dominance in that category might have been eye popping to some, but not to his teammate.
“I could say it’s crazy,” Nuñez said, “but it’s Woody.”
Wood enters Friday’s series opener against the D-backs with 94 runs, far, far ahead of the Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds (71) for the most in the Majors. Wood’s 21-run lead over Reynolds at the end of the first half (89 to 68) was the largest gap in runs scored between No. 1 and No. 2 at the All-Star break since a 19-run difference between Ted Williams (82) and Johnny Pesky (63) in 1946, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
On pace for 147 runs in 2026, Wood could put up just the second 150-run season since Williams back in 1949. Only the Astros’ Jeff Bagwell in 2000 (152) has reached that total in nearly 80 years since.
With Wood batting .270, slugging 28 homers and leading the Majors in walks with 81 -- at the forefront of a dangerous lineup -- it’s easy to see why he’s racking up the runs in 2026. He scored in 11 straight games from July 1-17, the second-longest streak in MLB this season.
“It’s not a surprise at all,” Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams said. “He’s been swinging the bat well. He’s on base pretty much every game, multiple times. Seeing him cross the plate is great.”
Staying positive
Wood still scored five runs in his first six games of the second half, but he has looked a bit off in his swing timing since the All-Star break. When he has made contact, though, there’s been nothing wrong with his power: None of Wood’s 16 batted balls in the second half has been below 88.1 mph, and eight have been hard hit (95+ mph).
“Such a good hitter,” Butera said. “He gets pitched so tough. Saw a lot of lefties for him in particular. He’ll be all right.”
It would be an important development after a second half of 2025 in which Wood’s struggles persisted. And not only was he not hitting, but he was dealing with left knee and quad pain late in the year, according to Jesse Dougherty of NOTUS.
Any sort of prolonged slump can take a toll on a hitter, and Wood was no exception. Teammates like Nuñez know the feeling well.
“It’s awful,” Nuñez said. “You feel like the world’s ending.”
But Wood remained resolute. During the offseason, he headed back to his alma mater, IMG Academy in Florida, to hone his swing with the school’s hitting coordinator, former Major Leaguer John-Ford Griffin. The effects of his offseason work appear to be paying off: Wood is hitting the ball in the air more in 2026 as well as hitting it harder overall.
“He stays where his feet are,” Abrams said. “He stays positive. No matter what happens, the results on the field, we kind of stay together and pay attention to the grind.”
Staying on the field has been among Wood’s goals for 2026, and he couldn’t have done better: Wood has played in all of Washington’s 103 games. Still, the club is letting him get off his feet a bit, playing Wood at designated hitter roughly one-quarter of the time (21 starts, compared to 82 in the outfield).
With a little rest as well as Wood’s efforts in terms of strength and conditioning, the Nationals believe they have a plan for long-term success.
“I think a lot of it is going to be learning from where the failure took place last year and making sure he makes those adjustments,” Butera said. “I think a lot of that is with his body, and he’s done a really good job of staying on top of that, staying on top of his diet, getting in the training room, making sure that he’s feeling good, because we’re going to need him these last 40, 50-plus games.”