James Wood Is Absolutely Raking

And the elite prospects tell us when they're ready

Most minor league-level assignments are announced late in spring training or even during the first week of MLB play. During this time, my brainpower is devoted to everything happening at the major league level, so I usually play catchup around MiLB Opening Day.

These assignments aren’t always clear-cut. Sometimes, a team wants a player to repeat a level to show mastery. Other times, an organization wants a pitcher to be geographically closer to the big league club. With all the rule testing occurring in the minors, we can’t blame teams for not wanting certain prospects to even deal with a pre-tacked ball, for instance.

That being said, I did find it noteworthy that the Nationals started James Wood in Triple-A with Dylan Crews in Double-A. It isn’t outrageous, considering Crews was playing college ball at this time last year. He’s older than Wood, though Crews has 300 fewer plate appearances at Double-A.

That’s likely all this is, and while Crews finally hit his first speed bump of 2023 at Double-A last summer, this isn’t an indictment of him. Washington wants to see Crews crush Double-A pitching for a while, and then he’ll move up soon, but will Wood still be in Rochester when Crews arrives?

Triple-A Statcast

The good people at Baseball Savant blessed us with full access to Triple-A Statcast this season, and it was the initial driver of my early-season excitement for Wood. He entered the year as a consensus top-10 prospect, but it wasn’t until I saw his Triple-A data that I thought his timeline could be accelerated.

Here are his Triple-A ranks in barrels per batted ball events, barrels per plate appearance, adjusted exit velocity, and hard-hit rate — entering Thursday, min. 20 BBE:

What adds to this is that he’s doing it with a 23.7 BB% and a 15.8 K% at age 21. This means he’s making excellent contact, showing strong plate discipline, and is young for the level.

Earlier in the week, on Wednesday, he checked another box — maxEV:

I’m assuming this is a maxEV for Wood. I happened to catch the result in real-time, but it’s also possible he has hit a ball harder before. Regardless, it’s encouraging to see him show the ability to post a 115 mph exit velocity.

Last season, paying attention to some of Elly De La Cruz’s batted ball results gave us confidence he would be “a freak” at the MLB level. Wood isn’t in the 117-118 range and shouldn’t be compared to Elly, but the idea here is he’s showing us multiple talents as a hitter.

An Accelerated Timeline

If all this wasn’t enough, the above stats don’t even include Thursday’s otherworldly performance by Wood.

You need to click that link and watch the highlights in Sam Dykstra’s tweet. The video starts with an incredibly athletic catch in center field, reminding us that Wood’s athleticism could help make him a well-rounded player as he matures.

The next four highlights, including a left-on-left homer against top prospect Ricky Tiedemann, come at the plate. What really impresses me is that the next three hits are all to the opposite field, including another homer that shows off Wood’s raw power.

Including this contest, Wood is slashing .441/.558/.794 with 9 walks and 7 strikeouts through his first 9 games at Triple-A. While I expected Wood to make a big league push later this summer, there’s a saying that the elite prospects tell us when they’re ready.

It helps, too, that Washington has a history of fast-tracking prospects who display the necessary skills for an in-season promotion. Back in 2018, a 19-year-old named Juan Soto skyrocketed from Low-A to the majors. Wood’s ascent won’t be as drastic, but the parallels are obvious, especially since Wood was one of the top prospects Washington received in “the first” Soto trade.

Pirates ace Paul Skenes or Mets right-hander Christian Scott are my picks for the next top prospect to make an impact in redraft fantasy leagues, but Wood might not be far behind. His performance should have us on notice. The man, quite simply, is raking.