James Wood’s bat was still one of the loudest in the National League in 2026, but the Washington Nationals outfielder knows the finish line is where the work still needs to happen.
Wood put together another huge season, hitting .265/.388/.503 while becoming the second player in Nationals franchise history, dating to 2005, to launch 30 or more home runs in back-to-back seasons. He earned his second straight All-Star selection and finished among the league leaders in runs scored, walks drawn, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and wRC+.
Even with all that production, the same issue followed him for another year: the second-half drop-off.
In 2025, Wood went from a first-half line of .278/.381/.534 with 24 home runs and 64 RBIs to .223/.301/.388 with seven homers and 25 RBIs after the break. The pattern repeated in 2026, when he hit .279/.410/.575 with 28 home runs and 64 RBIs before the All-Star break, then fell to .229/.331/.319 with two homers and 13 RBIs afterward.
That late-season fade is now a clear point of emphasis for Wood heading into 2027.
"It's the little things day to day, game to game, not giving away at-bats, not giving away pitches," Wood said, per MLB.com. "I feel like just being able to hone in on that over 162 games makes a pretty big difference."
The Nationals are certainly paying attention, too. If Wood could carry his first-half form across an entire season, his home run totals in both 2025 and 2026 would have pushed him to at least 40, with each year putting him in the top 10 across Major League Baseball in homers.
That kind of full-season impact is exactly what Washington needs if it’s going to climb into contender territory anytime soon, which is why manager Blake Butera and his staff are trying to figure out how to get more out of Wood over the course of the full calendar.
Wood also dealt with an oblique strain at the start of August that cost him more than three weeks, and that clearly didn’t help. Still, the fact that his production has dipped in the second half in consecutive seasons makes the issue look like a pattern, not just a one-off blip.
Offense isn’t the only thing on his mind, either.
Wood wants to sharpen his defense, and the Nationals had him in a different spot this season. Butera used the 6-foot-6 outfielder mostly in right field in 2026, a shift from 2025, when Wood played 123 games in left field and none in right. This year, he logged 19 games in left and 93 in right.
The move worked out well for Daylen Lile, who flipped his own defensive usage and made major gains. Lile went from minus-10 defensive runs saved and minus-six outs above average in 2025 to plus-eight DRS, plus-two OAA and a Gold Glove finalist nod in 2026.
Wood didn’t get that kind of bounce. After posting plus-one defensive runs saved and minus-seven outs above average as a left fielder last season, he finished at minus-six DRS and minus-five OOA in right field this year.
He knows the glove still has room to grow, even if he may never be an elite defender.
"Defensively, I feel like I've left a lot of runs on the table for the pitchers," he stated. "And I want to be able to help those guys out a lot more."
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