James Wood’s return to the Washington Nationals has hit a slower patch than anyone expected.
The left-handed slugger has been on the injured list since Aug. 4 with a left oblique strain, and there had been some signs he was moving in the right direction. The Nationals had said Wood had started playing catch, swinging the bat and taking balls off a tee, which sounded like the first real steps toward getting him back.
But manager Blake Butera said the progress has stalled. As Spencer Nusbaum of The Athletic reported, Butera said the recovery has gone “pretty slow recently.”
"Yeah, it's been it's been pretty slow recently. Just hasn't subsided the way we'd like it to. So not a whole lot going on at the moment," Butera said.
Wood is still dealing with tightness in the oblique, so Washington is being careful with him. That fits the way the injury has played out.
The 10-day IL tag always looked optimistic for the actual timeline, and while there was hope he could be back before the end of August, oblique issues are notoriously stubborn. In Wood’s case, that has proved true.
The encouraging part for Washington is that this doesn’t sound like a setback. The Nationals haven’t shut him down from rehab work; they simply haven’t seen the kind of recovery they were hoping for after the early optimism around the injury.
For now, Wood is projected to return sometime in September, though that remains tied to how he feels and whether the discomfort finally disappears.
His absence has been felt in a big way. Since Wood went on the IL, the Nationals’ offense has posted a league-average 100 wRC+, which ranks 13th in the majors. Before that, they were tied for No. 2 at 111.
That’s the difference one elite bat can make. Washington is still an extreme longshot to reach the playoffs after spending most of the season hanging around an NL wild card spot, but getting Wood back before the year ends would still matter. The Nationals would love to close the season with their best hitter back in the middle of the lineup.
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