Feel Wood, Inc
James Wood (WSN): 1-3, 2B, R, 2 RBI, 2 BB, SB.
James Wood has been an RBI machine for the Nats. He went yard against the Mariners on Tuesday and Wednesday, one a massive, 435-foot, 113.5 EV blast to right on a backdoor slider from George Kirby. Yes, he can pull a fly ball when the occasion calls for it. He tormented the Mariners again last night, not with a home run, but with a simply terrific piece of hitting. With two runners aboard in the sixth, Wood stepped to the plate facing Gabe Speier, a lefty reliever who has thus far faced 32 left-handed batters and held them to three singles and a double; that’s a .129 batting average and .146 wOBA. Speier also has a 35.9% strikeout rate and an 82nd percentile ground-ball rate.
But Speier didn’t have an answer for James Wood, who casually flicked his first pitch, a 94 mph sinker, the other way to left field; the 269-foot line drive caromed in the corner, allowing CJ Abrams and José Tena to score the first runs of a game the Nats would win 9-3 in extras.
I don’t think anyone knew what to expect this season from Wood. He had flashed unbelievable talent during his rookie season, but, you know, it’s not easy. There is supposed to be a learning curve, or so I’m told. Nonetheless, here we are 56 games in, and he’s in a four-way tie for sixth place on the MLB leaderboard with 15 dingers. He’s eighth with a .958 OPS, a scant seven points behind one of baseball’s best sluggers, Kyle Schwarber. He’s tied with Dodgers cleanup hitter, Teoscar Hernández, for seventh with 42 RBI. And he’s got nine stolen bases.
A glance at Wood’s PLV profile reveals that he’s a passive hitter (-9.8% swing aggression) who can sometimes get himself in trouble with questionable swing decisions inside the zone, meaning he probably lets some hittable pitches go by. But, you know, that kinda feels like nit-picking. Wood’s 31.9% home-run-per-fly-ball rate might seem really high, and, sure, it’ll probably drop some, but it might not be all that suspicious once you realize the amount of power he’s swinging with; his 126 Power+ ranks 14th among all hitters with at least 70 batted ball events. Needless to say, Wood’s blistering start has left his fantasy managers feeling cheddar-headed.
Let’s see how the other hitters did Thursday:
Sean Murphy (ATL): 2-3, HR, R, 2 RBI, 2 BB.
Many have been eyeing Drake Baldwin’s hot start with wide eyes, myself included. But give Murphy credit; he’s been productive, too. His ninth homer of the season (412 feet, 106.6 EV) came at the expense of one of the Phillies’ top relievers, Matt Strahm; the solo shot cut Atlanta’s deficit to 4-3 in the eighth inning of the first game of yesterday’s doubleheader at the Bank. Through 132 plate appearances, Murphy is hitting .228 with a .344 wOBA and has fallen into a platoon with the rookie lefty Baldwin, who hit second in the nightcap and went 0-for-4 with a walk and a run scored.
Ernie Clement (TOR): 3-5, 2B, HR, R, 5 RBI.
A’s rookie left-hander Jacob Lopez was sensational in his debut against the Phillies last Friday, but was obliterated by the Jays last night. Clement primed the party for the Jays, launching a three-run shot to left in the second (383 feet, 97.1 EV). The Jays batted around, and Clement kept the slaughter going with a two-run double later in the second. Clement has been a regular for the Jays, playing all over the infield, including 34 games at third base and 17 at second. However, the 29-year-old utility man remains well off the radar with a career .278 wOBA over 987 PA.
Chandler Simpson (TBR): 1-4, R, BB, 3 SB.
How remarkable is Simpson? He led off the fourth with a walk. If I were to tell you the next two batters struck out, you might’ve guessed that the Rays didn’t score. Wrong! Simpson immediately stole second, then swiped third and raced home on a wild throw from the catcher, Yainer Diaz, before Kameron Misner had a chance to whiff for the first out. Simpson has 19 stolen bases in 35 games. He’s the ultimate jackrabbit, having hit just two home runs in his entire pro career while stealing 104 bases across just 110 games last year in the minors.
Ozzie Albies (ATL): 1-4, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB.
Albies’ splits are well-known; he entered yesterday with a career .330 average with a .382 wOBA as a right-handed hitter compared to .247 and .317 from the left side. And, of course, he did his damage from the left side, drilling a hanging splitter from ace right-hander Zack Wheeler in the fourth inning of Atlanta’s 9-3 win over Philly. The 28-year-old Curaçaoan has endured a rough season, hitting just .241 with a .293 wOBA across 238 PA.
Junior Caminero (TBR): 3-6, 2B, HR, 2 R, 6 RBI.
After plating Yandy Díaz with an RBI single in the fifth, Caminero iced the game by blasting a three-run tater off lefty reliever Bryan King. Caminero has just a 4.3% walk rate, which tells you that he can get himself into trouble at times by swinging at bad pitches. Still, the opposite field jolt (384 feet, 103.5 EV) exemplified Caminero’s thrilling, all-fields power. He’s hitting .257 with 11 home runs and a .314 wOBA; that’s pretty solid work from a 21-year-old in their first full season.
Austin Riley (ATL): 2-3, 2B, HR, 3 R, 4 RBI, 2 BB.
Riley started the scoring in Game 2, smoking a 97 mph sinker from Zack Wheeler past his counterpart Edmundo Sosa for a two-run double in the fourth. With Atlanta up 6-0 in the seventh, Riley crushed a belt-high sinker from Joe Ross for his ninth dinger of the year (408 feet, 111 EV). The 28-year-old righty is having a decent season so far, hitting .280 with a .331 wOBA, the latter a touch under his career mark of .355.
Bo Bichette (TOR): 2-4, 2B, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI.
After flying out in his first at-bat, Bichette drilled a double to the base of the right field wall in the second, scoring Jonathan Clase and putting the Jays ahead 4-0. An inning later, with the Jays ahead 8-0, Bichette sounded the fog horn in the Rogers Centre with his sixth tater of the season (383 feet, 104.7 EV); the two-run shot came on a hanging slider from righty reliever Anthony Maldonado. Bichette is hitting .277 with a .320 wOBA, and his hard-hit rate is up to nearly 50% as he looks to put last year’s misery far in the rearview mirror.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. also hit his eighth home run of the year, and George Springer his sixth in the blowout win over the A’s.
Josh Bell (WSN): 2-5, HR, R, 3 RBI.
Hitting left-handed, Bell clobbered a three-run dinger in the tenth inning, extending the Nats’ lead to 9-2 (386 feet, 109 EV). He went yard on Wednesday, too. However, the 32-year-old DH is hitting just .173 with a .265 wOBA. He also hasn’t cleared 25 home runs or 80 RBI since his first stint with the Nats in 2021, leaving him off the radar except as a corner infielder in deep leagues.
Josh Lowe (TBR): 1-4, 3 R, 2 BB, SB.
Lowe has produced well, hitting .294 with a .361 wOBA, since coming off the IL on May 15th. He’s also hit first or second in all but two of his 14 games. But the most interesting thing, though, is his 14% strikeout rate; that’s not even half of what it was last season. It could very well just be the product of a 56 plate appearance sample, but let’s keep an eye on it.
Yainer Diaz (HOU): 2-4, HR, R, RBI.
With the Rays ahead 3-0 in the fifth, Diaz hammered a hanging slider from Shane Baz just to the left of straightaway center for his sixth of the season (429 feet, 107 EV). He also scratched a two-out single off Baz in the sixth with a sharp line drive to left. Drafted as a top catcher after hitting .293 with a .338 wOBA over his first two seasons (996 PA), Diaz has struggled in 2025, hitting .235 with a .278 wOBA. Diaz should remain a middle-of-the-order bat for the Astros, but his swing-happy approach (12.5% swing aggression via PLV) can make him susceptible to cold spells.
Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire | Featured image by Aaron Polcare (@abeardoesart on Bluesky and X) and adapted by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter/X; @justinparadis.bsky.social on BlueSky)
