Wood is Silver Slugger finalist for first time in career
By Despite his sluggish second half, James Wood’s total production this season still earned him recognition as one of the best hitters in baseball.
Wood today was named a finalist for the Silver Slugger Award, one of six National League outfielders in the running for the honor. Three winners will be named Nov. 6, along with the winners for each of the league’s other positions.
Joining Wood on the list of finalists are the Diamondbacks’ Corbin Carroll, the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong, the Mets’ Juan Soto, the Marlins’ Kyle Stowers and the Cubs’ Kyle Tucker.
Wood finished the season with 38 doubles, 31 home runs, 94 RBIs, a .256 batting average, .350 on-base percentage and .475 slugging percentage, plus 15 stolen bases. Among NL outfielders, the 23-year-old ranked in the top three in doubles, homers and extra-base hits.
It was a dynamic first half of the season, though, that put Wood in a position to finish with those numbers and earned him the first All-Star nod and Home Run Derby invitation of his young career. He entered the break with a .278/.381/.534 slash line, 24 homers and 69 RBIs, then slashed .223/.301/.388 with seven homers and 25 RBIs after that.
Wood hopes to become the 10th Silver Slugger winner in Nationals history, the third outfielder to take home the honor. The previous winners: Ryan Zimmerman (2010), Ian Desmond (2012, 2013, 2014), Adam LaRoche (2012), Stephen Strasburg (2012), Anthony Rendon (2014, 2019), Bryce Harper (2015), Wilson Ramos (2016), Daniel Murphy (2016, 2017) and Juan Soto (2020, 2021).
