James Wood has been making headlines locally all season as the Nationals’ budding young superstar. Today he made national headlines with a special announcement.
Wood announced today that he will participate in the Home Run Derby on July 14 during All-Star Week at Truist Park in Atlanta.
The 22-year-old phenom became the third player to officially join the yearly event the night before the Midsummer Classic, joining Ronald Acuña Jr. of the host Braves and the major league home run leader Cal Raleigh of the Mariners.
“I just got the invite. I can't remember when, really. But it's just something cool to be part of,” Wood said at his locker ahead of tonight’s finale against the Tigers. “I was watching it a lot growing up, so it should be a lot of fun.”
The announcement comes just 367 days after Wood made his major league debut at Nationals Park last summer. He said he will have third base coach Ricky Gutierrez throw to him as he does during batting practice.
Wood ranks second in the big leagues with 12 home runs hit harder than 110 mph behind only Shohei Ohtani (13) and he leads the majors with four longballs that travelled further than 445 feet ahead of Aaron Judge (three). Additionally, he paces the bigs with 52 batted balls hit harder than 108 mph ahead of Judge (51).
“Great for James. Great for our organization, our fans. He deserves to be on it,” manager Davey Martinez said. “I'm excited for him. I hope he does really well. We had a couple in the past, a few winners, so he's going to do really well.”
Wood will become the third different Nationals player (2005-pres.) to participate in the Home Run Derby, joining Bryce Harper (2013 and 2018) and Juan Soto (2022). Both previous participants won the event, with Harper taking home the title in a thrilling edition at Nationals Park in 2018 and Soto following suit at Dodger Stadium in 2022, just weeks before he was traded to the Padres for a package that included Wood.
Wood, a fan of the Derby while growing up in nearby Rockville, Md., remembers Harper’s win specifically.
“Probably Harper's, honestly, here. Honestly, that's probably the big one,” he said of the Derby memories that stand out the most to him.
“Oh, it was awesome,” Martinez recalled. “It was here, so the fans were jacked up. They were excited. The way he won it was unbelievable. So he won it, we had a great time afterwards. Then we go out to L.A.and Juan won his there. It was a lot of fun as well. So I told Ricky, Ricky's going to go there, Gutierrez is throwing to him. I said, 'Come on. Bring back the W.'”
Combined with his nine home runs in 2024, Wood’s 31 career home runs are tied for the most in Nationals history (2005-pres.) through a player's first 162 games with Harper and Soto.
Martinez, who was present at both Derbys that Harper and Soto won, recognized similarities in both victories that could help Wood become the Nationals’ third winner.
“Yeah, like I said, you're competing,” the skipper said. “You're trying to hit as many balls out as possible in a short amount of time. He has to understand just to make sure he takes a deep breath before he goes out there and takes the next swing. That was the biggest thing. At one point, Juan got really fast and we had to slow him down a little bit. Once he slowed down, got his feet underneath him, he started cranking them out again.
“I think he can win it, I really do. You know one, he's going to Atlanta. But I think, if you ever watch his BP, when he wants to crank them out, he could hit five, six, seven in a row. So it's going to be fun to watch.”
Wood himself isn’t quite sure how he’s going to approach it.
“I have no idea,” he laughed. “I haven't practiced. I don't know. I've never taken two straight minutes to swing. We'll see how we figure that out first.”
“I want him to keep hitting right now,” Martinez said. “But he's going to practice a little bit before he goes out there. It is kind of quick. He's got to understand how to use his timeouts. But he should be fine.”
One advantage Wood might have is the event being at Truist Park, where he has some familiarity. In 29 plate appearances across seven games, he has one home run in the Braves’ ballpark, where the right field wall is tall but not far and the shorter left field wall could fit perfectly for his natural opposite-field swing.
“I hit BP a lot there,” Wood said. “You know how the ball flies, know where it flies, I think that helps a little bit.”
“I've seen him take batting practice there,” Martinez said. “One, right field is high, but he hits the ball up high when he hits them out. But he also can hit them out of left-center field, which is what his swing is made of.”
Wood is hitting .283 with 19 doubles, 22 home runs, 65 RBIs, 56 walks and 55 runs scored in 86 games this season. Entering play today, he ranks first in OPS (.934), homers and RBIs, second in both slugging percentage (.547) and walks, and third in on-base percentage (.387) among all National League outfielders.
But he was not among the three outfielders elected to the NL starting lineup via fans, with Acuña and the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker earning those honors. He could still be selected as a first-time All-Star when the league reveals the full rosters on Sunday.
“Yeah, I mean, that would be cool,” he said. “It's definitely something you strive for. But yeah, I'll just be honored to be invited to that as well.”
For now, the ever-quiet Wood is focusing on his invitation to the Home Run Derby.
“I don't know. Just have fun, really,” he said of his goals at the event. “I mean, winning it would be cool, but I'm just there to have a good time.”
“I'm really excited,” Martinez said. “I know he's excited. He won't show too much emotion. I'll show most of the emotion. But I'm really excited for him and his family, and like I said, Nats fans and all of us here. It's great to see one of our guys participating in it.
By participating, Wood will be able to show off his skills on a national stage. What does his manager want the baseball world to notice of the young outfielder?
“Just the kind of person he is, the kind of guy,” Martinez said. “He goes about his business. He's quiet. He's not going to say a whole lot. But he's going to hit the ball a long way.”
“It's just an honor to be invited,” Wood said. “I'm happy to be invited, so I'm just going to have some fun.”