While New York Yankees OF Juan Soto continues to thrive as one of fantasy baseball's top players, one of the young players that the Washington Nationals received from the San Diego Padres in their 2022 trade of Soto looks to be just about ready to make his own noise in the big leagues.
James Wood, also an outfielder, entered this week hitting .353/.457/.564 for Triple-A Rochester -- numbers that rank among the best figures in the minor leagues. He has seven home runs and 10 stolen bases, and nearly as many walks as strikeouts.
Wood, a hulking presence at 6-foot-7, 240 pounds, is rostered in only 5.2% of ESPN standard leagues, so when the Nationals do decide to promote him to the majors, many fantasy managers will still have the opportunity to invest. Perhaps more should be investing in advance. The Nationals want Wood, a left-handed slugger with plate discipline, to see more repetitions versus left-handed pitching, even though he is hitting a solid .297/.381/.568 against lefties (compared to his stellar .370/.479/.563 against right-handed pitching).
