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SB Nation    •   8 min read

James Wood needs a break

WHAT'S THE STORY?

MLB: Washington Nationals at Minnesota Twins
Nick Wosika-Imagn Images

James Wood had a stellar first half of the season. He was the Nationals dynamic young star and the centerpiece of the rebuild. However, he is facing his first real bump in the road this July. The big man has lost his swing mechanics and the strikeouts are really starting to pile up.

Since the All-Star break, Wood has struck out 18 times in 35 at bats, and is hitting just .114. So what is wrong with James Wood? Well right now just about everything is wrong. There is not a single pitch he is on time for.

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Wood is consistently late on fastballs, and sometimes even off-speed pitches too. When he is not late on those pitches, he is swinging over the top of breaking balls. He is really struggling on inside pitches and expanding the zone more often than normal. Wood is being caught in between passivity and over aggression.

Wood is too talented to stay like this forever, but I think he needs a couple days off. Especially today, with Framber Valdez on the mound, there is no point in having Wood out there. The way he is swinging the bat, he has no chance against one of the premier left handed pitchers in the sport.

So how is Wood going to fix this? One person I do not trust to fix this at all is hitting coach Darnell Coles. Throughout Coles’ tenure, it seems like slumps avalanche into full blown crisis frequently. We saw this with CJ Abrams last year. In 2022, we even saw Juan Soto go into his first extended slump of his career, and Coles seemed to have no ideas on how to help Soto get the ball off the ground.

I know that Wood has his own personal hitting coach named Coach G back in the DC area. Maybe it would be worth seeing him on an off day just to get that swing right. They team up every offseason to make adjustments to Wood’s swing. It is a swing that needs adjusting every once in a while because at 6’7, Wood’s swing can get off kilter if something is off.

There are a lot of moving parts and long limbs in Wood’s swing. Right now it looks like those limbs are not loading up quick enough and by the time Wood makes a decision on what pitch is coming, it is too late.

James Wood is still a star in this league, but that does not make this any less painful to watch. In fact, this fact makes all of this even more painful. After watching this guy do so well all year, watching him fail is like watching a family member really struggle with something. It is tough to watch.

James Wood will be back, but today seems like the perfect time to give the big fella a breather. This is such a long season and mini-slumps are inevitable, but this has gone on for a long time now. Letting him wave away at Framber Valdez curveballs tonight just seems foolish.

Let him re-set, take it all in and work on his timing in the cage. If this does not resolve itself soon, it might be time for Wood’s hamstring to get a little tight so he can work with Coach G. We know that once Wood breaks out of this, the home runs will come thick and fast. James Wood will be the face of the Nationals for years to come but he is going through it right now.

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