James

Wood

Wood took the blame after the game. It’s the second time in a week he’s had to deal with questions about his running, though the previous occasion was more of a mistake in judgment than a lack of hustle. Wood was 2-for-5 before exiting tonight.

Nationals skipper Blake Butera is rolling with a righty-heavy approach against Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez with Wood and Abrams representing the most prominent names to take a seat. It appears to be a matchup-based decision and not anything from a physical standpoint. Wood has picked up right where he left off prior to last month’s oblique strain, hitting .297 (11-for37) with two RBI and four steals in 10 games since returning from the injured list on September 2. It’ll be Dylan Crews in right field with speedster Nasim Nuñez at shortstop.

This was reported as a probability last night and is now official. Wood is hitting .265/.393/.535 with 100 runs scored, 30 homers, 73 RBI and 17 stolen bases across 535 plate appearances in 114 games and should be right back into the lineup for the Nationals and fantasy managers.

Wood reached base safely in two of his four plate appearances and logged seven innings in left field during his latest minor league rehab game for Double-A Harrisburg on Tuesday. He’s been working his way back from an oblique strain that sent him to the injured list back in early August. All signs point to the 23-year-old fantasy superstar making it back for Wednesday’s contest in Washington. He was hitting .265/.393/.535 with 100 runs scored, 30 homers, 73 RBI and 17 stolen bases across 535 plate appearances in 114 games prior to the injury.

Wood reached base safely in two of his four plate appearances and logged seven innings in left field. He’s been working his way back from an oblique strain that sent him to the injured list back in early August. There’s a strong possibility that he’s back in Washington’s lineup this week, either for Wednesday’s series finale against Atlanta or Friday’s opener against the Dodgers. There should be a decision regarding his next steps at some point prior to Wednesday’s contest.

It had been reported that Wood would have a day off on Monday and then could return to the Nationals on Tuesday. That will clearly not be the case; however, there is still a chance that Wood could return to the Nationals at some point this week.

It had been reported earlier that Wood would not require a rehab assignment, but, according to The Athletic’s Spencer Nusbaum, he wanted to see some live pitching before returning. He also played seven innings in left field on Sunday as well. Nationals manager Blake Butera said, “We’ll probably give him Monday off, then we’ll see from there,” so there is a strong chance that Wood will return to the Nationals lineup on Tuesday.

Manager Blake Butera indicated that Wood wouldn’t require a rehab assignment before rejoining the Nationals. If he’s still feeling good tomorrow after the BP session, it probably won’t be long before he’s activated.

Wood landed on the injured list on August 4th with what the team had called a mild oblique strain. However, his recovery progress has been slow, and it’s unclear if he has even begun swinging a bat. Seeing him run on the field is certainly nice, but until we see him hitting and beginning to hit high velocity, we shouldn’t expect an imminent return.

Butera didn’t term it as a setback necessarily, but he still isn’t ready to progress to more strenuous baseball activities. At this rate, it would be surprising to see him back it back before the end of August.