Wood celebrates joining HR Derby with career-best 5-for-5 game

WASHINGTON -- Nationals outfielder James Wood -- the lefty-slugging, 6-foot-7 22-year-old -- is heading to the 2025 T-Mobile Home Run Derby.

Wood earned the coveted invitation in his first full season in the Major Leagues. At the time of his selection Thursday, he ranked seventh among all players (fifth in the National League, first among NL outfielders) with 22 home runs.

Wood appropriately hit his 23rd homer of the season and went a career-high 5-for-5 the day of the announcement in the Nationals’ 11-7 win over the Tigers at Nationals Park.

“It's just an honor to be invited,” Wood said, adding, “winning it would be cool, but I'm just there to have a good time.”

Wood will join confirmed Derby participants Cal Raleigh and Ronald Acuña Jr. on July 14 at Truist Park at 8 p.m. ET (ESPN).

“Great for James, great for our organization, our fans,” said manager Dave Martinez. “He deserves to be on it. I'm excited for him. I hope he does really well.”

Wood will be pitched to by Nationals third-base coach and 12-year Major League infielder Ricky Gutierrez. Wood noted he has “never taken two straight minutes to swing,” but he will be able to work with Gutierrez in the 10 days leading up to the competition.

“It's BP, so I'll probably just figure it out as we go along,” Wood said. “I'm pretty comfortable with Ricky. I'll just have some fun. I'm not really gonna take it too serious, you know?”

There’s more to Wood than just the number of home runs he hits -- it’s the power with which he pummels them. Wood ranks in the 99th percentile in hard-hit rate, 97th percentile in average exit velocity and 97th percentile in barrel rate.

Entering Thursday, Wood ranked second in the Majors with 12 homers hit harder than 110 mph, trailing only Shohei Ohtani (13). His hardest-hit dinger was 116.3 mph off Tomoyuki Sugano, and it flew 431 feet to the second deck in Washington. That tied the Nationals’ team mark for the hardest-hit home run tracked by Statcast, set by Bryce Harper on June 15, 2017, at Citi Field.

Wood has hit a career-high 451-foot home run twice this season -- June 13 against Edward Cabrera at home and June 21 off Dustin May in Los Angeles. The latter was the longest home run so far this season at Dodger Stadium (surpassing Ohtani’s 448-foot homer on April 16).

“He's quiet, he's not going to say a whole lot, but he's going to hit the ball a long way,” Martinez said.

Wood will look to join Harper (2018) and Juan Soto (‘22) as the third Nationals player to win the competition.

“You're trying to hit as many balls out as possible in a short amount of time,” Martinez said. “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.”

• All-time Home Run Derby winners

Martinez believes Wood’s ability to stay in the middle of the field can help him in this rigorous event. As for the setting, Wood has hit one home run at Truist Park in 25 at-bats. He said he is familiar with the areas of the stadium where the ball “flies.”

“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 was acquired by the Nats from the Padres in the 2022 Soto blockbuster trade and made his big league debut on July 1, 2024. He has appeared in 166 games (all consecutive) with the Nationals since then.

“When I was like 12, I did some home run derbys,” said Wood. “The prizes were like a bat, so it's a little different now.”