The Nationals have made top prospect James Wood’s previously reported promotion to the major leagues official, formally announcing the selection of his contract from Triple-A Rochester. In a corresponding move, veteran outfielder Eddie Rosario has been designated for assignment.
Wood’s promotion to the majors was reported last Friday, and MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald broke down the vaunted outfielder’s impending ascension to the majors at the time. The 21-year-old had laid waste to upper-minors pitching this season, delivering an outrageous .353/.463/.595 slash with 10 homers, 16 doubles and nearly as many walks (40) as strikeouts (42). Wood has drawn a free pass in a massive 17.3% of his trips to the plate and chipped in a 10-for-11 showing in stolen base attempts as well.
A second-round pick of the Padres back in 2021, Wood has elevated his status to the point that he’s widely regarded as the top yet-to-debut prospect in the sport. Baseball America and MLB.com both rank him as the game’s No. 3 prospect, but the players ahead of him between those two lists (Paul Skenes, Jackson Holliday, Junior Caminero) have all reached the majors at least briefly. Based on the timing of his promotion, Wood will now be under team control through at least the 2030 season and won’t be eligible for arbitration until the 2027-28 offseason.
Wood now joins top Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore and shortstop CJ Abrams as potential core pieces acquired by the Nationals in the blockbuster trade that sent Juan Soto to San Diego two summers ago. The Nats still have minor league outfielder Robert Hassell III and minor league lefty Jarlin Susana working their way through the system as well. Neither is viewed as having the type of ceiling Wood, Abrams and Gore have already shown, but Hassell is still just 22 and reached Double-A this year, while the 20-year-old Susana is in his second season at Low-A. Both players could yet reach the big leagues in the next few years.
Turning to the 32-year-old Rosario, he’s long been seen as a potential casualty of Wood’s big league promotion. The former Twins, Braves and Guardians outfielder signed a minor league deal with a $2MM base salary during spring training and made the team’s Opening Day roster despite a poor showing in nine spring contests. Rosario had an awful first month of the season (.088/.137/.162 through the end of April), followed by a blistering May (.253/.319/.530) before falling into another major swoon (.191/.200/.250 in June).
Overall, Rosario’s time with the Nats will draw to a close with a .183/.226/.329 batting line. That’s 46% worse than league-average production, by measure of wRC+ (54). Rosario’s 5.5% walk rate was his lowest since 2019, while his 23% strikeout rate is roughly in line with the 2022-23 rates he showed in Atlanta (but a far cry from the 16.1% mark he turned in from 2017-21).
The Braves acquired Rosario in a 2021 salary-dump deal with Cleveland and immediately saw him go on a magical run down the stretch, slashing .271/.330/.573 with seven homers in 106 plate appearances. He went on to deliver a legendary 14-for-25 performance with three home runs during the National League Championship Series, taking home NLCS MVP honors in the process, before slumping in the World Series.
Rosario’s late surge with Atlanta prompted the team to re-sign him on a two-year, $18MM contract that proved regrettable. He hit .212/.259/.328 in his first season of that contract, and while Rosario bounced back with 21 homers in 2023, his overall batting line was effectively league average (100 wRC+) while his defense continued to receive lackluster grades. Rosario was a productive everyday outfielder with the Twins from 2017-20 but in four seasons since that time he’s turned in a .236/.283/.403 batting line with poor defense and mounting strikeout rates.
The Nats will have five days to trade Rosario, release him or place him on outright waivers, though a veteran with Rosario’s service time would surely just reject an outright assignment to Triple-A anyhow. It’s unlikely that any team would claim even the modest remainder on Rosario’s contract. The likeliest outcome is a release, at which point Rosario will be free to sign with any team. A new club could owe him only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the Nats still owe him, but Washington will be on the hook for the majority of his contract at this point.
Ewww que the music for Rosario to the Braves!
If he wants to hang out in Gwinnett, then go for it, but it’s a lateral move at Best. At least Duvall plays good defense.
Queue the music for Padres regret for trading Wood for 1.5 years of Soto
I am not sure they regret getting soto, but the regret is not living up to making WS while they had Soto
I agree, if they had won the WS, it would have been a worthwhile trade
I look at the same way as the Yankees this year.No trade for Soto but signing him.If they do not win the World Series,lost season.
Tidy piece of business here.
I had no idea of his size.
Baseball ref lists James Wood at 6′ 7″, 234 lbs.
Does size matter?
There’s a mama joke in there somewhere.
Well, when your name is Dick Dollars…
lol
So Washington has Wood.
Tell us something we didn’t know.
Toothless grin 🙂
Most Presidents of Baseball Ops and GMs would be fired for trading 3-5 foundational players and pieces for 1 1/2 years of a good hit, below average defense OF/DH (Soto) a very “overrated player”.
Preller is skilled at finding and signing young talent.
Preller is also skilled at blowing up the Padres farm system
2 or 3. times during his 10 year tenure with the Padres.
Preller was hired by the Padres Aug 6, 2014 and still has not taken the Padres to the World Series.
Preller still has not won a World Series with the Padres.
Peller still has not constructed a team that makes the playoffs on a regular basis.
Preller has constructed some interesting and fun teams.
But, he has fallen short on constructing a perennial playoffs team, a team that makes the World Series multiple years, a team that
WINS A WORLD SERIES!
Yes, I know Soto, if he continues performing at a high level for decades without major injuries and setbacks has a shot at the Hall of Fame.
But, as always, baseball is a team sport;
Trophies, rings and championships generally go to the best team from top to bottom: Front Office, Scouting, Player Development, the entire Roster of Players and the Farm System, wise and supportive ownership that hires the best baseball experts and lets them make most baseball decisions based on the business plan and budget they put forth and who has the wherewithal to spend money for critical needs to put the team “over the top” when necessary.
Leaving aside that Soto is not overrated, the deal was for 2.5 years of Soto. That was, effectively 3 pennant races, for a team that felt it was close to a WS run. That the Padres subsequently 1/ didn’t achieve their goal and 2/traded Soto….does not affect the valuation of the trade when made.
The Soto trade was fine; the real issue was getting handcuffed with the Bogaerts signing (which is understandable in retrospect with Seidler’s declining health). I wonder what the team would look like without the Soto trade: Abrams in left field (would they have resigned Profar?), Merill in the infield, Sullivan as the backup C, and probably Lugo/Gore in the rotation instead of Cease/King/Vasquez. Tantalizing, for sure.
To add to that, maybe a 2024 reunion with Snell and Sanchez.
The Padres currently hold the 2nd playoff WC spot and are outplaying the Braves since June 1st. The haters can hate. But AJ will have the Padres in the playoffs in 2024 with the no 1 WC spot and playing a 3 game playoff series in Petco in September.
AJ has wasted SO much money (hosmer, bogaerts, etc) and handcuffed the team for many years. He is great at talent evaluation and drafting, but may be the worst team builder in MLB history. This year, there will be multiple SS in the all star game that AJ drafted (and deserves credit for) but traded away (Turner, Abrams). Imagine if he built a team around Trea Turner instead of aged Matt Kemp! You could make a team of all stars that AJ traded away for wasted high price veterans that are out of baseball or have not provided the promised consistent winning or a WS victory. Imagine if he had someone competent to translate his talent evaluation into a winning team. Sad wasted decade for the Padres and this current team is fun to watch, but not likely going anywhere in the playoffs (hope I am wrong).
@DBoyd. Ive been a critic of Preller, as much as anyone, and he clearly has made some serious mistakes (such as T. Turner, the first Soto trade, yadda yadda), but it seems he’s also not given credit where credit is due in building rosters. The Pads BP has always been stellar, with a number of diamonds in the rough found by Preller. This year it’s hard to fault Preller’s bargain additions of Profar, Estrada, Donovan Solano, etc…The trades that brought in Arraez, Cease, Higgy, King, Vasquez seem to be very successful. The highly big gamble of converting Merrill to CF and giving him 100% playing time was smart given he’s a leading ROY candidate.
I think AJ is performing better under the tighter budget restrictions. His job might be in jeopardy if they don’t make the playoffs this year but if they do make the playoffs with major injuries to Tatis, Bogaerts, Musgrove and Darvish, maybe we all reconsider the narrative that he’s a poor at roster-building.
Fair points, Brew. Still, I want him to acknowledge his 10 years of failure! Three failed ‘all ins’ now. If he just had let his superior drafting and talent recognition drive his roster construction, the Pads may have already had that elusive title. Maybe they will get lucky this year and those good decisions this year will all be worth it and fix his last decade of failure.
Can’t say I disagree Boyd. Wish they would promote more guys like Merrill. But Seidler didn’t want to wait.
Braves fan bias, I admit, but I do think that barring another major injury, the Braves hold on to the first WC.
The Padres will be tough though!
Anyone but the Phillies/Dodgers.
ACK – there you go bringing realty into the baffoons world! Might add that if Preller hadn’t traded Soto, what would the rotation look like without King, Cease and even Vásquez.
“3 foundational pieces” – a guy with 1 AB is a “foundational piece for years to come”; Abrams is not some other worldly SS so far and well, Gore is a 3/4 – not the ace he was projected to be.
Anyone that wants to grade a prospect heavy trade before 5-10 years down the road isn’t worth responding to in a rational manner.
I’m watching Gore, Wood and Abrams right now because I am a Padres fan – pulling for them.
So many forget that a 1/2 season of Bell came with that trade for some of that prospect capital.
Let the haters hate.
Not only is Soto not overrated, you also claimed he is a “good hit,” which is wildly understating how great of an offensive contributor he is.
Just say no AA to Rosario….
Sad Rosario didn’t work out. I’m headed to the game on Thursday the 4th, will likely see Wood in the morning that day.
You don’t see Wood every morning?
Cool that he’s debuting on a day with so few games — should be a lot of eyeballs on him today. I still vividly remember the HR he hit in spring training in 2022; he had such a compact swing for a dude his size even then.
Dear god I hope the Braves don’t bring Eddie back. Outfield is already terrible
Rosario has to be an upgrade over no hitting Luke Williams.
.253 is blistering?
He’s hitting 353 champ not 253
I think teddyj is referring to Rosario’s slash line in May, which was by far his strongest month with the Nats.
Yes it appears so. Rosario had a slugging percentage over 500 that month.
The Great about that Soto trade for the Nats is …Not only the tremendous return they got(Gore,Wood,Hassell etc) but the Fact that when Soto becomes a free agent this offseason the Nats will be one of the teams able to bid for his services!!!!!!
Win-Win-Win
The Nats don’t spend that kind of money anymore. They only dumpster dive (Senzel, Winker, Rosario, Gallo). Presumably because the team’s ownership is in flux. First they’re for sale; then they’re not. Whatever. The terrific young crop of starting pitchers is befouled by an anemic offense. They’re a likeable team but increasingly frustrating to root for. Glad Wood has arrived, though.
Siedler wanted a Championship ASAP he didn’t have time to wait for prospects . That was his wish with all do respect. Last year was a mess and failure I can’t blame him for trying and trading the future for Soto a great talent to make that happen in his last days. Thank you Peter Siedler for trying .
everyone mocked the nats when they were forced to trade soto. they got james wood, mackenzie gore, and cj abrams in return. this is why its almost always smart to trade a vet when you can for valuable prospects. in the immediate that vet might go on to put up great #s for the tm he’s traded to but in the long run, if the prospects develop, your tm will be much better off