The Washington Nationals are scoring a lot of runs this year. And no one on the roster is scoring as many as James Wood.
At the time of writing, the Nationals lead the majors in total runs scored with 600, 35 ahead of the second-placed Pittsburgh Pirates with 565, and not all that far short of logging one and a half times the total of the last-placed Toronto Blue Jays (430). The offensive surge has carried them to an ever-so-slightly-above-.500 record at 55-54, and while it is still not where they want to be, it is a lot better than where they have been.
Leading the way, of course, is Wood. The team’s starting right fielder is already a two-time All-Star aged only 23, and has the world of baseball at his feet, slugging 30 home runs and 26 doubles to go with 89 walks and 17 steals on his way to a .949 OPS and a 161 OPS+. He is one of the very best in the game. But it is in the runs category where he is streets ahead of the competition.
A Seabiscuit-Like Gap To The Field
Also as of the time of writing, Wood has 99 runs scored, the highest mark in the majors. But it is not just the highest mark in the majors – it is the highest by a long way. No one else has more than 90, 80, or even 75 – second-placed is shared by Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros and Bryan Reynolds of the Pittsburgh Pirates, both of 74, before a trio of players on 73.
To put that into some context, the 25-run gap between Wood and second-place is as large as the gap between Alvarez/Reynolds and the six players currently tied for 93rd place with 49 (breakout star Curtis Mead, Colson Montgomery, Ezequiel Duran, Jose Altuve, Brooks Lee and Nolen Arenado). If Wood had not been granted a run for each of his homers, his resultant 69 runs scored will still be good for tenth. The gap to the field is enormous – for context, last year’s majors leader in runs scored, Shohei Ohtani, led Aaron Judge by only nine.
This is a testament to the line-up of the Nationals as a whole. After all, apart from those 30 homers, Wood only scores if someone else can bring him in. Yet more than anything, it speaks to the excellence of Wood – for all that power, he has in 2026 become an on-base machine.
Wood’s Rise To The Top
Wood was selected by the San Diego Padres in the second round of the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft, and was traded to the Nationals as part of the deal that sent Juan Soto and Josh Bell to San Diego. He progressed rapidly through Washington’s minor league affiliates, and made his MLB debut on 1st July 2024, against the New York Mets, recording his first major league hit in his debut.
Over the remainder of the 2024 season, he established himself as a regular in the Nationals’ outfield, appearing in 79 games and batting .264 with nine home runs, 41 runs batted in, 14 stolen bases and a .781 OPS. And that high baseline has provided a platform to stardom. Entering 2025 as an everyday outfielder, Wood completed his first full major league season by playing 157 games. He batted .256 with 153 hits, 38 doubles, 31 home runs, 94 RBIs, 87 runs scored and 15 stolen bases while posting an .825 OPS.
As per the numbers above, Wood has carried that development into the 2026 season, and become one of the game’s very best at the plate. His combination of power, on-base ability and athleticism make him baseball’s emerging stars while remaining under club control with Washington. His 31 home runs in 2015 was the highest total by a Nationals player since 2019, one he is about to surpass, and he has firmly established himself as one of the club’s cornerstone young players during its rebuilding process. As well as one of the game’s stars of the future.
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