Wood earns Player of the Week honors, moves into MLB Pipeline’s top five

It was a good week for James Wood.

The Nationals’ top prospect was named the International League Player of the Week for the week of May 6-12 and he cracked MLB Pipeline’s top five in the publication’s updated Top 100 Prospects rankings.

Across six games against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (Yankees), the 6-foot-7, 234-pound outfielder posted a .455 batting average while slugging five home runs with a double and 12 RBIs.

Wood went 10-for-22 during the week against a Scranton/Wilkes-Barre pitching staff that had the lowest batting average against in the International League (.226) coming into the six-game series.

Wood, 23, has played in all 35 games for the Red Wings and leads the team with a .346 average, 33 runs scored, 11 doubles, a .444 on-base percentage and 25 walks. His seven home runs and 23 RBIs rank second on the team this season, behind Travis Blankenhorn in both.

He is the second player to win an award for the Red Wings this season (Pitcher or Player of the Week). Blankenhorn took home Player of the Week honors for the week of April 16-21. Wood is just the third Red Wing to win the award since Rochester became a Nationals affiliate in 2021.

Rochester opens a six-game homestand tonight against Buffalo (Blue Jays).

Powered by the strong week and impressive start to the season, Wood then moved up to No. 5 in MLB Pipeline’s updated Top 100 Prospects list.

Said Sam Dykstra of MLB Pipeline: “The Nationals outfielder faced some hit tool questions after striking out 33.7 percent of the time at Double-A last season, but he’s turned that around nicely while still jumping to Triple-A to begin his age-21 campaign. Wood’s power potential remains as good as it gets in the Minors, and his ample speed allows him to steal bags and play an impressive center field.”

That also means Wood replaces last summer’s No. 2 overall pick Dylan Crews as the Nationals’ top prospect per MLB Pipeline’s rankings. Wood had already jumped up to No. 5 in the top 100 and to the Nats’ top spot in Baseball America’s recently updated prospect rankings.

These latest honors add to the question: When will Wood get called up to make his major league debut?

Other Nats prospects in MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospects rankings: Dylan Crews at No. 7, Brady House at No. 38 and Yohandy Morales at No. 91.

* In other prospect news, Jackson Rutledge was called up to be the Nats' 27th man for today’s doubleheader against the White Sox. He is available for both games in Chicago.

The right-hander is 2-2 with a 6.33 ERA, 19 walks, 27 strikeouts and 1.630 WHIP in seven starts with Rochester.

He did pitch six shutout innings in his May 5 start against Syracuse (Mets), but gave up four runs in five innings in the nightcap of Saturday’s doubleheader against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Rutledge, 25, went 1-1 with a 6.75 ERA, six walks, 12 strikes and 1.500 WHIP in his first four major league starts last year with the Nats.