The Washington Nationals placed All-Star outfielder James Wood, a model of reliability, on the 10-day injured list on Tuesday because of a left oblique strain.
Prior to going on the IL for the first time, Wood had appeared in 350 of the Nationals’ 355 games since making his major league debut on July 1, 2024. That included each of the Nationals’ 114 games this season prior to Tuesday.
In a corresponding move, the Nationals selected the contract of outfielder Andrew Pinckney from Triple-A Rochester for what would be his major league debut.
Wood, 23, felt discomfort on his swing when grounding out in the seventh inning during an at-bat against Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Kyle Backhus on Monday. Wood stayed in the game until Dylan Crews replaced him in the bottom of the eighth as the host Phillies won 6-3.
“It didn’t feel right,” Wood said. “Then I went out and played defense and throwing felt fine, running felt fine. But I just took a couple swings after to just see where I was at, if I felt good to keep playing, and I just wasn’t really comfortable doing that.”
He had an MRI exam on Tuesday that revealed the oblique injury.
“It showed a subtle, mild oblique strain on the left side,” Nationals manager Blake Butera said. “We think it won’t be very extreme. But we do think it will take at least the 10 days, which is why we’re IL-ing him.”
Butera said he was “actually pretty happy” with the diagnosis considering it could have been much worse. Wood also took the news in stride.
“Obviously, it’s not what you want to hear,” Wood said. “But I feel like I’m in good hands here. Hopefully, once we get off (the IL), we’ll be in better shape.”
Wood is batting .265 with 30 home runs, 73 RBIs, and career bests with a .393 on-base percentage and a .535 slugging percentage. He leads the major leagues with 100 runs scored and 90 walks this season, when he was selected to his second consecutive All-Star Game.
For his career, Wood is batting .261 with 70 homers, 208 RBIs and 46 stolen bases.
Washington selected Pinckney in the fourth round of the 2023 MLB Draft out of the University of Alabama.
Pinckney, 25, was batting .271 with 13 homers, 51 RBIs, 11 doubles, a .345 on-base percentage and .425 slugging percentage in 94 games at Rochester.
–Field Level Media
