James Wooden doesn’t assume he’s shy.
Nonetheless, the No. 2 general prospect in baseball, a baseballing unicorn who made his MLB debut on Monday for the Washington Nationals, acknowledges that he comes throughout as quiet.
“I simply don’t actually say loads,” the 6-foot-7 outfielder instructed Yahoo Sports activities throughout a latest dialog earlier than he was known as up. “I’m simply fairly chill.”
That’s Wooden, as an individual, in a nutshell: relaxed, low-key, stress-free. The final word chiller. Phrases crawl out of the 21-year-old with a Gen-Z disaffection that, to a cynical ear, would possibly sound like disinterest. However don’t mistake the easygoing nature for that of a sloth or a laggard. Wooden cares. He grinds, and he listens. He’s reserved however extremely attentive. Coaches and teammates gush about his character and his work ethic whereas making borderline irresponsible claims in regards to the brightness of his future.
And why wouldn’t they?
Wooden, drafted 62nd general in 2021 by San Diego and traded to Washington one 12 months later, has performed nothing however drop jaws and switch heads throughout his comparatively quick time as knowledgeable. In a remarkably quick three years, the D.C.-area child has gone from developmental pipe dream to franchise-altering pressure. In 52 video games this season at Triple-A earlier than his call-up, Wooden posted a daft 1.058 OPS with 10 house runs and virtually as many walks as strikeouts. All that regardless of his being 5 1/2 years youthful than the common Triple-A participant.
Constructed like an Olympic volleyball participant with track-star footspeed and light-tower energy, there aren’t many baseball gamers like Wooden. He’s now considered one of solely three MLB hitters, alongside Aaron Choose and Oneil Cruz, who stand 6-foot-7 or taller. No person within the minor leagues who performed or coached with or towards him forgets watching him run, not to mention take batting follow.
“He is a large, you realize,” Jake Lowery, the supervisor of the Low-A Fredericksburg Nats, instructed Yahoo Sports activities. “I at all times speak about him being like a gazelle within the outfield. It would not seem like he is working quick, however you have a look at his sprint-speed numbers, and you are like, Jesus Christ, this man is actually good.”
Throughout his debut Monday, Wooden showcased all of the instruments that make him a tantalizing prospect. In his first at-bat, he laced an opposite-field single 106.7 mph by the left aspect.
Later within the recreation, he posted a dash pace of 30.4 toes per second, tied for the second-fastest in MLB this season.
That is, fairly merely, a generational expertise.
Which, to be clear, is completely different than being a generational participant. As is the case for any prospect, there are landmines and pitfalls forward. The annals of MLB are plagued by “shoulda-beens.” Wooden will wrestle and regulate and wrestle once more. His capacity to repeatedly adapt and develop on the major-league stage will dictate how his profession unfolds. He is aware of all of this and is as ready as anyone.
However for the Nationals, a membership that has wallowed within the muck since its triumphant World Collection title in 2019, Wooden’s debut represented the beginning of an exhilarating new chapter.
In July 2022, the Nats smashed the reset button. Lower than three years after the red-and-blue confetti fell at Minute Maid Park, the group confronted a hauntingly hazy future. The veteran stars of 2019 had departed in free company or rusted with age. The farm system, depleted by years of win-now trades and poor growth, couldn’t hold the window of rivalry propped open.
And so, GM Mike Rizzo and his entrance workplace decided that the one affordable path ahead was to commerce away Juan Soto, already one of many recreation’s finest gamers at 23 years previous. In return for what ought to have been their “ceaselessly participant,” the Nationals acquired from the Padres a cornucopia of prospects: Wooden, pitcher MacKenzie Gore, shortstop CJ Abrams, outfielder Robert Hassell III and pitcher Jarlin Susana.
Wooden, then a 19-year-old taking part in for San Diego’s Low-A crew in Lake Elsinore, California, remembers the commerce vividly. He was on a coach bus someplace within the southern hills of San Bernardino County, half-hour right into a six-hour highway journey. All season, Soto commerce rumors had consumed the game, however Wooden wasn’t anticipating to be traded till that morning, when he wakened with “a sense.” He was scrolling by Twitter when he noticed the information and came upon he was headed house to D.C.
However first he needed to wait out the drive. The commerce wasn’t but finalized, and the crew wasn’t going to show the bus round.
Upon arrival in Visalia, Wooden took an Uber to Fresno, flew to San Diego, Uber’ed again to Lake Elsinore, packed up his issues, drove to San Diego after which flew to hitch the Low-A Nationals affiliate on the highway in Kinston, North Carolina. The complete expertise was a whirlwind, however Wooden, per regular, was unfazed.
Trying again, he laughs at that absurd day of journey. “I simply kinda needed to put on it,” he mentioned together with his typical nonchalance.
He homered two days later, in his first recreation as a Nats minor leaguer.
“He got here into the workplace, and clearly he had no Nationals attire and stuff,” Lowery remembered. “And you realize, we’re on the highway. So we’re outfitting him with no matter stuff now we have: a few shirts, some shorts. It’s largely too massive or too small. And he is similar to, ‘Bro, I will take no matter.’”
That’s how Wooden has at all times been: amenable, low-maintenance, exceedingly type. It’s an strategy fostered, partially, by his upbringing. His two older sisters, Sydney and Kayla, had been each extremely aggressive basketball gamers. Sydney was the crew captain and an All-Large Ten honorable point out at Northwestern. James’ dad, Kenny Wooden, was a legendary highschool hooper on Lengthy Island who went on to develop into a college Corridor of Famer at Richmond College. His mother, Paula, works within the international well being area and has devoted a lot of her skilled life to the eradication of harmful illnesses the world over.
It’s not the kind of surroundings that produces a bum.
Accordingly, James confirmed himself early on to be a very gifted athlete. Round fourth grade, he made the choice to prioritize baseball over basketball for a hilarious, easy, very on-brand purpose.
“I used to be higher at basketball,” he recalled, “however baseball was extra enjoyable.”
As James continued rising, so did his expertise. He matriculated to St. John’s Faculty Excessive College, historically the highest baseball program in D.C. However issues didn’t actually pop off till 2020, after his junior season was canceled by the pandemic. He placed on 30 kilos that 12 months, spending the months after lockdown consuming like a bear and figuring out at a church close to his home with mates.
It was additionally round that point, in July 2020, that Wooden unleashed what continues to be essentially the most awe-inspiring house run of his profession.
“You’ve in all probability seen the video,” he mentioned with amusing when requested about it.
Taking part in for an space journey crew named the Dirtbags throughout a high-profile event in Georgia known as WWBA, the 17-year-old Wooden took a pitch by his eyeballs and clobbered it into the space. His teammate Derek Bender, now an All-Convention participant at Coastal Carolina, was within the on-deck circle and was left mouth agape, fully dumbfounded.
“That was the place the legend of James Wooden got here alive. He didn’t get out that entire event,” Bender mentioned. “The child is 6-foot-7, string bean at that time. He’s up there, no [batting gloves], fingers are by his rattling waist. And he by no means actually swung at pitches up or in — that’s actually why I made that face.”
Bender was not the primary individual to make that face in response to one thing James Wooden has performed on a baseball discipline. And he’ll most definitely not be the final. Nationals followers, coaches, gamers and brass hope that the foreseeable future is full of such moments of impressed awe.
Wooden carries the goals of a company on his very broad shoulders. For a lot of, that expectation can be a burden.
However he’s unperturbed. When requested how his relaxed and reserved vibe compares to a number of the recreation’s flashier personalities, Wooden merely shrugged.
“Baseball is enjoyable. That’s kinda it. I similar to taking part in.”