I am doing a series where I offer up three fantasy baseball thoughts for every MLB team. I look at under-the-radar stats, playing time projections, projected roles, and off-season news to try and highlight the nuggets that might help you in your 2025 fantasy baseball drafts. We’ll do this thing in alphabetical order, and this time around I’ll consider three thoughts for the 2025 Washington Nationals.
3 Fantasy Baseball Thoughts for the 2025 Washington Nationals
James Wood Won’t be on my Teams in 2025
I understand that’s a bold statement, and I’m not a James Wood hater. In fact, I think the outfielder is a very exciting player who has a lot to offer fantasy managers. But I also don’t feel comfortable taking Wood in the third or fourth round of drafts which means he’ll be on someone else’s team in 2025.
It’s difficult to ignore the tools and upside here, but I also don’t want to draft Wood under the assumption he’s already reached that point. In 79 games last year, Wood hit nine home runs while stealing 14 bases. He also had 41 RBI and 43 runs scored while hitting .264. That batting average came with a .365 BABIP and a 28.9% strikeout rate.
Wood did put up some pretty prolific numbers in the minor leagues, but strikeouts have also been an issue. Additionally, he never truly hit the ball out of the park at a tremendously high level, so that is still something under development.
A 10.6% barrel rate and 52% hard hit rate is sure going to attract attention. But until he can make adjustments and improve his 2.4-degree average launch angle, we’ll be left wanting more. It all might happen this year and I’ll look foolish, but I don’t want to pay to find out.
Instead, Give me Dylan Crews
Washington is a team on the way up, and they have a lot of exciting players. Going more than 100 picks after Wood is another exciting young outfielder in Dylan Crews. After a prolific college career at LSU, Crews has surged through the Washington system with varying levels of success.
He got to the big leagues last year, and in 31 games, Crews struggled overall. The outfielder hit just .218 with three home runs and 12 stolen bases. What stood out though, is that he didn’t change his approach. Crews struck out 19.7% of the time with a walk rate of 8.3%.
In 80 total games, including Triple-A, last year, Crews finished with 11 home runs and 22 stolen bases. He’ll now get to go through both an off-season and a Spring Training as a big-league player. There is upside here, but it’s not entirely baked into our draft cost; at least not yet.
Crews did have a .256 xBA last year with an xSLG of .424 which was substantially higher than his .353 SLG. Could we be looking at a 20/35 player?
MacKenzie Gore Has Figured It Out
It took a little while for MacKenzie Gore to find his groove as a major league pitcher, but he has done so. Despite a .340 BABIP and 68.1% strand rate, Gore still managed to bring his ERA down from 4.42 to 3.90 last year. He also did so while pitching in 30 more innings.
A large factor in that was Gore kept the ball in the park. After allowing 1.78 home runs per innings in 2023, that dropped to 0.81 last year. The southpaw also benefited from adding another mile per hour to his fastball bringing the average velocity to 96.1.
Gore will strike out close to 10 batters per nine innings, but we also have to live with about 3.5 walks as well. A 39.1% groundball rate last year will make you sweat, but the good news is that hitters aren’t teeing off on Gore. With just a 6.8% barrel rate against, he’s not getting hit especially hard. Even if Gore jumps up to his 4.19 xERA, we are still in good shape with a dependable arm.
For more of the great fantasy baseball rankings and analysis you’ve come to expect from FantraxHQ, check out our full 2025 Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit! We’re here for you all the way up until Opening Day and then on into your championship run.
