James Wood is listed at 6-foot-6, but that can't be right because his legs alone are at least 6 feet long. On a cool spring day in Lakewood, New Jersey, he is shivering in a pair of shorts that look like outgrown hand-me-downs on his lanky frame. Last year, he lost about a dozen pounds during the season, when his diet of Chick-fil-A fries and lemonade failed to sufficiently fuel the grind of pro baseball.
, leaving the Nationals without a star or a quick path back to contention — and with a question that will take years to fully answer: Was the return for Soto worth it?
“The very first day I saw him swing,” IMG hitting coordinator John-Ford Griffin said, “I was like, ‘Oh, this is a gold mine.’” His senior year didn’t help his stock, though. Yes, he was strong and strapping and attracting all sorts of scout attention. He even hit a ball into a parking lot far beyond the outfield fence that Griffin estimated must’ve gone 500 feet.
In exchange for Soto and Josh Bell, the Padres sent the Nationals two rookies — shortstop C.J. Abrams and left-handed pitcher MacKenzie Gore — and three high-upside, low-level prospects: outfielder Robert Hassell III, right-handed pitcher Jarlin Susana and Wood."We had to get the right deal, or we weren't going to do the deal,"."We set the bar very, very high, and one team exceeded it. And that's the deal we made.
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