It’s a shame Padres fans won’t be getting plush giveaway towels in the three-game series versus the Nationals that opens Monday night.

They’d be appropriate, what with awesome young slugger James Wood set to play in San Diego for the first time since he was traded with other homegrown Padres for Juan Soto in August 2022.

Padres fans may need a crying towel once they see the smooth 6-foot-7 Wood and his stat line:  21 home runs, 57 RBIs, a .279 batting average and a .376 on-base rate.

Craft beer should be on the house, too.

It would calm the dismay of Padres fans who envisioned a brown-pinstriped outfield trio of Wood, 22, in left; Jackson Merrill, 21, in center; and Fernando Tatis Jr., 26, in right.

A left-handed Aaron Judge is what some MLB scouts see in Wood, so make that beer an IPA.

To the Padres fans who sit in the left-field seats during this series, a pro tip: don’t assume if Wood is batting it’s OK to gab without paying heed because he’s left-handed.

His opposite-field lasers can resemble Tatis’ pull shots.

Big Jim has socked 10 homers left of dead-center this year. Many have exceeded 400 feet.

Seemingly bending the laws of physics, Wood thumped an inside pitch to the left-field seats in a recent home game. Though a wise Nationals fan wore a baseball glove, the 373-foot drive was too hot for him. So pay attention out there, folks.

More? Just look at what Wood did on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium. Leading off the fourth inning, Wood blasted a Dustin May sinker 451 feet to straightaway center field to give the Nationals a 1-0 lead.

If they kept him, what would the Padres have now in young Mr. Wood, a Maryland native they drafted 62nd overall out of Florida-based IMG Academy in 2021?

A player who has defied the scouting belief that athletes who are extra-long limbed need more time to succeed atop a hand-eye sport like baseball. Through 157 career games, Wood has 30 home runs, 32 doubles and a .271 batting average.

The Padres-specific fits are so enticing, some locals might weep.

Numerous strikeouts notwithstanding, Wood is the rare lefty hitter tailor-made for Petco Park, which plays smaller to left field than to right field. And with Wood a natural outfielder whose sprint speed ranks in MLB’s 69th percentile, left field would suddenly become a Padres strength, allowing Gavin Sheets, who’s giving it a good try, to return to DHing.

Wood not being eligible for free agency until after the 2030 season would mitigate some of the Padres’ sticky payroll challenges downstream, involving older stars on long-term contracts. For a taste of the Warren Buffett level value he’s gleaned so far, here’s the cocktail-napkin math: Wood’s 4.5 career win shares, as estimated by FanGraphs, equate to $35.7 million in salary on what he’d make in free agency.

This is the part of this column where you expect me to say A.J. Preller was a dummy for parting with Wood to ensure he’d get Soto.

Not happening — not now, not ever.

The Padres were pushing extra hard to win the franchise’s first World Series title. And they weren’t a bunch of kids.

Soto was a top-five offensive player entering his prime years. He’d played a big role in the 2019 Nationals winning the franchise’s only World Series title. The Padres would have him for the three cracks at the trophy, unless they traded him.

Team chairman Peter Seidler’s willingness to spend with the big boys, even if meant running afoul of MLB’s debt rule, added to the appeal of trading for Soto. Backing up Seidler’s public projections, the Padres would finish fifth, third and 11th in payroll from 2022 through 2024.

Soto helped the 2022 team secure a wild card and the Padres’ first National League Championship Series berth since 1998.

The monster season Soto gave the Yankees last year, leading them to the World Series, is what the Padres expected from him.

MLB’s new pitch clock, Soto said, contributed to his poor start to his lone full season in San Diego, as did a swing glitch dating to his first half of the 2022 season.

But Soto still had a good season, posting team-highs in home runs, OPS and batting average with runners in scoring position. He’s not why the ’23 Padres, who stood among the top five  World Series title favorites on preseason betting lines, failed to reach the postseason.

The Padres got good value from the December 2023 trade of Soto to the Yankees. They won 93 games and a playoff series before failing to close out the Dodgers, who went on to win the World Series.

The current team hopes to regain Michael King, the co-ace obtained in the second Soto trade.

For sure, there’s a reasonable case to be made that the Padres would’ve been better off not trading for Soto. After all, he cost them not just Wood but several other promising young players: CJ Abrams, 24, a shortstop who seems headed to his second All-Star game in a row; starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore, 26, who has a 3.19 ERA and a league-best strikeout rate; and current minor leaguers in pitcher Jarlin Susana, 21, and outfielder Robert Hassell, 23.

But to do the first Soto trade justice, the franchise’s win-now window of 2022-24 has to be appreciated and understood.

If Wood does go on to have a great career, he’ll have some pretty impressive company.

Other homegrown young players the Padres traded included a pair of future Hall of Famers in second baseman Roberto Alomar, 23, and shortstop Ozzie Smith, 27, and a future Hall of Fame candidate in shortstop in Trea Turner, 21, whom Preller, erring badly, sent to the Nationals as part of a three-team trade in December 2014.

You can’t say Padres fans have it easy.