WASHINGTON — The Nationals placed rookie slugger Dylan Crews on the 10-day injured list with a left oblique strain on Wednesday.
Crews, the second overall pick in the 2023 MLB amateur draft, reported stiffness during a fifth-inning plate appearance and exited before the sixth inning of Tuesday’s victory over Atlanta. He underwent an MRI earlier Wednesday.
His first major league injured list stint comes after he homered in consecutive games Sunday and Tuesday for the first time in his career. Crews is hitting .196 with seven home runs — a high among rookies — and 15 RBIs.
Crews said he’d been managing soreness for roughly a week.
“It’s never a positive, you always want to go out there and play every day,” he said. “But I guess it could’ve been worse. So we’ll just get in the training room and get it right so I can get on the field as soon as I can.”
In a corresponding move, the Nationals recalled Robert Hassell III from Triple-A Rochester.
The eighth overall pick by San Diego in the 2020 draft, Hassell will become the fourth minor leaguer to reach the majors with Washington that was acquired in the 2022 trade that sent Juan Soto to the Padres, joining James Wood, CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore.
“It was a big trade, and everybody has high expectations for us,” Hassell said.
