Dylan Crews is a big part of the Washington Nationals future plans. That remains as true as ever despite his 5-47 start at the plate. However, I think it is time to take Crews out of the line of fire and give him a chance to work through his struggles at Triple-A.
I have been thinking about this for a while. However, now that we are 16 games in and Crews is still struggling mightily, it is time to give him a recharge. Last year when Jackson Holliday came up to the Big Leagues, he was in a similar spot to where Crews is right now. After 10 games and a 2-34 run at the plate, the O’s decided to pull the plug and send him back down.
Yes, the situations are different. Holliday was 20 and Crews is 23. The O’s were more competitive than the Nats. However, I think the Nats could learn from this situation. Like Crews, Holliday was overwhelmed at the plate and needed a reset. He got that when he went down to Triple-A.
Right now Dylan Crews does not look like the world beater we saw at LSU. He looks much tighter and tense at the plate. Pitchers are way ahead of Crews right now. There was also a tweet that talked about how his swing has changed as well. In a lower stress environment, he will have more of an opportunity to work on his swing.
One thing to keep in mind is that Crews never really dominated the upper minors. In 2024, he hit .270 with a .792 OPS across Double-A and Triple-A. Those are fine numbers, but not exactly indicative of a player ready to take the league by storm. For reference, when James Wood got called up, he was hitting .353 with a 1.058 OPS in Triple-A. That is a guy ready to take the league by storm.
However, the Nats as well as most people in general shrugged off these underwhelming stats because of his pre-draft pedigree. It looks like that was a mistake. Dylan Crews was not ready for the MLB yet and still needed some time to work some kinks out.
Now is the time to give him a chance to develop. He is not developing at the MLB level because he is simply overwhelmed by Big League pitchers at the moment. It is not healthy for his development to keep letting this spiral out of control.
He still does not have an extra base hit yet and looks way out of sorts. Dylan Crews has a reputation of being an elite fastball hitter. That held true last year in the MLB. He hit nearly .300 against heaters with a slugging percentage over .500 and all three of his homers came on the fastball. Crews whiffed less than 10% of the time on fastballs in 2024. His biggest issues came against breaking balls, which ate him up.
However, this season he is struggling mightily with the heater. He is 1/22 with seven strikeouts against the fastball and is whiffing 22% of the time. That is a sign of a hitter losing confidence. For his whole life, hitting the fastball has been second nature for Dylan Crews. He even showed he could handle big league velocity in his time last year. Now his greatest gift has become a liability.
He has been more competitive against breaking balls, but it seems like it has come at a cost. Based on the data and the eye test, Crews is second guessing himself and thinking way too much in the box.
Dylan Crews is showing all the signs of a player that needs a reset. Yes, he had weaknesses heading into the season. Crews struggled against breaking balls and hit the ball on the ground too much. However, he can’t even do things he has always been great at doing like hitting the fastball.
It is worth reiterating that Dylan Crews is still a big part of the Nationals future. He is a great athlete and defender who plays the game super hard. Crews also has great hitting upside. However, to reach that upside at the plate, he needs a recharge. We can’t afford to have a player as talented as he is lose his confidence for good.
It is a real risk. Throughout baseball history we have seen highly touted guys struggle and lose their confidence. With Crews, we need him to regain that swagger that made him one of the best college prospects we have seen in years. It is still in there, he just needs development.
Dylan Crews is an outstanding talent with a great future ahead of him. However, I think it is time to remove him from the firing line and send him to Triple-A. It would be best for him and the team. Crews needs to make adjustments and it is not going to happen when he is overwhelmed against the best pitchers in the world.
