The Nationals announced that outfielder Dylan Crews has been optioned to Triple-A Rochester. That seems to set them up to have an Opening Day outfield mix consisting of James Wood, Jacob Young and Daylen Lile, perhaps with Joey Wiemer and/or Christian Franklin on the bench.
Crews, now 24, was once one of the top prospects in the league. The Nats took him with the second overall pick in the 2023 draft. He shot through the minors and was up in the big leagues by August of 2024, barely a year after being drafted. At that time, he was considered one of the five to ten best prospects in the whole league.
The shine has come off a bit since then as he hasn’t shown success at the major league level yet. He missed about three months of the 2025 season due to an oblique strain. To this point, he has 454 big league plate appearances with a .211/.282/.352 line. His defense has been good and he has already swiped 29 bags but the Nats clearly expected more offensively. Crews had a monster .380/.498/.689 line for Louisiana State University and then hit .275/.351/.455 in the minors before his 2024 call-up.
Despite his lack of major league success, it was expected that he would get some runway in 2026. The Nats are rebuilding and don’t plan to contend soon, as evidenced by their offseason deals of MacKenzie Gore and Jose A. Ferrer. But Crews put up an awful .103/.206/.103 line in spring training this year, striking out in 11 of his 34 plate appearances, a 32.4% clip.
It’s possible the demotion is about playing time, as Crews would ideally be getting regular reps to get back on track after his injury-marred 2025. At the big league level, Wood is one of the best players on the club and will certainly be out there. Young doesn’t hit much but is an elite defensive center fielder. Lile debuted last year and was rough on defense but hit .299/.347/.498.
Wiemer is a good fit as a fourth outfielder since he’s a strong defender and his right-handed bat could help him form a platoon with the lefty-swinging Lile. Franklin hasn’t yet made his major league debut but he’s considered a well-rounded player who is decent at just about everything, so he could slot into the mix in various ways if he makes the team, either as a defensive replacement, pinch hitter or pinch runner. Both Wiemer and Franklin are optionable, so it’s possible one of them ends up getting sent down in the coming days but the Nats also might roster five outfielders.
Jamming Crews into that mix would have perhaps meant taking a bit of playing time away from everyone, so the Nats have decided it best to let Crews rediscover himself at the Triple-A level. He will join Robert Hassell III in that regard. Hassell is also a former first round pick who has struggled at the major league level. He was optioned to the minors earlier this week.
The move could have implications for Crews, depending on how much time he ultimately spends down on the farm. He currently has one year and 35 days of service time. If he stayed up in the majors, he would be under club control through the 2030 season. If he spends about two months or more on optional assignment, he wouldn’t get to the two-year mark in 2026, therefore pushing his path to free agency by a year. His path to arbitration could also be impacted.
Those will be concerns to be worked out in the future. For now, the Nats and Crews need to find a way for him to reach his potential and establish himself as a major leaguer. As mentioned, the Nats don’t really hope to be good in 2026 but their future chances will improve if young players like Crews can take steps forward.
Photo courtesy of Geoff Burke, Imagn Images
Paul Skenes has got to be kicking himself that Crews telegraphed he didn’t want to be a Pirate.
Cause the Nationals are in a better position to compete this year than the Pirates?
They’d be a lot more likely to trade or extend him within the next year though.
Trade him, maybe. I don’t know about the extension, though.
The Nationals aren’t all that different than the Pirates in terms of team investment. They went all in for a few years but have been rebuilding the same amount of years as the Pirates, it would seem. Once they’re not paying Strasburg anymore, it’ll be interesting to see what their spending looks like. That contract kind of hamstrung them and I would think make them a little gunshy to put out that kind of contract to another pitcher.
Skenes is in MLB and just played in WBC, Crews is still sitting in AAA still trying to prove he belongs.
Anyone who says that Paul Skenes was the ovbious number one pick in 2023 is doing some revisionist history. It was very close between him, Crews, and Langford. I genuinely believe all first 10 picks of that draft would have went #1-2 in most other drafts. One of the most talented draft classes ever.
Yes–say what you want about Ben Cherington but he has had some legitimately great drafts over his tenure with the Pirates. People make a big deal about Henry Davis’s failure to perform but he got:
–Bubba Chandler in 2021
–Paul Skenes in 2023
–Konnor Griffin in 2024
Yet to prove themselves but looking like good best are Termarr Johnson (2022), Hunter Barco (2022), and Seth Hernandez (2025)
The Pirates have had tons of early first round picks thars why they have had a lot of success in the draft. Griffin and Skenes were good picks for sure but they made mistakes too.
Yes they’ve made mistakes, as all teams have.
Chandler was a third round pick, though, and Barco was a second round pick.
Have chandler and griffin proved themselves?..guess i missed that i will need to check thier mlb ball cards again..
Sorry, misspoke. But most other teams would love to have them in their system.
Trending to be the biggest bust evah. Dude couldnt hack the upper minors
He’s no Brien Taylor
He did make the major leagues at least. Not like that means a ton. I wonder how he is seen around the league. If he’s fixable, would a team trade anything of value for him? Sure the Rays or White Sox would have a degree of interest.
He was billed as the best college draft bat in a decade.. . A cant miss superstar. And he was putting up league average lines in the upper minors. Its likely going to end up the biggest modern draft bust. Especially when his college peers Skenes and Langford are incredible
Biggest modern draft bust?
He’s 24. He’s not even a bust yet.
League average in the upper minors.. Awful in MLB. 1,000 PAs of it. Him becoming a league average MLB hitter at this point would be a feat.
If the Nats are optioning him as their best defender, he has some serious fixing to do.
Respect Jacob Young
Andrew Vaughn was also billed as one of the best college bats in the draft ever. The hyperbole always comes out around draft time.
What do you with aluminum bats and what you do with wood bats is often quite different.
So glad the Pirates got Skenes. Like others said, it didn’t seem like a slam dunk. There were two “surefire” can’t miss hitters in the draft, and we seen how that went.
I thought for a while they’d go slightly below slot and get Langford, who is a very good player so far. Only positive on Crews is he’s played so poorly it wouldn’t be too difficult to pay him a contract in the future.
Thank you for not taking wyatt, whew
Jacob young gets starting gig over crews??
Jacob Young actually has value
2 hr, .230 avg, .580 ops
My 100 year old grandmother can do better than that
I don’t think your grandmother can put out 14 OAA and 13 DRS in CF.
Its a good thing hes a top 2-3 CF in the sport
Can she steal 30 bases?
Crews is not doing a whole lot better, and by wins, Young’s defense has him on top.
I don’t love Young in the lineup either, but when you can’t hit your way into the conversation against him, you deserve to be in AAA.
Ooof, that’s a bummer all around. Not sure who’s it worse for the team or him.
He lost a fair competition to better players, so it’s good for the team.
Sucks for Crews, but he still has time to develop. Wish him a good Triple-A campaign before finally getting a starting spot in DC.
If Jo Adell finally turned it around after years of struggle between AAA and the majors, Crews can do it too. He may want to spend some time at DriveLine to learn how to hit.
Adell dominated MiLB. Crews hasnt consistently hit above A ball
2023 draft looks pretty epic right now.
Skenes off to the best start by any P in history.
Jacob wilson, langford great rookie seasons.
Kyle teel, matt shaw have shown potential.
Max clark, mcgonigle, walker jenkins, eldridge, emerson are elite prospects who could be studs
Best draft since 2011? Let’s see how things develop.
Crews could well bust but he hasn’t yet. This is the right move. It’ll do more for him than the magical thinking of the prior Nats regime.
The Nats under Mike Rizzo pushed their top prospects quickly through the minors. Probably in part due to the organization’s infamously thin development system. Worked great at least once with Juan Soto, mixed results for others such as Victor Robles, Luis Garcia. No way to know how Crews would have fared in another organization.
Every day AB’s at AAA is better than riding the bench for Crews. Weimer is probably better suited for bench work, at least to start
Good. He stinks.
Crews going on one to Rochester.
Crews hasn’t played well at any level, and to think Bucs fans were screaming when Skenes was drafted instead of him.