The Washington Nationals have promoted outfielder Dylan Crews to the majors on Monday for his big-league debut against the New York Yankees, the team announced Monday.
Crews, 22, was the No. 2 selection in the 2023 amateur draft. At the time, he was widely viewed as the best player in the class (though Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes, the No. 1 selection, has clearly since passed him by). Alas, Crews hasn't yet lived up to expectations at the professional level. In his first 135 minor-league games, he hit .274/.343/.446 with 18 home runs and 29 stolen bases (on 40 tries).
CBS Sports ranked Crews as the No. 5 prospect in the minors entering the spring. Here's what we wrote at the time:
One question we contemplate each winter is how to weigh a player's introduction to pro ball. Crews was considered to be the best player in the class by the talent evaluators who spoke to CBS Sports last draft cycle. As such, is it reasonable to move him below Langford after just a few months? We decided yes for two main reasons: 1) Langford's dominance at every step; and 2) Crews' underperforming contact rates. Despite batting .405/.545/.685 with more walks than strikeouts against SEC competition, he experienced turbulence in 20 games at Double-A, posting a .595 OPS and connecting on just 70% of his swings. There's no sense overreacting to a small sample when there's years upon years of data demonstrating Crews' competency, but we do think it's important to incorporate every new piece of information. Based on that, we decided to roll with Langford ahead of Crews at this point in time.
Crews joins a Nationals roster that includes several other youngsters of note, including fellow outfielder James Wood, shortstop CJ Abrams, second baseman Luis García Jr., and center fielder Jacob Young. Each is in their age-25 season or younger.
