WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- In a surprising roster move with camp winding down, the Nationals optioned outfielder Dylan Crews to Triple-A Rochester on Friday.
Crews, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 Draft, has slashed .103/.206/.103 with a .309 OPS in his first 12 Grapefruit League games.
“Ultimately, it's always a hard decision, these types of moves this late in spring,” said manager Blake Butera. “One thing that we made sure Dylan was aware of is, we absolutely believe in Dylan. Our thoughts on Dylan as a person, as a player, have only changed in a positive direction. We just think the best thing for Dylan and the organization right now is at least for him to start in Triple-A."
Crews has been a centerpiece of the Nationals future since he was drafted into the organization as a celebrated college champion out of LSU. A standpoint player his entire life, the 24-year-old took the news in stride when he was told by Butera and president of baseball operations Paul Toboni.
“Credit to Dylan, he took it like a pro. He was awesome, awesome,” Butera said. “These are never easy [conversations], and he looked us in the eye the entire time, understood, said he was going to do everything he needed to do in Triple-A. We told him it's our job to make sure he has a clear understanding of what we need him to work on while he's there -- which our hitting group is going to lay out for him tomorrow before we leave -- and we're going to touch base with him basically every day while he's there, just to make sure he's continuing to hit those marks.
“His response was like, I understand this is tough but I’m going to go do my thing and I’m going to show you guys when I’m ready to go.”
Crews reached the Major Leagues on Aug. 26, 2024, just a year after being drafted. But in his first full season, he dealt with injuries and offensive struggles. Crews batted .208 in 85 games with the Nats last year.
“Obviously, he has not performed the way that he expects himself to, not just this spring, but also his previous years in the big leagues,” Butera said. “It was a small sample size, of course. But we told him, you're going to be a huge part of this thing going forward.
“I know this is really hard right now and it's really tough. … Players sometimes can probably feel like we don't think highly of them and that's why they're sent down. That's not the reason with Dylan, we told them this. ... When we see ourselves making a playoff push, either this year, next year, whenever it might be, we envision him running in from the outfield to that dog pile. He’s going to be a big part of that."
The Nationals hope this time in Rochester will help Crews focus on the offensive edits he has been making in camp, including those that translated as recently as Thursday. Crews had been trailing in counts, and Butera lauded his approach in his first at-bat against the Cardinals for getting ahead 2-0 and drawing a five-pitch walk.
The plan is for Crews to play all three outfield positions with the Red Wings, where he will be joined by Robert Hassell III, who was optioned on Thursday, and Andrew Pinckney (No. 19 prospect). Butera describes Crews as a “plus-defender,” and hopes having some of the pressure taken off his offensive production will lend itself to enhancing his defense as well.
“We expect him up here hopefully soon,” Butera said. “I told him we don't want to put pressure on him to say, you need to be up by this date or anything like that. … We want to give him some time to work through those small adjustments in Triple-A, where it’s not 40,000 people yelling down his neck every night and he can actually work on some of those things.”
The day before the Nationals wrap up Grapefruit League action, the starting outfield is projected as James Wood, Jacob Young and Daylen Lile. Right-handed hitting outfielders Joey Wiemer and Christian Franklin (No. 18) remain in camp. Wiemer, 27, has a 1.1 career bWAR in three seasons with the Brewers, Reds and Marlins. Franklin, 26, is pursuing his debut.
The Nationals still have two exhibition games against the Orioles to play on Sunday and Monday before opening the season on Thursday at Wrigley Field.
“The good thing with both of them is that they provide some versatility," Butera said of Franklin and Wiemer. “But I also will say, too, we still have some decisions to make. We’re not going to finalize our roster until probably right at the last minute, so we haven’t really gotten to the point where we feel like we know exactly what our position player group is going to look like. Although it might look like it on paper right now, we still have some decisions to work through.”