The Nationals announced that outfielder Dylan Crews optioned to Triple-A Rochester. That seems to make them plan to have a mixed bag of Opening Day pitches James Wood, Jacob Young again Daylen Leemaybe with Joey Wiemer and/or Christian Franklin on the bench.
Crews, now 24, has been one of the top prospects in the league. The Nats took him with the second pick of the 2023 draft. He shot the kids and was in the big leagues by August of 2024, less than a year after being drafted. At the time, he was considered one of the five to ten best prospects in the entire league.
The spotlight has dimmed since then as he has yet to show success in the big leagues. He missed nearly three months of the 2025 season with an oblique strain. To date, he has 454 major league plate appearances with a .211/.282/.352 line. His defense has been good and he has already swiped 29 bags but the Nats are expecting an attack. The staff 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 failure to make it to the big leagues, he was expected to find a career path in 2026. The Nats are rebuilding and don’t plan to compete anytime soon, as evidenced by their offseason deals. MacKenzie Gore again Jose A. Ferrer. But Crews posted a terrible .103/.206/.103 line in spring training this year, striking out in 11 of his 34 plate appearances, a 32.4% clip.
The demotion may be about playing time, as Crews will be getting regular reps to get back on track after his 2025 injury. At the big league level, Wood is one of the best players on the club and will be there. Young is not a big hitter but he is a defensive center fielder. Lile made his debut last year and struggled defensively but hit .299/.347/.498.
Wiemer is in good shape as a fourth outfielder as he is a solid defender and his right-handed swing could help him team up with the left-handed swinging Lile. Franklin has yet to make his major league debut but is considered a decent all-around player in almost everything, so he can get into trouble in a variety of ways when he makes the team, be it as a defensive player, hitter or specific runner. Both Wiemer and Franklin are opt-ins, so it’s possible that one of them could end up being sent down in the coming days, but the Nats could also release five outfielders.
Jamming Crews into that mix would probably mean taking playing time away from everyone else, so the Nats decided it was better to let Crews re-establish himself at the Triple-A level. You will join Robert Hassell III with that. Hassell was also the only former first-round pick to struggle at the big league level. He was chosen for the children earlier this week.
The move could have an impact on Crews, depending on how much time he spends on the farm. He currently has one year and 35 days of service time. If he stays in the majors, he will be controlled by the team through the 2030 season. If he spends about two months or more at the job of his choice, he wouldn’t reach the two-year mark in 2026, so he’s pushing his way to freedom a year. His style of mediation may have an impact.
That will be a concern that will be worked on in the future. In the meantime, the Nats and Crews need to find a way for him to reach his potential and establish himself as a big leaguer. As mentioned, the Nats have no hope of being great in 2026 but their future prospects will improve if young players like Crews can take steps forward.
Photo courtesy of Geoff Burke, Imagn Images
