May 20, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Nationals outfielder Dylan Crews (3) rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run against the Atlanta Braves during the second inning at Nationals Park Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Nationals Want To See This From Dylan Crews Before Activating Him Off Injured List

Originally posted on Washington Nationals on SI
By Brad Wakai | Last updated Aug 12, 2025 1:01 PM ET

Coming into the year, the Washington Nationals had high hopes for many of their young players.

While the overall results on the field for the team haven't been great, the development of their potential franchise cornerstones have been, with CJ Abrams becoming an All-Star last year and James Wood and MacKenzie Gore being selected this season.

However, someone who was expected to take the next step this year who has fallen short of those expectations has been Dylan Crews.

Projected to be in the NL Rookie of the Year race, the former second overall pick in the 2023 draft had not performed to that level with a .196/.266/.354 slash line before going on the injured list on May 21 with a left oblique strain.

Crews hasn't played in a Major League game since then, but he has gotten some extensive time with Triple-A Rochester during his rehab assignment that began on July 29.

ALL ABOARD! THE CREWS SHIP IS SAILIN’! pic.twitter.com/sHtLRjVQHL
— Rochester Red Wings (@RocRedWings) August 9, 2025

As of this writing, Crews is scheduled to play for Rochester on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Those will be his 12th and 13th games on this rehab assignment, which is a longer stint than most MLB players usually get, especially since he's producing at a high level with a .278/.333/.472 slash line to go along with two homers and seven RBI in his first 11 contests.

So what is taking Washington so long to call him back up to the big league squad?

They are looking for one thing in particular.

Nationals Want Dylan Crews To Show Offensive Consistency

Brett Davis-Imagn Images

"The Nats, though, want to see the 23-year-old not only prove he's healthy but that he's consistently productive at the plate again before they intend to activate him off the 60-day injured list," reported Mark Zuckerman of MASN.

That has plagued Crews in his MLB career thus far.

After looking like a potential future superstar when on the farm, that has not translated to The Show with a career OPS+ that's 22 points below the league average of 100 while striking out at a clip that's above the MLB average.

Those are things he has to work on if he's going to ever become the franchise cornerstone that he was projected and expected to be based on his selection in the 2023 draft.

It could still happen for Crews.

No one is ready to give up on him just yet, especially since he only had one semi-full season of minor league baseball before being called up to the Majors late in 2024.

But the Nationals don't seem to want to rush him back.

Instead, they will use as much rehab assignment time as possible to make sure he's ready to face Major League pitching again, hopefully kickstarting his career in the process.