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Should the Nationals Be Worried About Dylan Crews?

Originally posted on Just Baseball | By Caleb Moody | Last updated Apr 7, 2025 4:43 PM ET

There was lot to be excited about for the Washington Nationals heading into the 2025 season, as there’s a growing feeling that their window of contention could soon be opening.

After bringing in veteran names like Nathaniel Lowe and Michael Soroka to add to their impressive young core, it’s easy to see the semblance of a postseason-caliber lineup starting to take shape.

Amongst that young core, we’ve seen glimpses of the star power that many are on their way to achieving, with players such as James Wood, CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore.

However, there’s one young talent that hasn’t delivered the returns many might have expected of him at this point, and that is Dylan Crews, who entered the season as our No. 6 overall prospect.

There’s no doubting Crews’ potential, as our prospect expert Aram Leighton stamped him with a 60 overall future value (FV) with no individual facet of his game receiving an FV lower than 55.

That being said, it’s not his potential that’s raising concerns at the moment. It’s the product, or lack thereof, that we’re seeing on the field, as the top 10 prospect has just one hit and one walk through his first seven games of the season.

It’s early though, so to press the panic button entirely seems like an overreaction at this point. However, considering how outmatched he’s looked at the dish, it’s worth having the conversation of whether or not the Nationals should be worried about Crews.

All statistics used in this article were taken prior to games on April 6.

The Growing Pains Are Evident Early On

Like I touched on earlier, Crews’ stat line is not currently one to marvel at. In his opening seven games, he’s slashing just .040/.077/.040 with a 3.8% walk rate, a 46.2% strikeout rate, and a -71 wRC+.

From an underlying metrics perspective, he’s only generating a 30.8% hard-hit rate and an 89.3 mph average exit velocity, while chasing 38% of time and whiffing at a 40.5% clip.

When you consider that this isn’t his first taste of major league ball either, these numbers look even more concerning, as an already lackluster 2024 debut has gotten worse in 2025.

In 132 plate appearances across 31 games last year, Crews slashed just .218/.288/.353 with three home runs, eight RBI, and an 80 wRC+.

I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that Crews won’t be a good major leaguer; However, his early returns have indicated that maybe more development is still required, especially when you take into account the specific limitations to his offensive game.

Pitches Besides Fastballs Continue To Be Crews’ Kryptonite

In a recent episode of the Just Baseball Show, Peter Appel and Jack McMullen discussed Crews’ early-season struggles, and Appel alluded to how Crews has struggled to hit breaking balls.

“This guy is getting spun to death, and he just cannot hit breaking balls to save his life,” Appel said on the April 4 episode.

Without a doubt, handling breaking balls and offspeed pitches has been Crews’ biggest limitation at the plate thus far.

Now, his lone hit of 2025 did come off of a breaking pitch, but that’s hardly something for him to hang his hat on. The expected metrics really tell a story of just how dependent he is on hitting fastballs.

Pitch Type	BA	xBA	SLG	xSLG	Whiff%	PutAway%
Fastball	.000	.249	.000	.509	28.6%	33.3%
Breaking	.143	.216	.143	.255	45.5%	44.4%
Offspeed	.000	.100	.000	.101	60.0%	50.0%

Dylan Crews Pitch Metrics 2025, as per Baseball Savant

The low xBA and xSLG and high whiff and putaway rates aren’t exclusive to this season either, as those trends were prominent in Crews’ major league numbers during his late-season cameo last year.

While his ability to hit offspeed looked more promising, his inability to produce anything off of breaking pitches was just as prevalent.

Pitch Type	BA	xBA	SLG	xSLG	Whiff%	PutAway%
Fastball	.299	.301	.522	.545	9.9%	12.7%
Breaking	.098	.148	.098	.208	36.3%	26.6%
Offspeed	.182	.359	.273	.435	38.7%	8.7%

Dylan Crews Pitch Metrics 2024, as per Baseball Savant

When you have a player that only hits fastballs well and struggles as heavily as Crews does against breaking balls (and to a lesser degree, offspeed pitches), why would pitchers continue to throw him fastballs?

Given how many pitchers have quality offerings outside of fastballs in today’s MLB, the odds of him being able to adjust and develop on the fly becomes a much more difficult task.

Pair that with offensive production that already garnered some “yellow flags” before his debut — as he was just an average-looking 106 wRC+ hitter in 238 Triple-A plate appearances in 2024 — and the uphill battle just keeps getting steeper.

We’ve Yet To See the Full Dylan Crews at the Big League Level

Like we’ve touched on already, what makes Crews such an intriguing young talent is how rounded he was as a prospect, or recently graduated one I should say.

When his hit tool and plate discipline are lacking the way they currently are, suddenly there’s less chance to witness his 60 FV game power and his 96th-percentile sprint speed on the basepaths.

He’s simply been limited to a defense-first outfielder, which in some cases is fine, but not for a top 10 prospect.

With so much potential to be excited about in Crews’ game, the priority now needs to be for the Nationals to find some sort of way to harness all those intriguing facets of his game.

Has the panic meter reached demotion level yet? This is what Mike Rizzo and the Nationals’ front office needs to be asking themselves right now. While they don’t need to come to a conclusion immediately, one should come sooner rather than later.

Perhaps they have the resources within the coaching staff to unlock something further at the major league level to warrant keeping him around to work through his struggles in the big leagues.

Or maybe a trip to the minors would be worth it, to see more against less-intense competition in Triple-A. After all, we haven’t seen a top-tier performance from him at any level of pro ball since his 125 wRC+ stint in Double-A to begin last season.

Again though, the decision needs to be soon, because it could be both detrimental and demoralizing for a young hitter like Crews to continue to struggle heavily at the MLB level if he simply isn’t quite ready for this stage yet.

Then vice versa, if a demotion comes too late, that in and of itself could be a real shot to his confidence.

This article first appeared on Just Baseball and was syndicated with permission.

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