Nationals Have Clear Development Plan for Dylan Crews While He's in Triple-A
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On March 20, the Washington Nationals made the surprising decision to option former second overall pick Dylan Crews to Triple-A Rochester and begin his season in the minors.
Based solely on performance, things were trending in that direction. Not only has Crews struggled in The Show with a career slash line of .211/.282/.352 across 116 career games, but his OPS+ figure is shockingly low at 21 points below the league average of 100. Those issues carried over into spring training this year, with him going 4-for-29 with four walks and 11 strikeouts. That ultimately forced the hand of Blake Butera and Paul Toboni to make this move.
The prevailing thought is Crews was rushed up the pipeline too quickly. After just 135 games in the minors, Washington decided to call-up the youngster. That looks like a major mistake, as he was't fully able to develop.
Nationals Have Clear Plan for Dylan Crews
This new regime seems to be keen on fixing that mistake. Not only did they make the bold decision to option Crews to Triple-A Rochester, but they also have a clear plan in place for the 24-year-old when it comes to getting his career on track.
"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," wrote Jessica Camerato of MLB.com.
A major issue for Crews during his time in the bigs thus far has been trailing in counts. He's been in an 0-1 count 228 times, while he's been in an 0-2 count 108 times, per FanGraphs. Overall, he's faced a two-strike count 328 times, which has resulted in 141 strikeouts and a batting average just under .170.
Becoming more patient at the plate and getting ahead in the count is a clear directive coming from the Nationals when he's down on the farm. And that will need to be fixed before he comes back up to the majors.
Getting Crews Out of Spotlight Should Help With His Development
"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," Butera stated, per Camerato.
There's no doubt that some pressure is starting to build when it comes to Crews and his career. Things have not gone the way anyone envisioned after he was a superstar coming up the prep ranks and throughout his time in college. So hiding him down in Triple-A while he makes these important adjustments should hopefully help him focus on his development instead of working through things against major league pitchers where he's had little success.
Brad Wakai graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Journalism. While an undergrad, he worked at the student radio station covering different Penn State athletic programs like football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports. Brad became the Lead Contributor for Nittany Lions Wire of Gannett Media where he continued to cover Penn State athletics. Currently, Brad is the Publisher for Washington Nationals On SI and covers multiple teams across the On SI network. He is the host of the sports podcast I Said What I Said, where he and his co-host discuss topics across the NFL, College Football, the NBA and other sports. You can follow him on Twitter: @bwakai