Washington Nationals Star Prospect Has Hitting Tools To Break Out This Season
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The Washington Nationals have an incredibly bright future thanks in large part to the youngsters who have established themselves as everyday contributors at the Major League level.
Shortstop CJ Abrams was an All-Star in 2024 and his middle infielder partner, Luis Garcia Jr., has cemented himself as the starting second baseman.
Left fielder James Wood burst onto the scene after making his debut on July 1, 2024, and is locked into that spot for the foreseeable future. Jacob Young is a Gold Glove-caliber defender and if he can make strides at the plate, will be one of the most valuable players on the team.
Looking to join that core in 2025 is Dylan Crews.
The No. 2 pick in the 2023 MLB draft out of LSU made his highly-anticipated debut on Aug. 26, 2024. He wasn’t as productive as Wood was out of the gate, but enters this year as one of the highest rated prospects in the game.
Projected to be in the Opening Day lineup as the starting right fielder, there will be some pressure on Crews to step up his level of performance.
In 31 games and 132 plate appearances in 2024, he recorded a slash line of .218/.288/.353 with three home runs, five doubles and one triple. He did steal 12 bases, as he can be a dynamic player atop the team’s lineup.
While some of his advanced stats were underwhelming, there are several statistics which point toward Crews breaking out in a big way in 2025.
As shared by Eno Sarris of The Athletic (subscription required), he has excelled in the right areas, that with a little more experience under his belt, his production will begin to shine through.
Despite his youth, he already has a great grasp of the strike zone.
His 19.7% strikeout rate is well below league average and he already draws walks at an average MLB rate at 8.3%. He does a good job of swinging at pitches in the zone and laying off ones outside of it with a 37% Z-O.
Crews isn’t hitting the ball exceptionally hard yet, as his max exit velocity of 109.6 was amongst the lowest of the eight breakout candidates Sarris mentioned.
But, he hits the ball hard with regularity, as his 45.2 hard-hit percentage is well above the league average of 39%. If he can start lifting the ball a little more, as his ground ball rate of 56.4% is way above the 41.9% average, his numbers will start heading in the right direction.
Turning only 23 years old this week and with only 608 minor league plate appearances under his belt, Crews is only scratching the surface of his potential.
That potential is sky-high as he and Wood are going to anchor this lineup for years to come.
