BY DAN GLICKMAN
Not many people expected Dylan Crews to be back in a Rochester Red Wings uniform on an August day in 2024 when he got his first call-up to the Washington Nationals. And if they did, they likely thought it’d be on a rehab assignment. After all, the outfielder felt like a surefire star right out of the gate: a second-overall pick, a College World Series champion, a Futures Game selection, one of the top prospects in the game. And he’d proven it in Rochester, hitting over .300 in the month before his call-up.
But in baseball, things don’t always turn out how people expect. Since that call-up, Crews slashed (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage) .211/.280/.352, hitting 13 home runs over 116 games while striking out 102 times. He also dealt with an oblique injury, forcing him to return to Rochester for about 2 weeks in 2025 on a rehab assignment. While he was able to rehab his way back to Washington by the end of the season, struggles continued through the rest of the year and into the spring: he hit .103 in 12 games during spring training this year, leading to his being optioned to Rochester near the end of camp.
“It’s obviously not what we want, what I want, but I have goals and things that I want to accomplish here-on-out,” he said on Wednesday during Rochester’s Media Day event. “This is definitely not the end of my story, for sure.”
The first step to getting that story back to Washington, D.C.: working out the kinks of his swing and cutting down on strikeouts. It’s something Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy says the Rochester coaching staff has been told to focus on, continuing the work done down in Florida.
“They’re revamping some stuff on his hitting that he started doing in spring training,” said LeCroy. “They decided to bring him down here, let him get going. If he gets hot, I’m sure he’ll go back up.”
To be more specific, Crews says he’s working to focus his swing more while working on the mental aspect of hitting.
“I’m [trying to feel] narrower, more level in the box, trying to keep the head still as much as possible, trying to keep things as calm as possible in the box,” said Crews. “We’re going to really focus on that, and hopefully everything works out.”
If Crews can reacquire some of his previous minor league form and bring it to the big leagues, he may well become the big league regular he’s long been expected to be. Across parts of three seasons (including his rehab assignment in Rochester in 2025), Crews has hit .273/.348/.452 in the minors across 148 games, hitting 20 home runs. Although he’s struggled with strikeouts ever since leaving Louisiana State when he was drafted second in the 2023 draft (behind only his teammate, Paul Skenes), he still generally swung and missed less and drew more walks in the minors than he has in the big leagues, although of course the level of competition is far higher in MLB.
The tools to succeed in “The Show” are still there: Crews is just 24 years old (he is, in fact, the third-youngest position player on the Red Wings roster), and he hasn’t even played a full 162 games in his Major League career. He remains an athletic player who has had double-digit steals in each of his last two seasons, and while he has had some defensive struggles (committing seven errors in the outfield during the 2025 season) he is still regarded as having good range and an above-average arm.
“He’s a premier talent,” said LeCroy. “Once he gets going, he’ll probably be back in the major leagues.”
For his part, Crews has seen the positives in his predicament. He believes, for example, that his rough stat line during the spring season indicates he was facing tough competition.
“You know, they wanted us to fail over there in spring training; they want to push us to the limit,” he said. “It was awesome training.”
Ultimately, Crews believes he can, if he works at it, again take his place in the Nationals Park outfield.
“It’s all part of my journey, and everybody’s on a different route in their lives,” he said. So this is where I’m headed, and I’m going to attack it and get to work every day.
It’s definitely a growth opportunity, as I said, it’s definitely not what I wanted, but I understand why they did it. It’s all part of my journey, and I’m gonna tap it and get better every single day. I’m gonna be back up there soon.”
The Rochester Red Wings begin their season at the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Miami Marlins affiliate) at 7:05 p.m. on Friday. They begin their home schedule next Tuesday, March 31, at 4:05 p.m. against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (New York Yankees affiliate).
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