Washington Nationals Rookie Ranked Among Top Prospects in Outfield

MLB Pipeline continued its rankings of the top prospects at each position, and most recently they put out the list for outfielders.

Ranked among the best was Dylan Crews of the Washington Nationals, who came in third among his peers behind only Roman Anthony of the Boston Red Sox and Walker Jenkins of the Minnesota Twins.

Crews was one of the fastest-rising prospects from 2023 to 2024, after being selected second overall in the 2023 MLB Draft. He started off his career at the Florida Complex League. In that first half-season he rose from the FCL to AA, and did so productively.

In 35 games he accrued .292/.377/.845 batting splits, 29 RBI, 26 runs, 14 walks to 38 strikeouts, and four stolen bases.

Last season was even more impressive, as he managed to rise from AA to the Majors in only 100 games. He played 31 games with the Nationals.

In the minor leagues he slashed .270/.342/.792 with 68 RBI, 60 runs, 25 stolen bases and 36 walks to 92 strikeouts.

He was called up on Aug. 23 and played the remainder of the season with the Nationals. He showed signs of development as he got further into his stint. He slashed .219/.288/.641 with 12 runs, eight RBI, three home runs, 12 stolen bases and 11 walks to 26 strikeouts.

Where he showed his most potential was in the field. He played 273.2 innings in the outfield with 66 putouts, 1 assist, and no errors committed, giving him a 1.000 fielding percentage. This is immensely impressive from the standpoint of him moving up through the rankings so quickly and still adjusting to fielding at the MLB level on the fly.

He has lived up to his second overall draft spot so far in his career, and with some more development and another offseason under his belt, he could be one of the best young players in the league by the end of the season.

MLB Pipeline also did a recent poll of MLB executives, asking who they believed would win rookie of the year in each league, and Crews was the runaway favorite with 50% of those polled voting for him to win in the National League.

All indications point at him producing in 2025, and Washington will no doubt be leaning on him a bit to become the star many believe he can be.