It has been a long time coming, but Dylan Crews is finally heating up. He has a .986 OPS in his last seven games and a .795 mark in his last 15. Plenty of people have talked at length about how Crews’ process should be leading to better results, and now those results are finally coming.
Even with the Nats offense ice cold and looking demoralized last night, Crews was at least trying to make things happen. He only went 1 for 4, but he got a really nice double down the line. On a night where most of the team seemed dead, Crews was still hustling and flying around as always.
That hustle is part of what really endears Crews to the fanbase, besides the yearning for their massively hyped top prospect to turn it around. When he is on the field, Crews really looks like he wants it, which is nice to see.
Despite that desire for success, there has not been a ton of it in Crews’ big league career so far. Even after this hot streak, Crews is hitting just .230 with a .654 OPS. This June things have looked a lot better, but his OPS for the month is still only .694. Some of this is bad luck, but as we will get into, there is still one massive flaw that Crews needs to fix.
Starting with the bad luck though, Crews’ xwOBA is 40 points higher than his wOBA. However, he has finally caught some lucky breaks this past week. He had a 3 hit day against the Phillies where at least two of those hits did not leave the infield. It was a lucky 3 hit day, but he has most certainly earned that luck.
Crews has flaws as a hitter, but he is not a sub .600 OPS guy. With how hard he hits the ball, combined with not striking out too much this year, that was never going to last. On pure ability, I would say Crews is a low .700’s caliber OPS guy.
One thing that has been fun lately is to see him lean into some tape measure homers. When I saw Crews in person, I was surprised with how small he is. Whether it was how hard he hit the ball, or his aura, something about Crews made me think he is bigger than he is. He is listed at 5’11 203, but he looks a bit leaner than that. However, he has crazy power and bat speed for his size. He hit monster home runs in Tampa and Arizona that were 440 foot shots.
The idea of a Dylan Crews that can be a consistent hitter is such a cool concept. That would be such a fun and exciting player because of everything else he does. Crews has 4 outs above average in the field this year and grades out as a positive base runner. He also is such a spark plus with his energy.
My favorite Dylan Crews play of the season was not a big home run or a diving catch. Rather, it was his mad dash on the bases against the Mariners. Jose Tena was at the plate, and Crews stole second. However, Tena roped a liner up the middle for a base hit. The vast majority of players would pull up at third base there, but Crews sprinted home, sliding in safely thanks to a swim move.
That play is what Dylan Crews is all about. Those kinds of bursts are why he is so easy to love despite not having great results at the plate. If Crews can get on base more, he can make those sorts of plays with greater regularity.
However, getting on base has been a challenge for him, especially via the walk. In 33 games, Crews just has two walks all season. That is honestly pretty impressively bad. He is walking just 1.5% of the time. For context, the free swinging Luis Garcia Jr. walks nearly three times as often at 4.2%.
For Crews to become a productive offensive player, he needs to walk more. There are a couple things Crews has to do to accomplish that goal. The first one is simple, he needs to chase less. Dylan Crews is chasing pitches at a 36.8% clip, easily a career high. Last year he chased at a 29.5% clip and in 2024, that number was 26.5%. He has shown he can be more selective, but right now that is not happening.
At LSU, Crews’ approach was seen as one of his strengths. However, that has not translated to pro ball, and he is unlikely to ever be a big walk guy. Getting that chase rate back under 30% would go a long way for him though. In his first two seasons, his walk rate was around 8%, so this seems like a bit of an outlier.
I actually think this recent hot streak could help him get more walks moving forward. This season, pitchers have not been scared of Crews at all. They always seem to attack the zone early in counts against him. On the other hand, James Wood gets pitched around a lot, which leads to walks.
With Crews swinging the bat well and punishing mistakes, he could start to be pitched differently. Hopefully that will lead to more walks because when Crews is on base, he is a major threat.
Despite the hot streak, I am still in wait and see mode on Crews. I figured he would come to life at some point because all the underlying numbers suggested he was not as bad as his numbers. The question now is whether this hot streak will continue and see his OPS climb into the .700’s or if he will plateau again. The answer to this will go a long way in determining his future with the club.