Dylan Crews Adding More Questions than Answers for Nationals

The Washington Nationals were without infielder CJ Abrams on Thursday night after manager Blake Butera revealed he suffered a sprained ankle in Wednesday's win over the Texas Rangers, leaving him day-to-day before imaging later revealed no further issues. With less concern about his status moving ahead as Butera pointed to Saturday as a targeted return date, the Nationals' offense has been lifeless without Abrams and outfielder James Wood, who remains sidelined after battling through a slow recovery from a left oblique strain. Yet there has been one player who has been more quiet than the rest: outfielder Dylan Crews.

It's been a brutal month for the former second overall pick with Crews sporting a .143 batting average through the month of August, including just 1-for-16 since the start of the series against the New York Mets and 8-for-60 through the month. The problem is, it's a slump, but it also comes after Crews has already struggled in 2026 in a season after he opened the regular season in Triple A Rochester. 

His .209 batting average this season ranks only the second-worst to catcher Drew Millas' .185 average among Nationals who have drawn at least 100 at bats so far in 2026. On pace to set a career high with a 24.2% strikeout rate, a metric he's watched climb in each of his three professional seasons, his whiff rate is over 30% and chase rate is 32.6% to add to the concerns. Though he's improved his contact and trimmed his ground ball rate to under 50% for the first time, it's led to less ground balls, more fly outs and line drives and minimal offensive production, paving the way for Crews hitting a crossroads in the early stages of his MLB career.

The question is, what does it materialize next?

Crews was tabbed among five players across all of baseball who are running out of time to prove himself, and rightfully so. With 2026 marking the first true season of disappointment, whether the Nats' outfielder is able to flip the tide and become the impact piece that he was viewed to be out of LSU remains more of a hope than question at this stage. Does Crews have trade value? That might be tough to expect at this juncture, but maybe the bigger question is what is Crews' value along the Nationals' roster?

With just 33 regular season games left, Crews has a chance to answer exactly that with one final push.