My favorite type of rookie to draft in redraft leagues is the guy who barely keeps his rookie eligibility. Dylan Crews with 119 ABs in the majors last year went about as hard after that rookie eligibility cap, while still maintaining it, as I can remember. Love that! It shows that the Nats want to play Dylan Crews and it gives him enough of a cup of coffee to put a little caffeine in our giddy up to get an idea what we might get from him. Last year, he went 3/12. That’s in roughly a month. [crashing through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man is Mr. Prorater] “Whoa! That’s a 18/72 pace!” Thanks, Mr. P. That is kinda gorge. As I said the other day in my Jasson Dominguez fantasy, just because the top of the rookie class might be a little muddled for who people think is the number one rookie going into 2025, it does not mean that there won’t be some very interesting rookies for 2025 fantasy baseball. I also said there’s four rookies with the best shot at being the number one rookie, and Crews is number four. Even shaving down Dylan Crews’s insane prorated season to a 15/50 season and that would’ve been the best rookie this year, assuming it doesn’t come with his .218 average that he hit last year. Give me power/speed all day and let me figure out average on the flip side. Ya feel me? Please stop, it was rhetorical. So, what can we expect from Dylan Crews for 2025 fantasy baseball:
Dylan Crews was special in his college career, i.e.:
Dylan Crews reached base in every single game this season, ending his college career with a 75-game streak.
A historic college player. The no-doubt #1 overall pick in 2 weeks.
— Shawn Spradling (@Shawn_Spradling) June 27, 2023
You thought the rookie class might be weak this year? Naur (it’s Australian for nah, though I should save that for Travis Bazzana):
Dylan Crews drills his first big league triple — and 9th XBH in 31 games with the @Nationals.
It’s also his 3rd hit of the day. @JessicaCamerato on how the budding of Washington’s young core defines this year for the org.: https://t.co/TojvYYwMCT pic.twitter.com/iie3S0ReXy
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) September 29, 2024
In case you thought it was just a hit tool and speed:
Dylan Crews was 5-for-5 with 2 HRs today. He’s hitting .381 as a pro. pic.twitter.com/BWKFRvbXY3
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) August 13, 2023
What I left out from the opening ‘graph was what Dylan Crews did across all of the minors last year, so: 16/37 with a 17.6 K% in Triple-A in 49 games. Even better, he only had a 19.7 K% in those 31 games he was in the majors. His BABIP in the majors was .253 and that would easily be his lowest at any level with a .295 BABIP being more realistic and a .333 BABIP not being unreasonable, due to his speed. If it’s the realistic BABIP, then he’s hitting .260 in the majors, and if it’s the optimistic BABIP, then he’s hitting .290+. That’s just to get you right-sided on whether we should be worried about his .218 average in the majors last year. We should not.
James Wood and Dylan Crews look like future superstars and I’m not sure which one will be better. Nats also love to run — for more reading on the subject matter, see Lane Thomas’s steals before and after his trade this year — so Crews could steal 50. As I’ve said before, steals with the pitch clock are more about want vs. ability, and, when you throw in ability too? Woo boy. I think Crews’s projections could anywhere from 20/50 to 12/20. That’s a huge gap, like Slick Rock’s Mona Lisa. So, trim, slim and also light-skinned, desperately what do we do with Crews? Think realistically I’m splitting the difference on his potential for his projections, but I want to go on the high side of upside. For 2025 fantasy baseball, Dylan Crews projections are 72/16/67/.258/26 in 517 ABs with a chance for much more.
