The Nationals have agreed to terms with second overall pick Dylan Crews, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). The Talk Nats blog suggested earlier this week the framework of a deal was in place, pending a physical (on Twitter). The specific signing bonus is unclear, though Heyman indicates it’ll come in around $9MM.
That’s right in line with the selection’s $8.99MM slot value. It’s very likely that’ll go down as the second-highest bonus in this year’s class. Paul Skenes landed a record $9.2MM upon going first overall to the Pirates. The Skenes/Crews duo became the first pair of college teammates to ever go 1-2 in the MLB draft.
Crews, a right-handed hitting outfielder, has been regarded as a top amateur talent going back to high school. He went to LSU after teams declined to meet his bonus demands in the 2020 draft. Crews had a monster career for the Tigers, posting an OPS north of 1.100 in all three seasons while playing in college baseball’s top conference.
Regarded as a potential first overall pick throughout the 2023 season, Crews more than met expectations. He raked a .426/.567/.713 clip over 344 plate appearances as a junior. He connected on 18 home runs, walked at an elite 20.6% clip and kept his strikeouts to a 13.4% rate. Crews won the Golden Spikes Award as college baseball’s top performer and helped LSU to a national championship.
Going into the draft, he was still very much in the running for the first pick. Each of Baseball America, Keith Law of the Athletic, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN, and MLB Pipeline rated Crews the #1 or #2 player in the class. He topped the pre-draft rankings at BA and The Athletic. Pittsburgh ultimately elected for the potential top-of-the-rotation starter in Skenes. Washington nabbed Crews at #2.
The 6’1″ outfielder is credited with a potential plus hit/power combination. He’s likely to begin his career in center field. Evaluators suggest he might eventually be bumped to right field but should be an above-average to plus corner outfielder if that happens. It’s difficult to find fault with much in his profile. Crews would likely have gone first overall in most draft classes, but Skenes is widely regarded as the best college pitching prospect in more than a decade.
Baseball America slots Crews as the sport’s #3 overall prospect behind Jackson Holliday and Jackson Chourio. He’s one slot ahead of fellow Washington outfielder James Wood (and two places above Skenes). The Nats will hope for Crews and Wood to anchor their outfields of the future once they pull out of their ongoing rebuild.
Guess he isn’t getting his 10 million
That may have been thrown out to scare Pittsburgh off. Boras seems to have a good working relationship with the Nationals, so maybe they felt they could get a bigger payday sooner in Washington?
No, Crews/Boras had zero leverage seeing Crews NOT giong
Interesting. Not like Boras to accept slot money.
He has the #1 and #2 pick last year underslot
Boras works for the player and if Crews wasn’t getting worked up over $100-200k then Boras did right by him to get the deal done. Crews gets plenty of cash and off to a good start with his team. Win-win.
Whoop de doo, this doesn’t want me to move the needle…
There were reports he was looking for 10 MM, so I assume he demanded that and was told the team has other picks to sign and his other option would be to turn it down and wait until next year. It seems he values certainty and instant cash over waiting a 1, with injury risk.
This shows he just didn’t want to play for Pittsburgh.
And probably these guys could care less but being known as a #1 pick has some prestige, I would think.
But he got what he wanted so whatever.
Pitching is a much bigger need for Pittsburgh. I don’t think that claim factored into their decision. Both Skenes and Crews were worthy of the first pick, so they took what they needed most.
I’d be happy to see the Nats meet the Pirates in the playoffs in a couple of years.
Ha
Reports are they were planning to pick Langford until Skenes agreed on draft day to sign for same 500K under slot than Langford had agreed to..
Crews/Wood/House and a boat load of cash coming off the books after next year…one more year then we finally get to have some fun **fingers crossed**
Don’t forget CJ. He’s just 22, and is making very nice strides this year which should continue imo. I could definitely see him developing into a 20+HR .800 ops type guy in the next couple of years. Almost Trea Turner 2.0
Jury is still out on CJ but he’s heated up lately and I hope you are proven correct.
Also, it’s great for the Nats to have signed all their top picks without drama.
Trea didn’t breakout until he was 23. CJ is still 22. If I had to bet one way or the other, I’d say he does really breakout next year. I’m certainly rooting for him.
I think abrams will be a nice player as he matures. I would’ve kept him down longer. There were things he could’ve worked on at the AAA level without accruing service time.
Everyone loves to talk about manipulation but sometimes guys are up before they’ve really developed. He had a nice 200 ABS in AAA but it certainly wouldn’t have hurt to give him a full seasons worth down there.
@bstrow
CJ got the call at 21 last year(perhaps a bit prematurely) because the Padres thought they would be without Tatis for a few months. Also, CJ hit very well in ‘22 spring training. Ideally, he would have been brought up this summer.
Perhaps I am wrong, but, aren’t they still on the hook for Corbin and Strasburg next year.
Next year is last of Corbin.
And hopefully Stras will take a settlement and retire.
He won’t, and why should he?
The Nats agreed to pay him this salary whether he was injured or not. I’m a Nats fan and it hurts to get nothing for that money, but Stras earned it.
Maybe Mark Lerner will settle with me and drop the price of beer down to $5.
Because he has to keep trying to return in order to keep being paid and at some point he may be tired of surgeries and rehab. He has a few hundred million already in the bank and may just want to get on with his life. He could accept a buyout.
I think he keeps trying to play for at least 1 more season though…minimum.
Time to sell Lane Thomas given the logjam of OF in the farm.
I’m a big Lane Thomas but I tend to agree with you. Wood, Crews, Hassell, Vaquero, Lyle etc etc etc
Yah see if we can’t get one of them nice Cleveland arms eh? Not a bad result from flipping old busted Lester.
Pirates made the right pick.
Reynolds shows that teams like PGH can find outfielders.
Teams like PGH cannot just find pitchers like Skenes. This was their only shot at a potential true ace.
Good