But reporters didn’t flock to Crews because of what he would do on the field Saturday. Instead, many wanted to know what a former LSU teammate, Paul Skenes, would do Tuesday night at Globe Life Field. Skenes, last year’s first-round pick and a rookie of the year candidate for the Pittsburgh Pirates, will start the National League All-Star Game, the first rookie to do so in 30 years.
“I’m really happy for him. He deserves everything,” Crews said. “I’m not surprised at all that he’s starting.”
Crews and Skenes have long been linked by strange threads of baseball history. Crews’ first college home run came off Skenes, when the right-hander was at Air Force. By the time Skenes transferred to LSU for the Tigers’ 2023 championship run, Crews had established himself as one of the most accomplished collegiate hitters in recent memory. This time last year, it appeared the duo would be picked first and second overall in the draft, with the only question being who would go first.
The Pirates took Skenes. The Nationals took Crews. Crews has bounced around the minor leagues and is hitting .253 with a .713 OPS in his first 20 games in Class AAA Rochester, a resume that would make him one of the faster movers in a typical draft class.
But Crews and Skenes were top picks in a league that also featured Florida standout Wyatt Langford at No. 4. Skenes debuted in May to much fanfare and has a 1.90 ERA in his first 11 starts. Langford joined the Texas Rangers out of spring training and is hitting .254 with a .702 OPS in his first 72 major-league games. Crews, who also saw Nationals prospect James Wood make his debut in recent weeks, can hardly be blamed for feeling a little left out. If the 22-year-old was feeling a little extra weight, he certainly didn’t show it Saturday.
“There’s no pressure. When it’s my time, it’s my time,” Crews said. “That’s not my decision. I just have to keep doing what I have to do, and that’s be where my feet are every day and do what I have to do that day to be at a high level.”
Crews carries himself with a quiet assurance, a timeless comfort under pressure and a palpable sense of self-worth that stands out among players his age. In some ways he feels familiar, a little Harperian in his sturdiness in the spotlight, though even a whisper of comparison to Bryce Harper is unfair. Crews didn’t become Baseball America’s No. 4 prospect because of giant power or years of teenage hype. He became a polished hitter known for his speed and intelligence, a man with power to the gaps and an ability to adapt. And he did so because, after being weighed down by pressure and expectations in high school, he spent his college years learning how to carry both.
“Going to college really helped me be present every day,” Crews said. “… In high school, I was always thinking about the draft, not what was happening at that moment. I went to college to kind of reset myself so that I could focus on what I needed to do through the minor league system.”
Crews began his season slowly at Class AA Harrisburg. On May 14, he was hitting .234 with a .676 OPS. By mid-June, he was hitting .274 with a .789 OPS, five home runs and 15 stolen bases, a recovery so rapid that he was promoted to Class AAA on June 18.
Since then, against the kind of offspeed-heavy repertoires common in Class AAA these days, Crews has found more power, hitting three home runs in 20 games with Rochester after hitting five in 51 with Harrisburg. And he has dropped his strikeout rate from 24 percent in Harrisburg to 19 percent in Rochester, albeit in a much smaller sample size.
“I think as you get higher up, guys get more polished. They know how to throw their third, fourth, fifth pitch for strikes,” Crews said. “You’ve got to take that as a hitter and teach yourself how to hit your pitch. … I’ve learned a lot as I’ve gotten higher up.”
People familiar with Washington’s thinking have indicated that Crews, according to the Nationals, isn’t far behind Wood in terms of major-league readiness. Whether that means he debuts this year or enters spring training in 2025 with a clear shot at the bigs remains to be seen. When Crews does debut, he’ll likely still be ahead of the normal developmental schedule of almost every other top draft pick. He said he’s right on time with his.
“[Wood] is amazing. He’s an incredible talent — a guy who has a different sound from start to finish,” Crews said. “He does his thing out there. And when it’s my time to be out there, I’ll be ready.”