The Washington Nationals, with the second overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, could have taken just about anybody available in all of amateur baseball. They ended up with outfielder Dylan Crews after his teammate at LSU, pitcher Paul Skenes, went first.
Nats general manager Mike Rizzo said he found out "personally" just minutes before that Pittsburgh was taking the right-hander, he explained on Wednesday during his weekly appearance with 106.7 The Fan's The Sports Junkies, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office.
While Crews didn't go first, the Nationals didn't get anybody's leftovers. En route to winning the College World Series, Crews slashed .426/.567/.713 for a 1.280 OPS. And while his home runs (18 vs. 22) and RBI (70 vs. 72) were down slightly in more games (71 vs. 62), his average jumped .077, on-base percentage jumped 0.104 and his slugging percentage jumped .022. He also won the Golden Spikes Award for the nation's top amateur player.
Putting the offensive prowess of the Nationals' top pick aside, Rizzo was asked about where Crews projects in the field.
"Our people think he's got a good chance to stay in centerfield," the GM told the Junkies. "He's not only a great talented player, he runs well and throws well, his angles and routes and those type of things are impeccable. And he's a guy that has a great baseball IQ, I think he's going to be a very intellectual player, very intelligent player. A guy who will position himself well, utilize the analytics to put himself in the position to get to more balls in the range.
"So we feel he has a really good chance to stay in centerfield which is important because we got several outfielders that we feel are top-notch centerfield prospects, it will be interesting to see how all that filters out when guys get closer to the big leagues."
And it is no understatement to say the Nationals farm system is flush with outfield prospects as James Wood and Robert Hassell III (at Double-A) and Elijah Green (Single-A) are among the organization's Top 5 prospects and Cristhian Vaquero, Jeremy De La Rosa and T.J. White are in the Top 10. So there will be some competition.
"We're flush with outfielders and they're all talented players," Rizzo said. "We look at our list of outfielders and they're all getting their chance to play at the certain level they're at and it's gonna be fun to see a competition between them to see who is gonna impact us most at the big leagues. It's gonna be a fun process to watch unfold."
The Junkies also asked the GM about a few other of the team's top picks:
Round 2, Pick 40: Yohandy Morales, 3B, Miami
"Big power hitting, good hitter. Excellent defensive third baseman, got a cannon for an arm. And he's just a big tools guy that has big power potential that can stay at third base and be an above-average defender there. We really like that pick, we didn't expect ... Yoyo to get down to the 40th pick so we were extremely pleased that he got down there to us. He's a heckuva talent and a terrific young kid."
Round 3, Pick 71: Travis Sykora, P, Round Rock High School (Texas)
"He's a big physical specimen [listed at six-foot-six, 232 pounds] that has a really good feel of the pitch for a guy that throws so hard and he's a guy that, again, we were happy to see down there at 71 and even happier that we had a strategy in place that gives us an opportunity to sign the player." [Sykora had committed to attend the University of Texas.]
And for those hoping to catch a glimpse of the Nationals' top draft picks, Rizzo said after they are assessed in Florida, he "could see [Crews and Morales] moving up to A-ball, at least, Fredericksburg, I would think is definitely realistic, Willmington is a possibility, but that's such a pitcher's ballpark I don't know if we want to put a new guy into such a pitcher-friendly. ballpark.
"We really haven't decided yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they both started in Fredericksburg once they get acclimated to the organization."
Follow @BenKrimmel for more.
Keep up with The Team 980 via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
Related
Related
