31 games into his Major League career, Dylan Crews has already displayed proficiency in all the little things. He used his 29.3 MPH sprint speed to steal 12 bases in 15 attempts and, according to Statcast, didn't run into any unnecessary outs (which has been a huge point of contention for this team the last few years). In the field, he showed out, accruing 4 Defensive Runs Saved and 3 Outs Above Average in fewer than 300 innings between right and center field.
The only thing Crews hasn't done yet in the majors is hit reliably, as a .253 BABIP held his on-base percentage under .300 and his OPS under .650. I don't think anyone's particularly worried about that, though, and they're right not to be. Hitters seldom have much control over their BABIP swings; proficient contact hitters like Luis Arráez and Paul Goldschmidt will usually have a higher one, and someone like Max Muncy will traditionally have a lower one, but Crews projects to be a particularly well-rounded bat, so with decent luck one can probably expect it to normalize to around .295 or .300. Compound that with some telltale signs of a positive plate approach: Crews' walk and strikeout rates in a small sample size of Major League action last year were almost perfectly in line with the rates he posted in 100 games in the upper Minors where he posted a 115 wRC+ across Double- and Triple-A.
Projection models don't expect that 8% walk rate to hold up in the Majors, and project that he'll experience a small jump in strikeout rate before it eventually regresses back to the 20.5% mark by his age-25 season. They also expect him to take a step back defensively as he continues to experience life jumping between center and right, with ZiPS viewing him the most favorably (8.1 defensive runs, 2.7 fWAR) and Steamer the least (-6.1 defensive runs, 1.4 fWAR).
There's no real cause for concern. He's still one of the top prospects in baseball, and still looks every bit like the second-overall guy the Nationals got in the 2023 Draft. I always try to think of top prospects approaching the post-hype phase of their career in this context: Aaron Judge was 24 when he debuted, and 25 when he won Rookie of the Year. There's not a lot of urgency needed right now with Dylan Crews. He's still a 60 FV guy per FanGraphs and Pipeline, and he's a 70 OFV guy according to Baseball Prospectus' rankings (who actually ranked several guys in the Nats' system in high regard).
The expectation for Crews in 2025 is that he'll be about a league-average hitter, maybe a tick or two below that. Most major projection models have him between a 97 and 98 wRC+ and a .307 to .309 wOBA. Anything beyond that is a bonus, and a bonus the team will be happy to have in a lineup also featuring James Wood. In terms of fantasy, he probably shouldn't be a top priority for redraft leagues; the only real category where he looks to be particularly flashy is stolen bases, projected for about 25 this year but he'll probably get far more attempts than that with the newfound basepath aggression the team has been preaching. We're looking at 60-70 RBI and about 15 home runs with a solid but not world-shattering OBP. While he might not be the top fantasy option by any means, he should have a very good chance to take home NL Rookie of the Year, but he will face stiff competition from Roki Sasaki of the Dodgers.
It's clear now that the front office isn't particularly gunning for the Postseason this year, so it's going to be a chance for both Wood and Crews to get some Major League experience, soak in any wisdom imparted by new veteran clubhouse additions, and continue to hone their raw talent into a proficient MLB-caliber skillset. Crews feels like one of the safer guys in the organization to bet on; the team probably wouldn't have taken him second overall otherwise. Barring unforeseen circumstances, he's going to have a productive Major League career, and we're lucky to get to start seeing it in its early stages.