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Dylan Crews has added one other milestone to his already-outstanding yr after being chosen with the No. 2 total choose by the Washington Nationals within the 2023 MLB draft on Sunday.
With the Pittsburgh Pirates taking Paul Skenes with the No. 1 total choose, LSU made historical past on Sunday evening:
Bob Nightengale @BNightengale
So LSU turns into the primary college in historical past to have two participant go 1-2 within the MLB Draft
The 21-year-old Crews is contemporary off main LSU to a nationwide title with a victory over Florida within the Faculty World Sequence ultimate. He gained the Golden Spikes Award because the nation’s finest participant for stellar junior season.
Crews tied for third within the nation in batting common (.426), ranked second in on-base share (.567), tied for thirty ninth in slugging share (.713) and reached primarily based in all 75 video games this season. He had 71 walks to 46 strikeouts in 344 plate appearances taking part in primarily towards SEC competitors.
Within the race for the perfect total participant on this yr’s draft class, Crews stood out from the pack due to his dominant efficiency with the bat and potential to stay a centerfielder in skilled baseball.
MLB.com ranked Crews because the No. 1 prospect within the 2023 draft, citing him to be a “plus-plus hitter with plus energy and a few evaluators are much more bullish on his bat.”
Whereas this season was the perfect of Crews’ profession, he carried out at a persistently excessive degree all through his three years at LSU. He hit .362/.453/.663 as a freshman in 2021 and adopted that up with a .349/.463/.691 slash line and a career-high 22 homers throughout his sophomore season.
The Athletic’s Keith Law, who additionally had Crews ranked as the perfect prospect on this class, famous he had the potential to be a first-round choose popping out of highschool earlier than a gradual begin to his junior yr.
Crews wound up withdrawing from the 2020 draft to go to LSU. He turned out to be top-of-the-line gamers in class historical past, becoming a member of Ben McDonald (1989) as the one Tigers’ gamers to win the Golden Spikes Award.
The Nationals are a franchise that has been looking for its means again to relevance since successful the World Sequence in 2019.
Since that championship season, they’ve misplaced Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto. Stephen Strasburg’s profession is in serious jeopardy attributable to a sequence of accidents and setbacks which have restricted him to eight begins since 2020.
Washington’s farm system is improving because of its current drafts and returns from the Soto and Turner/Scherzer trades, however the addition of Crews offers the group a possible cornerstone participant who may be the group’s finest hitter since Soto.
Crews’ superior hitting means ought to enable him to maneuver by way of the minors rapidly. It would not be a shock to see him in Washington’s outfield sooner or later in 2024.
