WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Washington Nationals outfielder Dylan Crews is back in the majors, less than two months after a surprise demotion near the end of spring training.<\/p>\n
The No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 draft was recalled from Triple-A Rochester on Tuesday as part of a roster shuffle. Washington also recalled Andr\u00e9s Chaparro from Rochester and optioned outfielder Joey Wiemer to the Red Wings.<\/p>\n
The Nationals optioned opening day third baseman Brady House to Rochester after Monday\u2019s 12-inning, 16-7 loss to the New York Mets.<\/p>\n
Crews hit .258 with five homers and 20 RBIs in 41 games in the minors this season. He was set to bat sixth and play center Tuesday against the Mets.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re never trying to think about being called back up,\u201d Crews said. \u201cI was just so focused on the process down there and trying to stack good days down there and be present as much as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul Toboni, the Nationals\u2019 first-year president of baseball operations, said Crews\u2019 hitting had started to click in the last three weeks. That came after Crews started slow in Rochester after hitting .103 with no extra-base hits in 29 spring training at-bats.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the results on the surface line haven\u2019t really jumped out, kind of under the hood he\u2019s had a lot of really good at-bats and hit the ball really hard,\u201d Toboni said.<\/p>\n
Washington will be tasked with finding playing time for four outfielders. Daylen Lile, James Wood and Jacob Young have each played in at least 46 of the Nationals\u2019 first 48 games. Young was out of the lineup Tuesday, a night after getting hit by a pitch in the left rib cage, but manager Blake Butera said he envisions finding room for all four on many days.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll give Woody and Daylen some DH days, which will be nice,\u201d Butera said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been playing a ton, they\u2019ve been on their feet a ton, so giving them a DH here and there will be helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old House, who was Washington\u2019s first-round pick in 2021 and debuted last June 16, has seven homers and 25 RBIs while playing in all but four of the Nationals\u2019 games this season. But, he is hitting .174 with a .550 OPS against right-handed pitchers, compared to .354 with a .988 OPS against left-handers, and also is tied for the National League lead with eight errors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe told him he has the tools to be a major league third baseman for a long time and help us win for a long time,\u201d Butera said. \u201cRight now, with how our roster is constructed, we don\u2019t think it\u2019s the best thing for him to fight for his life up here and maybe only play mostly against lefties. He needs to play every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Washington Nationals outfielder Dylan Crews is back in the majors, less than two months after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[3574,5,566,6287,565,2603,4,415,88488,9501,23773,9496,39139,39140,22860,15790,414,71,4222],"class_list":["post-703759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-nationals","tag-andres-chaparro","tag-baseball","tag-dylan-crews","tag-jacob-young","tag-james-wood","tag-joey-wiemer","tag-mlb","tag-nationals","tag-nationals-dylan-crews-brady-house","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-paul-toboni","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40779-ap-delaware-maryland-sports-only","tag-product-40818-ap-virginia-sports-only","tag-product-40819-ap-washington-dc-sports-only","tag-rochester","tag-washington","tag-washington-nationals","tag-washingtonnationals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}