{"id":2225,"date":"2026-05-31T13:06:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T13:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2225"},"modified":"2026-05-31T13:06:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T13:06:38","slug":"how-dylan-crews-rebuilt-his-swing-and-earned-his-way-back-to-the-big-leagues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2225","title":{"rendered":"How Dylan Crews rebuilt his swing and earned his way back to the big leagues"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nationals\u2019 former first-round pick fought to return after starting the season in the minors. \u201cI just had to face it,\u201d he says.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more PSG is targeting a Champions League threepeat. So how do you make the best better?<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
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Dylan Crews points to teammates after hitting a double in Cleveland on Monday. (Nick Cammett\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

After a two-out RBI single in the Washington Nationals\u2019 7-5 loss to the San Diego Padres on Friday, Dylan Crews pointed to the dugout and smiled.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been here before \u2014 he had 35 RBI in parts of the two previous major league seasons \u2014 but this was different. This was his refined, upright swing, where he doesn\u2019t get into a stance until right before the pitcher goes into motion. This was his new bat path, allowing him to get the ball in the air to center field, dropping in front of the charging center fielder.<\/p>\n

This is what he worked for when he was in Class AAA Rochester, the 2023 first-round pick turning his disappointment over not making the Opening Day roster into six weeks of self-reflection and self-improvement.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still not where the Nationals need him to be. In the ninth inning of Friday\u2019s game, he flew out to right field when the team needed him again to produce. But he\u2019s made progress. That single extended his hitting streak to six games, and he\u2019s 9 for 41 with a walk in 10 games since being called back up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels great being here,\u201d Crews said. \u201cJust want to keep things going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crews knew he had two options after the Nationals optioned him for the start of the season: sulk or get to work.<\/p>\n

The emotions did get to him at times, he said; the disappointment of not making the Opening Day roster after being a mainstay on the team over the previous two years is hard to keep down. He made the decision, though, not to show it in public. He wanted to get back to the majors as soon as he could, and he knew the best path was to put his head down and work on the gritty details that the Nationals were requesting.<\/p>\n

It was boring and repetitive. But it worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe bought it,\u201d Rochester hitting coach Brian Daubach said. \u201cHe stuck with it every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

With five days left in spring training, the Nationals called Crews into a meeting. They wanted him to stand taller and bring down his chase rate, which was 29.5 percent during the 2025 season. And he was going to be making these adjustments in Rochester, away from the major league spotlight.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Crews spent the spring trying to reduce his chase rate and stay upright through his swing. (Dale Zanine\/Imagn Images\/Reuters Connect)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

He developed a routine to help him accomplish these tasks, working with Daubach, Rochester assistant hitting coach Travis Fitta, Nationals hitting coach Matt Borgschulte and Nationals assistant hitting coach Shawn O\u2019Malley. He did it every day, without fail, even when the temperamental Upstate New York spring brought unseasonable elements.<\/p>\n

Crews began his progression by standing sideways with his feet glued together. Facing an underhand front toss, he focused on staying upright throughout his entire swing. Then, against an angled toss, he put his back against the batting cage net and worked on direction and getting the ball in the air.<\/p>\n

After that, with the pitcher tossing normally, he inched closer to his normal stance, while still trying to keep his feet closer together and his body upright. He finished with his normal swing and his two-strike swing.<\/p>

Read more Marta Kostyuk stuns Iga Swiatek on her birthday to reach a first French Open quarterfinal<\/a><\/p>\n

Rinse and repeat, every single day. The routine takes him 15 minutes, and it only took him about three weeks, he said, to start to notice a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been great,\u201d he said. \u201cI know the last month in Rochester the ball was getting in the air a lot. We\u2019re still trying to get that to work here as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the organization, the Nationals have a new philosophy this year: hunt the med ball<\/i>. They place a medicine ball on a ball bag, to teach hitters to \u201chunt\u201d or sit on pitches in hitter\u2019s counts. This helped Crews, especially as he narrowed down on which pitches to be aggressive on and which to let go.<\/p>\n

As he worked up north, the Nationals kept a close eye on him. Every night after the major league game, Manager Blake Butera checks minor league box scores. If it wasn\u2019t Butera contacting him, the Nationals\u2019 hitting coaches or other members of the front office reached out.<\/p>\n

Crews is a major part of the Nationals\u2019 future. They didn\u2019t want him to feel abandoned or like a failure just because he was temporarily in Rochester.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really hard league, and there aren\u2019t many players, if you look at it, that have been called up from AAA and never went back down,\u201d Butera said. \u201cIt\u2019s a hard game, it really is. Mentally, physically, all of the above. I think at the end of the day it\u2019s patience and also understanding how much different the major leagues are from AAA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crews started to see the results turn in his favor in May. He hit .308 and slugged .585 in his last 17 games at Rochester, with a strikeout rate of 22.5 percent. On May 18, he got a call first from Rochester Manager Matthew LeCroy, then from Nationals assistant general manager Devin Pearson. They were satisfied with what they saw and wanted him to put it to the test in the majors.<\/p>\n

Crews called his fianc\u00e9e, Jane Carson, who burst into tears. He worked hard for his first call-up in 2024, but this one was different. Every step of baseball came easy to him \u2014 from an Under Armour all-American in high school to a College World Series champion at LSU to a No. 2 overall pick by the Nationals.<\/p>\n

The majors have been the only place where he has struggled. But he\u2019s hopeful that after some time away, he can get back to being who he is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just had to face it,\u201d Crews said. \u201cI could have done things a lot differently. I know the potential that I have and what I\u2019m capable of doing, and I wanted to come out there stronger than ever.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Eintracht Frankfurt brings back Adi H\u00fctter as coach on a 3-year deal<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nationals\u2019 former first-round pick fought to return after starting the season in the minors. \u201cI just had to face it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Dylan Crews rebuilt his swing and earned his way back to the big leagues - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2225\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Dylan Crews rebuilt his swing and earned his way back to the big leagues - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nationals\u2019 former first-round pick fought to return after starting the season in the minors. \u201cI just had to face it,\u201d he says.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2225\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-31T13:06:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c84095b7b59b31a6d72f80be430f1319-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1706\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2225#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2225\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"How Dylan Crews rebuilt his swing and earned his way back to the big leagues\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-31T13:06:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2225\"},\"wordCount\":1097,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2225#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/82c53c091f331c8923aacc4f4096fe1c-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2225#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2225\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2225\",\"name\":\"How Dylan Crews rebuilt his swing and earned his way back to the big leagues - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2225#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2225#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/82c53c091f331c8923aacc4f4096fe1c-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-31T13:06:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2225#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2225\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2225#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/82c53c091f331c8923aacc4f4096fe1c-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/82c53c091f331c8923aacc4f4096fe1c-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1706,\"caption\":\"CLEVELAND, OHIO - MAY 25: Dylan Crews #3 of the Washington Nationals celebrates hitting a double during the ninth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on May 25, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. 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