When you have one of those bad stretches, sometimes it just helps to find some good in between the negativity. Slowly, Dylan Crews is starting to figure things out. This is what the Washington Nationals hoped for when they demoted him to Triple-A near the end of Spring Training.

Coming back to the Nats on May 19ᵗʰ, Crews didn’t look great after his first 25-games this season as he was batting .189 with a .567 OPS. But for those who understood the goal, this was always going to be a process to reach the better results. Obviously, not everyone outside of the team grasped that process.

The team’s №2 draft pick in 2023 came with high expectations. There were some who were writing Crews off as a bust, and even some media people wanted him sent back to Triple-A and traded. From Crews’ 26ᵗʰ game until now, he has a .708 OPS. And with his two doubles last night, six of Crews’ last seven hits have all gone for extra bases (5 doubles, 1 home run). The five doubles are the most in MLB over this span. That’s progress.

In his past 69 games, Crews is figuring out how to get more consistent launch angle with a marked increase in the month of September. His issue has not been about hitting the ball hard — Crews does that well at 90.4 mph of average exit velo. That ranks him in the top-27 percent of baseball for his entire season. The adjustment he is making is less groundballs and more line drives — and he is doing that now with more regularity. Now if he can work on cutting down on his chases above the zone, Crews might really take a large step forward.

From Stever20, “The last four months, Crews’ average launch angle has been 12.7, 14.8, 14.0, and so far this month 18.1 degrees — and that is 4-of-his-5 best months of his career. Before these last four months, his average launch angle was 8.6 degrees.”

In the last homestand, Crews got a walk-off hit for the only team walk-off win this season. That seemed to be another positive sign to see him come through in the clutch. That was his reputation as a superstar at LSU in college. Crews didn’t forget how to hit — he just had to make adjustments and gain some confidence and re-find that launch angle.

This is what this Nationals team has done with improving so many offensive players on this team. The ones who don’t improve are the players that might not have a future here. The offensive coaching staff, led by hitting coach Matt Borgschulte, have done and excellent job.

Across the board, the full-year players from 2025 have all improved this season in OPS and that includes Crews (+6.3%), James Wood (+11.5%), CJ Abrams (+11.2%), Luis Garcia Jr. (+24.5%), Keibert Ruiz (+29.6), Jacob Young (+21.6%), and Brady House (+22.5%). Take those numbers, and that is an increase of 18.7 percent in an unweighted average.

For those wondering why players like Nasim Nunez and Daylen Lile were not included in the previous paragraph, they were not full-year or full-time players. Next year will be a pivotal year for Lile. In 2025, he only played 91 games and put up a robust .845 OPS, and in his first full-season this year has put up a solid .742 OPS. For Nunez, his decline was disappointing, and not sure what his future holds.

To use Young as an example of working on increasing his bat speed and launch angle, he went to Driveline in Tampa at his own expense to work with one of their coaches (Travis Fitta) early in the offseason. Young started off hot to start his 2026 season, and then the league adjusted to him. On May 15ᵗʰ, Young had an OPS of .569 — and since then, he has a .796 OPS over those 85 games. This season, Young has a career-high 10 home runs.

And while Young has made huge strides, he had a longer road to get to where he is now than some of the players. Garcia, who was traded to the Yankees last month at the trade deadline, has had the largest net increase of improvement year-over-year.

Baseball is about making adjustments and gradual improvement. As you watch the video of Young at Driveline, you see what they were working on in their hitting lab. This is what Borgschulte and their staff have brought to the Nats. Mostly, the overarching goal with the players is getting them to increase their bat speed and to get to a desired launch angle. From there, individual tweaks are what the coaches can make on an as-needed basis.

Is everything perfect? No. The players will all have their evaluations of what to work on in their offseason. If we had to point to items to work on, it would be taking your walks, less chasing out of the strike zone, and moving the line to the next batter in the lineup. That is a mature approach that the best teams usually possess. And we must mention that some players have to work on hitting with runners in scoring position (RISP).

This is all a work-in-progress. The trends will hopefully continue in the right direction for Crews and his teammates. So far, so good.

Cover photo by Marideth Sandler; Extra photo by Steve Mears/Nats.Talk