On first day in camp, Crews feels "like I belong in this locker room"

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Dylan Crews walked into the Nationals’ spring training clubhouse this morning, equipment bag over his shoulder and immediately found his locker and familiar faces nearby.

This is the first time Crews has been in big-league camp, the first time he’s been in spring training as a professional, but as he greeted teammates both young and old and scanned the rest of the room, last summer’s first-round pick looked very much in his element.

“Super-excited, ready to get going here,” he said. “I feel like I belong in this locker room right now.”

That statement could be taken the wrong way by someone who didn’t hear it. Crews said it not with any hint of cockiness, but rather with the kind of down-to-earth confidence he has always exuded.

At 6-feet, 205 pounds, he’s not an intimidating physical presence, not in these surroundings. But he’s been the best baseball player on his team everywhere he’s ever played. And though he may not have that status in a major-league clubhouse yet, few doubt he’ll get there soon enough.

“The thing about him that I’ve learned in a short period of time: He understands who he is,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He knows where he’s at. He knows what he needs to do. He’s quiet, but he has a sense of leadership. … I’m excited to watch him work.”

A week shy of his 22nd birthday, Crews isn’t the youngest player in Nationals camp. He is, however, the least experienced at the professional level, having played in only 35 games across three different levels of the minors late last season after he signed.

Those 35 games in the Rookie-level Florida Complex League, Single-A Fredericksburg and Double-A Harrisburg, though, came after 71 games at Louisiana State University, where Crews demolished college pitching, led his star-studded team to a national championship and won the Golden Spikes Award as the best amateur player in the country.

Put that all together, and Crews arguably has more high-level experience than any of the other first-timers in Nats camp.

“I think coming from a school like LSU, it almost gets you ready for the moments like this,” he said. “Playing in front of 10,000 people every day, I think that’s the most realistic you’ll get, and the most easy transition you’ll get coming into a big new locker room like this, or a packed-out stadium like you’ll do in the big leagues. I think the transition is pretty easy.”

Expectations for Crews this spring are alternately sky-high and realistic. Everyone wants to see how he performs in this setting for the first time, but club officials know he’s not big-league-ready yet. He may make his D.C. debut sometime this season – which would still be an incredibly fast track for any prospect – but he still needs real seasoning in the upper levels of the farm system.

Perhaps the best evidence of that came late last season. After dominating Single-A to the tune of a .355/.423/.645 slash line in 14 games, Crews was promoted to Double-A, where he got his first dose of reality. In 20 games at Harrisburg, he slashed .208/.318/.278 with zero homers and only five RBIs.

Some of that was the better pitching he faced, particularly when it came to breaking balls and off-speed pitches. Some of that was simply the physical and mental toll of a long baseball season that began in college and ended only a few steps from the major leagues.

“You kind of learn how to physically just manage the 160 games. I think mentally staying in there every day, it’s hard,” he admitted. “I’d never done anything like that. But like I said, I know how to manage it now, I have a great idea of what’s going to be ahead of me in the future, so I can mentally prepare for that now.”

Crews got right to work today, joining all the other position players who reported early in the batting cages (the only baseball activity they could partake in because it was raining). He had a smile on his face as he reconnected with players and coaches he had met last summer in the minors, and as he introduced himself to major leaguers who have been doing this a lot longer than he has.

He looked very much at ease, not like a kid who got an invitation to big-league camp before ever spending a day in minor-league camp.

“I feel like I belong here, but there’s still a job to do at the end of the day, no matter if it was big-league camp or minor-league camp,” he said. “The game doesn’t change. There’s always four bases, there’s always a pitcher and a catcher and a hitter up there.”

The spotlight will shine brighter on Crews than most this spring. Whether he thrives under it or not, he’s going to get called into the manager’s office one morning and learn he’s being sent down to begin the season.

The only question after that: How long will it be before he’s reintroducing himself to everyone as a major leaguer?

“He’s going to get an opportunity to go out there and play a little bit in spring training,” Martinez said. “I want him to go out there, fit in, be with the guys and learn as much as he possibly can. He’s going to help us. I don’t know when. It could be sooner than later. But he’s definitely going to help us, and help us win a lot of games here.”