Offseason Position Discussion : OF

As much as the infield is a mess of question marks and prayers, the OF for the Nats at least has some sense to it.  Building over the past few years of trades and drafts the Nats OF in 2025 ended as something that the team would like to carry for several seasons. 

James Wood followed up his fine half-season rookie campaign with a full season of solid baseball, making the All-Star team with a great first half before a second half swoon and focus on his weak defense knocked his season down a bit. Dylan Crews got his first extended taste of the majors and disappointed in an injury riddled season at the plate but not quite to the point where they had to give up on him. That's different than great defender Jacob Young who after an acceptable 2024 at the plate was handed a spot only to swing his way out of it.  But that, and Crews injury, left the door open for Daylen Lile to play a lot and he responded knocking line drives all over the place in the second half of the year.  

In addition Robert Hassell got a decent amount of playing time too but didn't hit, and Alex Call DID hit but at 30 didn't feature into the Nats future plans and was sent over the the Dodgers in a late season trade.  

Presumed Plan : 

Wood, Crews, and Lile start in the outfield and play there unless they are so bad the Nats are forced to make a change. Young sticks around at 4/5 to play late game D. and Hassell/someone else rounds out the bench. 

Reasoning behind Presumed Plan : 

This is what the Nats had been planning for. A top notch super young OF.  It isn't the exact set of players they would have expected - Hassell would have likely been in here as a starter not Lile. But you stack quantity and quality to get to this point. All these guys need more time to show what they really are. The only question is whether the defense suffers too much in this configuration. But that's not something you let hold this back. You figure the bats first. 

My Take : 

There's no issue here. This is what should be done and what will be done.  

 

I do worry about the defense. For all of Young's poor hitting he could field and Crews and him could make up for Wood's lack of range. With him out, Crews could be a superior defender but it's hard to ask his range to cover for both corners playing poorly. So you'd really like to see Wood and or Lile become average defenders. 

 

There is a lot to like here but also things to worry about.  Wood does almost everything right but that swing and miss percentage is terrible. Good thing he's got a good eye but it feels like maybe baseball could exploit this.  Crews has a weird situation where he should be better but his actual stats have never matched what his fancy stats say. Now granted the fancy stats in the majors eventually slid down closer to his performance but there still seems to be a gap. You think the regular stats will come up but that's not guaranteed.  Lile on the other hand swings a slower bat but hits everything right. But that's only one half-season.  It CAN work in the majors it's just that it's uncommon. 

Still you take the average path and one guy exceeds expectations, one guy hits it, and the last one is under? You have one very good or great player, and one starter. You take that. 

 

As for the 4th/5th I don't really care. I think you need a solid defender and Young is that but so is Hassell if they want to go that route for a year. 

 

One last thing is that the D could cause Wood or Lile to end up at DH while Young/Hassell/etc end up as the 3rd OF but for now I think they get a chance to prove they can't do it.