WASHINGTON — With outfielder Alex Call traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dylan Crews getting closer to coming back, the Nationals outfield makeup is changing, with three young outfielders getting the opportunity to play in the final two months of the season.
All-Star James Wood is the left fielder, so the opportunities for younger players to make their mark will be in center and right field. And 26-year-old Jacob Young has played 232 games since 2024, mostly in center field.
Daylen Lile has been up and down a couple of times. The 2021 second-round Draft pick arrived on May 23 following Crews’ left oblique strain injury, and was optioned back to Triple-A June 6. Ten days later, he was back in D.C.
The 2023 first rounder Crews has been on the 60-day IL, but his rehab is going well. The former LSU star will play in the field six innings Saturday and Sunday for Triple-A Rochester. He began the season on the Opening Day roster and played 45 games with 158 at-bats, hitting .196 with seven homers and 15 RBIs.
2020 first rounder Robert Hassell III also got his chance in May, but was sent back to Rochester. Now with Call gone, he will get his second opportunity in the show. The former Padres top prospect spent 21 games with the Nationals from late-May to June 15, batting .171 during that stretch.
Sent back to Triple-A, Hassell III got to work, slashing .336/.435/.516 in 33 games with six doubles, 25 RBIs, 23 walks, 23 strikeouts, 26 runs and seven stolen bases.
“Everything worked well for me,” Hassell III said of his time back with Rochester. “[I’m] happy to be back.”
Hassell III made it clear that despite some rocky moments his confidence never wavered.
“It’s good,” Hassell III said of his recent consistency in Triple-A. “It’s what I have been doing my whole life. I’ve had a couple down years, which is good to [learn from] struggle. But I have been hitting and playing baseball at a high level my whole entire life.”
With the Nationals facing left-hander José Quintana in the series opener Friday night, interim manager Miguel Cairo went with Young and Lile in the outfield alongside Wood.
Lile is hitting .296 (8-for-27) with two doubles, two triples, four RBIs, one walk, one hit by pitch, one stolen base and four runs scored over the past eight games. He has at least a base hit in eight of his past 13 games.
“Lile has been earning [playing time],” Cairo said. “Every day you have got to get better. It’s not like you do good for two weeks and after that you sit back and say, ‘I already made it.’ No, no, no. In the big leagues, [there’s] no time off. Someone else is coming up behind you and you got to keep going forward. You cannot look back.
“We got young players and they got to know that. They got to know just because you are here that don’t mean that you are going to [stay] here. You got to earn and you got to make sure that you keep earning every day that right to be in the big leagues and play every day.”
You get the sense from Hassell III he wants to get going and play now. But Cairo believes it will take time, comparing Hassell III’s current situation with what Lile went through.
“The way I saw Lile mature and made forward steps [is commendable],” Cairo said. “He is developing as a baseball player. That’s what I hope I get to see from Hassell III. He came to the big leagues. He [got] a little cup of coffee. He went back to Triple-A. Now, we are going to see what he [has] been doing, how he works, and if he can make those adjustments that you need to be here in the big leagues.”
