Nationals place Dylan Crews on 10-day injured list with oblique strain, call up Hassell

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington Nationals placed rookie slugger Dylan Crews on the 10-day injured list with a left oblique strain on Wednesday.

Crews, the second overall pick in the 2023 MLB amateur draft, exited before the sixth inning of Tuesday night’s 5-3 win over Atlanta, after reporting stiffness during a fifth-inning plate appearance. He underwent an MRI earlier Wednesday.

“We know he’s got a strain,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said shortly before Wednesday’s scheduled game against the Braves was rained out. “We don’t know the severity of it yet until the doctor sees him this afternoon.”

Crews’ first major league injured list stint comes after he homered in consecutive games Sunday and Tuesday for the first time in his career.

He’s hitting .196 with seven home runs — a high among rookies — and 15 RBIs. He said he’d been managing soreness for roughly a week.

“It’s never a positive, you always want to go out there and play every day,” Crews said. “But I guess it could’ve been worse. So we’ll just get in the training room and get it right so I can get on the field as soon as I can.”

In a corresponding move, the Nationals recalled Robert Hassell III from Triple-A Rochester. Hassell was scheduled to make his MLB debut by batting seventh and playing center field in Wednesday’s rainout.

Hassell was the eighth overall pick by San Diego in the 2020 draft. He’ll become the fourth minor leaguer to reach the majors with Washington that was acquired in the 2022 trade that sent Juan Soto to the Padres, joining James Wood, CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore.

“It was a big trade, and everybody has high expectations for us,” Hassell said.

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