LSU's Dylan Crews Wins Golden Spikes Award; Potential No. 1 Pick in 2023 MLB Draft

Dylan Crews, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2023 MLB draft, has been named the best player in amateur baseball.

Crews won the 45th Golden Spikes Award Sunday after leading LSU to the finals of the College World Series with a .418 batting average and .562 on-base percentage. The 21-year-old led the country this season with 95 runs scored and ranked second with 70 walks.

Paul Seiler, CEO and executive director of USA Baseball, called Crews "one of the nation's best college baseball players since he arrived at LSU in 2021."

LSU faces Florida Sunday for the second game of the 2023 College World Series finals. In Game 1, Crews helped the Tigers to a 4-3 win by tying the program's single-season record for runs scored in a single season.

At this point, that's expected for Crews, who went just 14 games this season without scoring a run. He has accumulated 232 runs and 183 RBI through three seasons and 194 games with Louisiana State.

Crews' dominant on-base percentage is in part due to his ability to know when to hit. His average chase rate on fastballs outside the strike zone in 2022 was 15%, as opposed to the MLB average of 25%, per Prospects Live's Joe Doyle.

In an eye dominance test conducted by LSU, Crews scored equally on both sides, setting him up process input evenly from both left- and right-handed pitchers, NOLA.com's Wilson Alexander reported.

Crews considered entering the draft after being projected as a first-round pick out of high school in 2020 but opted out to go to LSU instead. MLB.com now has him listed as the No. 1 prospect in the 2023 class.

"Most scouts are sold that he'll stick in center at the big league level, and at worst, he'll be an asset in right with solid arm strength," reads the MLB.com scouting report.

The Pittsburgh Pirates hold the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft.

Seven previous Golden Spikes Award winners have gone on to become the No. 1 pick in the MLB draft, including Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg.

Before Crews potentially becomes the eighth, he will first fight to lead LSU to the team's first College World Series title since 2009.