Dylan Crews’ high school coach on the LSU star: ‘What you see is what you get’

The first thing Jeff Perez noticed about Dylan Crews was his bat speed.

Crews was an eighth grader at the time, still years away from becoming the top-rated prospect in the 2023 MLB Draft. He was still growing up, still filling out a frame that would eventually measure 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds. But his actions at the plate made him more mature than most teenagers his age.

Perez remembers turning to a bystander next to him and gushing.

“I said that kid could start for me right now on my varsity (team) as an eighth grader,” Perez, Crews’ coach at Lake Mary High in Florida, recalled when reached by phone this week. “That’s how talented he was.”

Crews has oozed talent for years now. At LSU, he has been a rock-solid contributor, even going beyond expectations. Only two Division I players (West Virginia’s J.J. Wetherholt and Florida Atlantic’s Nolan Schanuel) outdid Crews’ batting average of .434. He enters the College World Series this weekend with a slash line of .434/.576/.735.

There is little, if anything, left for Crews to show scouts after three impressive seasons at LSU. For his career, he’s a .380 hitter with a .498 on-base percentage, a .695 slugging percentage and more walks (146) than strikeouts (140). He is a hitting savant destined to go No. 1 when the MLB Draft begins on July 9.

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To get a peek into what Crews is like, The Athletic reached out to Perez to talk about his time working with the LSU superstar. The conversation, condensed and lightly edited for clarity, follows.

What was it about Dylan that stood out?

Honestly, from a baseball perspective, it was probably just his bat speed. He was really light-years ahead of everyone physically and mentally as well.

How did you see that manifest once he did come to high school to play for you?

The cool thing about Dylan — and I’ve continued to see it even this year — is that he always got better. He got better from when I first saw him to his freshman year, to his sophomore year and on and on. Of course, we did get cut off because of COVID-19 his senior year. Honestly, it was just the continuous progression of his game and him physically. He always took care of his body. So he was just constantly getting better. And that was really one thing that stood out.

Have you been around many players who progressed like he did?

Um, yes. But coupled with the talent (laughs) probably not.

How has it been for you to watch him succeed in college?

It’s been incredible because like I said he’s continued to progress and get better and better. I still keep in touch with him. In fact, I went to Baton Rouge for the regional and he’s just so level-headed. None of the (fame) and the limelight gets to him at all. He just goes about his business and it’s truly an impressive thing to watch.

He’s really come into his own this year. Not that it’s a surprise because he’s been the top player in his class for a number of years. But what have you seen him take to another level this year, if anything at all?

The overall hit tool has probably been it. But also, I think — I mean, I’m not there, but just hearing from people is really his leadership as well. They brought in some guys through the portal and he really just took them under his wing. They really just built a bond and that leadership has shone through. If you look at him on the field, the team responds to him so much and that really stands out.

Did you see that when he was in high school too?

I did. He was a similar type of player because he just goes about his business. He’s not a “rah-rah” type. In fact, the emotion that he showed in the super-regional there in the second game, when he hit that double late in the game, that’s kind of unusual. He gives a little bit of celebration when he does things but to see that type of emotion was a little unusual because he’s just — I don’t know if he expects it. That’s a weird thing to say but he’s so confident in himself in a unique way. It’s kind of a pretty cool thing. He was like that in high school though. Just a confident player, not an arrogant player, but a player confident in his abilities.

What are some of your favorite memories of watching him play for you?

Probably just how hard he played. He just really plays the game with a lot of love and passion. He was on SportsCenter this year for a diving catch that he made. And I have a picture of him diving in high school, making almost the same exact type of catch. So those are really the things. How hard he played all the time. He doesn’t really steal many bases anymore. He can, but it’s just not the LSU type of game. But he stole bases in high school, he did all the little things that you needed to do. And that’s really it, just how hard he really got after it.

One of the things that he kind of struggled with a little bit his senior year before the pandemic was his swing-and-miss. What did you see from him during that time?

I don’t really think there was a ton of swing-and-miss, honestly. It just depends on who you talk to. But there was a lot of pressure. There were a lot of eyes on him. We’d have 30 scouts come in to watch our normal Tuesday batting practice, which is highly unusual. But he handled it with grace and class, just like he always did, even for a 17-year-old kid. He just kind of kept his mouth shut and just went about his business when things weren’t great for him. He did that. And when things weren’t great for him, you could never tell. And that’s probably one of the things, in my humble opinion, that makes him so great is that he never gets too high or too low. He’s always very even-keeled. And in this game, I think that’s an important attribute. Even his senior year he was like that.

What is the team that drafts him going to get?

What you see is what you get, I feel. So what they’ve been seeing for years and the continuous progression and the numbers and just the overall player. That’s what they’re gonna get. They’re gonna get somebody who shows up every day and does his work, goes about things the right way. And he’s probably going to be a multi-year All-Star and play a lot of years in the big leagues. And I don’t think anybody’s going to be surprised about that.

Is there any extra work that he put in behind the scenes that has led to his success?

He works on his craft a lot. He hits a lot. A lot of people don’t see that but he’s hitting constantly. From the time he stepped foot in Baton Rouge, he’s been doing it, and he did it at Lake Mary as well. In fact, he only went to school a few hours a day, so he could train the rest of the day. He took his core classes, and then he was done late morning so he could go and train. I don’t know if a lot of people know that but that was some sacrifice that he made.

Are there any other lasting thoughts that you have about Dylan as a player or as a person?

There’s a lot of them, actually. But I would probably say just how grounded he is. Considering all the (fame) and publicity that he’s received, the fact that he still answers my texts is pretty special to me. I guess he doesn’t have to do that. He’s a grown man now. But I texted him after they won and he got right back to me and said thank you for the congratulations. He’s just a really grounded person considering — especially in Baton Rouge — everybody wants a piece of him. He had kids lined up at the games I was at just to try and get a glimpse of him, let alone an autograph or a picture or something like that. So the fact that he can stay so grounded and so focused on the task as well. Look at the numbers that he’s put up. It’s unheard of, some of these things. He hit .500 for most of the season. It’s unbelievable how he can stay focused with all that stuff going on. So it’s really cool.