It would be irresponsible for the Phillies to enter the 2025 season with this as the plan. It is hope as a tactic and would be wholly unfair to the player. A team should never rush someone to the big leagues, especially when that player has never played in AAA and has only a handful of games at AA under his belt.
If you scoff at any of what I’m about to write, you’re correct to do so.
That said, could Justin Crawford break camp as the Phils’ center fielder next spring?
Crawford is currently playing for Team USA in the WBSC Premier 12 tournament featuring a roster of mostly minor leaguers and the stray veteran free agent looking to put some good tape together for big league clubs to view. In a 12-2 win over Mexico on Thursday, Crawford had a three-hit night, with two singles and this impressive opposite field home run.
This dinger is not reason enough for us to contemplate accelerating Crawford’s timeline to the Majors, but his performance in the tournament thus far, coupled with an outstanding 2024 season that saw him hit .313/.360/.444 with an .805 OPS across A+ and AA, including an .834 OPS in Reading with three homers and 11 doubles in just 40 games there.
The talent is undeniable. He’s an outstanding defender, although perhaps not at the level of Johan Rojas, and is offensive abilities are tantalizing. The Phils also don’t have much of a plan for center field just yet, as the combination of Rojas and Brandon Marsh underperformed last season. When Harrison Bader is the best center fielder on the free agent market, sometimes one must get creative and think outside the box.
Of course, there are caveats. First, Crawford has yet to play in AAA, and only has 40 games of AA ball under his belt. Second, he will be a mere 21 years old at the start of the season. There is plenty of time for him to develop his game, and allowing him to at least start the season in Reading or Lehigh Valley would be the safer play. Much will depend on what the Phillies are able to accomplish in left field. Should they sign a free agent or swing a trade for an everyday player, the Phils may feel more comfortable with a Marsh/Rojas combination in center, at least at the start of the season.
But what if Crawford continues to tear it up this winter? What if he comes to spring training and puts on a show? We know age is not a determining factor for Dave Dombrowski, as evidenced by his pushing for a 19-year-old Andrew Painter to join the big league rotation in the spring of ‘23, and we know he doesn’t require a player to necessarily have AAA experience in order to receive a promotion to the big leagues, like with Rojas.
A mid-season call-up like what we saw with Rojas is the most likely timeline, but if the Phils are high on him, why not begin the season with him in center? The odds are small, but in the interest of being creative and thinking outside the box, the idea of Crawford manning center field on Opening Day is worth mulling over.
