The Giants announced that shortstop Brandon Crawford has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a left forearm strain. The placement is retroactive to August 19. Outfielder Luis Matos was called up from Triple-A to take Crawford’s place on the active roster.
This is Crawford’s third IL stint of the season, as he missed roughly three weeks total due to a calf strain and left knee inflammation. Giants manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle) that Crawford’s forearm issue was impacting his swing, which explains why Crawford has only a single hit in his last 31 plate appearances. The club’s initial plan was to give Crawford a couple of days off, but he’ll now get at least 10 days to recover.
In a little over 14 months, Crawford has now made five different trips to the injured list. Recurring knee problems have led to the majority of those placements, and he was also briefly shut down during Spring Training this year due to more knee discomfort. The injuries have short-circuited what looked like a late-career revival for Crawford, who finished fourth in NL MVP voting in 2021 for delivering a huge performance in his age-34 season.
Crawford has hit only .194/.264/.318 over 270 plate appearances in 2023, and while his glovework has still been excellent, it surely isn’t the platform Crawford wanted for the final guaranteed year of his contract. While Crawford was somewhat non-committal last winter about the possibility of playing beyond the 2023 season, a year of injuries and struggles at the plate isn’t how the longtime Giants shortstop would want to wrap up his outstanding 13-year career. The severity of the forearm strain isn’t yet known, so it isn’t clear if Crawford could be in danger of missing the remainder of the 2023 campaign.
Casey Schitt was called up from Triple-A yesterday, and the Giants also recently selected the minor league deal of Johan Camargo. These two players will likely handle shortstop duty while Crawford is out, and Thairo Estrada has also seen some time at the position this season.
Dodgers versus Marlins getting delayed due to a hurricane does not sound surprising, just unusual because the game is at Chavez Ravine!
Wait, what? So the hurricane must be on the e
left coast, then?
They played a Double-header yesterday, same with the Rays-Angels and Diamondbacks-Padres because of the inclement weather.
Crawford has had a meaningful career with SF, but it’s time. Happens to everyone eventually. He should probably hang it up at this point. Anyone disagree?
I think most of us knew that extension wasn’t gonna go well the moment he signed it. It’s been time for him to hang it up for a while now.
He’s put up 9.9 fWAR over the last 3 seasons in 2 seasons worth of PA
He has 2.3 fWAR in just over a season’s worth of PA thé last two seasons.
When should he have hung out up?
After last year as a player, but I’m just saying the Giants should have known better than extending him after 2021.
Why should he have hung it up last year? He was coming off of a finec season
He was coming off a fantastic season in 2021, and had a fine season in 2022. In sounds very hindsighty to say they should have known better.
What part of his 2022 season was “fine”? The 86 OPS+, or the 0.6 WAR? He had a great 2021 season, but anyone paying attention knew it wouldn’t be maintained. The hope (prayer?) at the time was for 2022 to still be decent enough and then 2023 a farewell year, but to say his sudden decline surprised everyone is not at all true. The Giants felt they had to stick with their MO of keep their homegrown star around for another go, but this was the second he signed a terrible baseball contract.
His 2.2 fWAR
If you want to use fangraphs (I don’t) then they should be satisfied paying him $16 mil for a 88 wRC+ and good, not great, defense?? Craw is gonna be a team wall of fame inductee, and as a fan of said team I’ve been a fan of his since he broke in to the show. But this current contract is subjectively and objectively a bust, plain and simple. He was paid for his past performances. Which at the end of the day isn’t the end of the world, the team has plenty of money. But let’s call it like it is.
The number of people who can’t differentiate between “subjective” and “objective” is worrisome.
Also, just because the results (the performance) weren’t good, doesn’t mean the process (the contract) wasn’t,
Subjective and objective are both in there on purpose bud…here, I’ll break it down for you- the contract looks like it’s been a bust when you see him play (subjective), and you check the stats after to confirm and it holds up as a bust (objective)…and the reality that the sentiment from most Giants fans I talk to and comments I read after his signing was some variation of “he’s about to regress real bad but at least he’ll get to finish his career here” shows this fact of him not living up to the contract was far from surprising. You seem to be living in a world where Crawford falling off a cliff in production is some combination of surprising and/or not really happening. That world is not reality. But all that being said I can’t wait until Crawford gets to come back and have a plaque put up in his honor at the stadium that he very much deserves for a great career.
He hasn’t fallen off a cliff (though that’s meaninglessly subjective phrase). He was arguably worse in 2017. Definitely worse in 2019. Yet put up his best season ever in 2021. How many of the Giants fans you talk to (talk about selection bias) thought he fell off a cliff either of those years? He had a slightly down season in 2022 and has been injured in 2023.
Anyway, I’m not interested in having this discussion with you.
His last two seasons obviously haven’t worked out the way he, the team, or the fans wanted. That some fans “knew” the signing was a mistake isn’t in the slightest but interesting or informative. There are people everywhere that have every opinion on every topic “someone on the Internet said…”.
I engaged the previous commenter who said that Crawford should have hung ’em up after 2021. They never gave a convincing argument as to why. Which is not surprising.
I let the “bud”comment go this time. I won’t next time. I’ll mute you and happily live my life not being cognizant of your existence.
Oh he can get another contract keep playing. He’s 36
Is Casey a relative of Roland Schitt?
Pick up DeJong. He will provide strong defense and possibly not be terrible on offense.
Might as well at this point, but someone needs to hypnotize DeJong to make him believe he’s a hitter.
He has a good chance of surpassing Schmitt offensively..the bar’s not high at all
Casey Schitt? Was that a typo, or Freudian slip?
Giants are up a notorious creek.
And now the scene with the Penguin from the Blues Brothers is running through my mind.
rememberthecoop, yes, it is an extremely rare hurricane coming out of the Pacific Ocean right now. It’s been around 90 years since the last one. By the time it hits southern California it will probably be downgraded to a Tropical Storm, but it will still bring with it tons of rain and result in bad flooding.
andsc, What I read could be wrong, but I’d read that a hurricane had never hit the coast of California since records had been kept. Tropical storms have I’m sure. Was the storm from 90 or so years ago, still at hurricane strength when it made landfall?
According to Wikipedia, the 1939 storm had dropped below hurricane strength before it hit the coast near Long Beach. This one will also be “just” a TS by the time it gets to California. But the big danger in California is not the wind but the heavy rain leading to flash flooding.
Hurricanes in that part of the Pacific are not uncommon, but usually they come ashore further south in Baja and don’t threaten California.
Thanks for the info. I wasn’t trying to imply that the rains aren’t a huge problem, certainly they are. And in Socal landslides are also a big concern when it rains that much. But I just wanted to find out if what I had read was true.
G’s are really hurting. Injuries have impacted this season much more than anticipated. Every single position that I can think of has been out for time. Even the pitchers.
Not sure how the health can bounce back. Also the offense apparently has been the worst in the majors since mid July. Happy that they are still hanging around. With the other mid teams.
Might be a struggle to finish above .500 at this point.
– Here’s what I’d like. Keep fighting for the wild card spot. That’s a Given. But moving forward – Harrison might not be ready, but wait another few weeks? Might as well get his feet wet. Maybe he gets Hot, and they need it right now. Matos coming back is valuable. Any other young pitchers or position players getting time is valuable. This is more or less an opportunity to have an early Sept. At least like it was years ago with lots of players getting time. Ramos needs at bats too. Meckler. Anyone else they have. Get them up. Use the IL to move guys aside. Evaluate who is worthy for next season. Try to get to the playoffs. And go from there. Wouldn’t be surprised if Bart finds his way back Sept. First either. All the cards are on the table now.
G’s are winning games. Need Health. Again it happens. Definitely needs playing time for the young guys. More of that. And that’s about it. Hopefully next season it comes together and they can get some free agents that want to be here.
Bottom line, It all starts with Pitching. And the old front office of keep the line moving. This Homer happy team now isn’t cutting it. They run cold to often. It’s fun and exciting and they can score a tons of runs. Lead the league in homers. But we need avg as well. This “Damage” BS works, but we need better hitters overall.
Merrifield a free agent. Alittle older, but valuable. More guys like that. We have too many guys exactly the same. Conforto and Davis as Twins.
It’s time for Crawford to retire. He’s had a fine career, 2 time World Series champion and a 2 time All Star all as a member of the Giants.
I’m surprised he wasn’t on the IL to begin with.
This guy is passed his sell-by date. I’m sorry, I know he’s a fan favorite and all, but he’s cooked. Put him out to pasture. Move on.
Mark – Casey Schitt = typo. A funny one, but a typo nonetheless.