The Phillies have told outfield prospect Justin Crawford that he’ll be breaking camp with the team, according to ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel. The widely-expected move means that Crawford will need to have his contract officially selected to Philadelphia’s 40-man roster before Opening Day, but that isn’t an issue since the Phils currently have only 38 spots filled.
There was some speculation that Crawford would receive his first call to the majors last summer, though the Phillies instead chose to keep him in Triple-A for the entirety of his age-21 season. Crawford (who turned 22 in January) hit .334/.411/.452 with seven homers and 46 steals (out of 57 attempts) over 506 plate appearances with Lehigh Valley, which represented Crawford’s first taste of Triple-A action.
It was an impressive performance that only cemented Crawford’s status as a key plank of the Phillies’ future. The offseason saw Max Kepler and Nick Castellanos subtracted from the Phils’ outfield picture, Harrison Bader left to sign with the Giants, and another unexpected development emerged earlier this week when Johan Rojas was issued an 80-game PED suspension. Philadelphia signed Adolis Garcia to take over in the right field, and with Brandon Marsh returning to take the bulk of the left field at-bats, Crawford will line up as the Phillies’ regular choice in center field.
Pundits are mixed on whether or not Crawford will be able to stick in center field, or if he’ll eventually need to move to left field (like his dad, former four-time All-Star Carl Crawford). As a hitter, Crawford’s ability to consistently put the ball in the air may be his biggest challenge against Major League pitching, as he has posted high grounder rates throughout his minor league career. On the positive side, Crawford has at least reduced his grounder rates every year, and his 70-grade speed allows him to beat out several of those grounders.
The 17th overall pick of the 2022 draft, Crawford has drawn regular attention on top-100 prospect lists. Heading into 2026, the Athletic’s Keith Law has Crawford highest on his list in the 48th spot, while MLB Pipeline (53rd), ESPN (69th), and Baseball America (75th) continue to include the outfielder in their rankings.
This top-100 prospect status and Crawford’s inclusion on the Opening Day roster means that he can qualify for the Prospect Promotion Incentive. If Crawford logs a full year of MLB service time and either wins the 2026 Rookie of the Year Award or finishes within the top three in NL MVP voting in his pre-arbitration seasons, Philadelphia would earn a bonus draft pick down the road.
Between Crawford and Andrew Painter, the Phillies have two PPI-eligible players as part their Opening Day roster. The two highly-touted prospects face some extra pressure in joining a Phils team expecting to contend for a World Series this year, plus there’s the bigger-picture importance of how having two everyday contributors (or even breakout stars) on inexpensive pre-arb contracts can help the big-spending Phillies somewhat balance their payroll.
Injecting some much needed youth into this aging core.
Which they desperately need. I was actually happy they didn’t sign Bichette. They just can’t keep signing all these position players to $30M contracts. Plus, Bichette isn’t much of a fielder. The Phillies need Crawford and then Miller to step up and be solid major league players if they want to have payroll flexibility for the future. Plus, Stott needs to have a good year and step into being a solid starter. I’d rather see them use any money they save by this happening on some bullpen arms.
Let’s get these hot prospects up. Aidan Miller, you’re next.
Agree 100% Let’s hope the kid progresses to his hype.
Let’s hope Phillies management doesn’t ruin his hitting approach like they did to Kingery. Just let him play his game.
Forgot about Kingery. Terrible early extension. One of the worst ever, really. JC is a totally different player.
I disagree. Don’t think the extension for Kingery was a terrible decision, it was what they did afterwards to him. Should have just let him play second and not try to turn him into Ben Zobrist. But the Gabler/Kentak regime thought they knew better than everyone else (just like the did with Hoskins; he has a breakout entry into MLB and then they jerk him around by moving him to LF to sign Carlos Santana).
I think this gets exaggerated quite a bit. He just didn’t have it. Any team in the league could have had Kingery. That should be telling.
The Kingery failure was under Klentak, whose major failing had to do with a simplistic approach to player development influenced heavily by his sabermetric mindset. Organizationally they tried to force players into doing things a certain way and Kingery was affected.
To be fair however, Kingery became very stubborn in his approach, even after failing to hit enough to stick. When I saw him in the minors, I loved his approach to hitting – he was a gap hitter with sneaky power for a smaller guy but he focused on putting the ball in play. He fell in love with pull power and ended up with far too much swing and miss in his approach. He bears the blame for not figuring it out as well.
I love how it’s everyone’s fault but Kingery’s.
No, Kingery has a lot of fault in it too. However, looking at the overall picture of what Kapler/Klentak did, and how stubborn they were—with Kingery, Hoskins, Eflin, etc.—they seemed to not care who their players were or what their skills were, they wanted things done one way and one way only. It didn’t work, and there were a lot of people at fault.
It will be the best Phillies outfield D they’ve had in a long while with him and Adolis in the mix.
Agree on JC, but Adolis is long past being a good fielder with the exception of his cannon arm.
Adolis is replacing Nick Castellanos. Nowhere to go but up!
Except he was #1 in DRS among right fielders last year with 16. I’m not saying DRS is the end all, be all, but certainly it’s a bit of a stretch to claim he’s “long past being a good fielder”.
Daryl:
It depends which site you trust and which metric you look at. Last year he was kind of a classic case where FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference told different defensive stories. They both value positioning and range differently. FanGraphs had him as a below average defender. BR had him as above average. The result: an average defender with a good arm but volatile range metrics.
This is the highest I’ve been on a Phillies rookie position player in a very long time. Crawford spent a lot of time with 3 time former GG CF Eric Davis this winter honing his skills. Yesterday he pulled a pitch 3-4 inches inside down the line for a triple against Skubal. He’s a contact hitter and his very selective at the plate for a player of his age.
Maby they can extend the automatic out ( Rojas ) to a full season suspension.
Career end, preferably. Let him play in Mexico.
This kid is gonna be special
Chip off the old block perhaps. Could be a pleasant surprise this season.
I have heard people complain about fast, leadoff type players putting the ball in the air too much, but to complain that he’s putting the ball on the ground too often is just ridiculous. When Crawford hits .334 with a .411 OBA, you leave his swing alone!
He has a horrible groundball swing.
Good for him. I was wondering when he was gonna get the call to the show. The High School he went to was my High School’s rival for football. Tommy Pham is the only MLB player that went to my high school.
Why in the world would anyone want Crawford to hit more balls in the air?
If he hits .280, 5 homers, 40 steals and 100+ runs scored I`d take it
Isn’t Justin Crawford Carl Crawford‘s son? How come Baseball Reference makes no mention of it?
Because it matters about as much as your comment.
Congrats Justin, I hope to enjoy watching you play as much as I enjoyed watching your father play.