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For Crawford, A Bright Yet Distant Future
For years the Phillies had an offensive star at the shortstop position in Jimmy Rollins. In case you're unaware, Rollins was traded to the Dodgers this past off-season. So who do the Phillies have at shortstop now? Freddy Galvis. Does that name inspire you? No? Me either.
So who is the heir apparent to Rollins? The reigning school of thought points to the the 20 year old J.P. Crawford, who was picked 16th overall in the June 2013 amateur draft. Also yes, in case you were wondering, he is related to Carl Crawford.
So what has Crawford done to make the Phillies hang their hat on his rack? Not much, to be honest. He's yet to reach the Double-A level because of an oblique injury preventing him from playing yet this year. However, he has had decent numbers in his limited Single-A at-bats.
To date in his young career he has hit .292/.384/.404 with 12 HR, 103 R, 38 SB, and 69 RBI in 658 at-bats. You can see from those numbers that he does show some signs of promise, but they need to be taken with a grain of salt. However, you have to be fairly impressed by the fact that he hit a combined 11 homers and swiped 24 bags in 2014.
Now for some bad news. As desperately as the Phillies need shortstop help, it's not very likely they will rush to bring Crawford to the show. The team is in the midst of a major rebuild, and thus can live with the mediocrity Galvis provides for a bit. Additionally the oblique injury has done nothing to accelerate Crawford's development time.
Even if he were called up, it's not like the Phillies lineup can afford him a ton of protection. The most recognizable and "dangerous" names are Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. They're not exactly threatening anybody unless the Phillies have found a way to turn the clock back to 2009.
Maybe Crawford will arrive with other Phillies prospect Maikel Franco and turn things around quickly for the franchise. However, this seems pretty unlikely. The team has a lot of rebuilding to do, and even a swap of Cole Hamels for MLB ready talent won't speed up their time table that much.
So you're looking at an arrival for Crawford in late 2016 at the earliest, most likely. What can you expect when he does arrive? Scouts seem to think he'll put on more weight as he makes his way through the system, and thus hit for more power. Admittedly he's already put on 10 pounds since being drafted, but I'm not sure I see him being the 15-18 homer guy that others are projecting.
I think Crawford's upside is that of a .275 hitter who can provide about a dozen long balls a year while swiping 20 bags. However, his hit tools concern me. In high school he was known for having a long swing, and I'm not convinced that he has the ability to adjust.
He's currently not worth a roster spot except in the deepest of deep leagues. He's someone you're going to want to monitor if you don't have a star at shortstop, but he's not going to make an impact for at least another year or so. I'd watch his progress through Double-A before I realistically considered him an option as my future shortstop.
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