The Philadelphia Phillies season opened on Monday, but perhaps the most important player in their organization will open his season Thursday, when J.P. Crawford and the Reading Fightin Phils open their 2016 season.
The 21-year-old shortstop, who is widely considered one of the top five prospects in the league, batted just .150 and made an error in limited time with the Phillies this spring. But in an interview with MILB.com Phillies director of player development Joe Jordan praised the development that the former first-round pick has made, specifically in the field.
"The thing we like so much about J.P. is that he's becoming so much more and more consistent," said Phillies director of player development Joe Jordan. "There are certain things that he's had to improve upon, whether it's his backhand or body-control plays where you have to get the ball out quick. We've challenged him the last two-and-a-half years in areas where he really needed to get better, and he responded so well to that kind of challenge and has answered every one of them. The consistency defensively has really impressed me." [MILB.com]
Though Crawford batted .392 at Single-A and had seven triples at Double-A in 2015, his fielding is considered his best attribute. MLB Pipeline — which ranks player's skills on a scale from one to 70 – gave Crawford a ranking of 65 on fielding this year. So if Crawford has made the improvements that Jordan suggests he has, he may have a chance to be a gold-glove caliber fielder immediately when he reaches the big league level.
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The praise from Jordan in regards to Crawford seems small in comparison to what bench coach — and Wall of Fame shortstop, Larry Bowa has said about Crawford. This off-season, Bowa told TCN's Breakfast on Broad that he thought Crawford had a chance to join the team by mid-season, only to concede this spring that he 'probably could' play at the major league level now.
Freddy Galvis and Cesar Hernandez were the Phillies two most productive hitters in the club's season-opener, but it seems fairly likely that the two will be competing for time at second-base this summer, with Crawford's major league debut looming.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is managing editor of Philliedelphia.com, focusing on news and features.
