The Best Place For Justin Crawford Is AAA, For Now

The Phillies centerfield situation has been a disaster to start the season. Brandon Marsh is 0 for the month of April. The Phillies clearly just don't trust Johan Rojas (only 4 games played). Even the fielding has been questionable for both options. These struggles have some fans wanting to fast-track Justin Crawford to the majors. But that may not be the most prudent of plans.

The Phillies started Justin Crawford in AAA for a reason. For them, it is the next key step in his development.

Develop means for than 3 weeks. As desperate as the Phillies CF situation is, rushing a potential franchise cornerstone to the majors is not what is best for Crawford, or the organization. He is still developing and learning. Contrary to popular belief chucking your kid into the deep end and seeing if they float is not the best way to teach them to swim. It may just lead to them being afraid of the water.

He is still hitting too many ground balls. In 2023 his ground ball rate was 69%. He got that down to 60% last season, but the number is still too high. His great speed makes a high groundball rate ok. They still want him to work on driving the ball more, because they think he can be more than just a speed guy.

The minor leagues are the perfect place to work on stuff because there is no pressure. If he grounds into an inning-ending double play for the Iron Pigs, there won't be thousands of fans taking to Twitter to call him a bust. In the majors, that would happen. The pressure is turned up to 11 once you make it to the big leagues. When right now there should be less focus for him on results, and more on approach.

Both Crawford's hot streak to start his season in AAA, and the cold streak that has followed, are too small of a sample size to read into.

He started out hitting 13 for 42 with 2 triples. It initially had fans excited and clamoring for him to get called up. Since then he is 2 for 19 with 5 Ks, and his average is down to .254. It is only 14 total games, and this "cold streak" is only 5 games. Nothing should be read into it. But it might be a sign he is working on things.

This is not to say he wouldn't be an upgrade already over Marsh. Right now, every single person reading this article is capable of getting as many hits as Marsh has in the month of April (0). But again, the decision is not only about what is best for the team, it is about what is best for Crawford. Rushing Crawford to the MLB to make up for M

Crawford's time will come. It very well might be later this season. If he is as good as people think, and the Phillies CF continues to play this poorly, their hand might be forced. But for now, the best place for him is AAA. Let him learn, let him fail, let him grow, without the pressure of playing for the big league team.

The Phillies absolutely need a better option in Center. But Justin Crawford is not the right answer right now.