Phillies to Start J.P. Crawford Back at Reading
By Matt Veasey
The Philadelphia Phillies have decided to start their top prospect out at AA in the 2016 regular season.
In somewhat of a surprising move, the Phillies announced that shortstop J.P. Crawford, the consensus #1 prospect in the organization and a Top 10 prospect in the game according to every reputable national resource, will begin his regular season with the Reading Fightin’ Phils.
This means that Crawford will go back to the place where his 2015 season ended, and he will not be advancing on to the AAA Lehigh Valley IronPigs – at least not yet.
“There was an argument to starting him here [at Reading], and there was a case to go ahead and send him to [triple-A] Lehigh Valley,” the Phils’ director of player development Joe Jordan said, per MLB.com’s Marc Narducci.
Crawford reacted with matter-of-factness, and a bit of maturity, as quoted by Narducci: “I am not disappointed at all; double A and triple A are basically the same thing, and I am here with a couple of guys from last year and we will do some damage. Everybody’s goal in the minor leagues is to get up there as soon as you can and see what happens.”
Crawford has begun each of his three prior minor league seasons at a lower level, and wound up advancing up the ranks during the course of each of those seasons. Last year, the shortstop began with 21 games at High-A Clearwater after returning from a spring injury. He moved on to play in 86 games at AA Reading.
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Combined between the two levels, Crawford hit for a .288/.380/.414 slash line a year ago, with six homers, 42 RBI, 68 runs scored, and a dozen stolen bases across an even 500 plate appearances.
His performance will dictate not only how quickly he advances to AAA, but also how fast he eventually rises to Philadelphia. A logical progression this season would likely find Crawford playing through at least May in Reading, then moving up to Lehigh Valley during the summer, with a September promotion to the big leagues.
The most important thing from a Phillies perspective is that wherever he plays, Crawford experience success and health this season in preparation for coming to camp a year from now as the favorite to become the Opening Day 2017 starting shortstop.
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