Are the Phillies going to start locking up their young talent?
By John Town
J.P. Crawford
If you talked to me a week ago, I would tell you that there is no chance the Phillies extend J.P. Crawford anytime soon. Kingery’s extension changes all that, and now locking up a player with little to no major-league experience doesn’t seem as crazy.
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Philadelphia has seen little of Crawford at the major-league level. He played just 23 games at the end of the last season and didn’t exactly knock the cover off the ball. He had a .214 batting average and a 25.3 percent walk rate, but he did still manage a strong 18.4 percent walk rate and .356 on-base percentage. After Crawford was called up to the majors, only ten players in the league had a better walk rate than him.
Even though Crawford’s debut was rather pedestrian, the team remains extremely confident in him. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t have traded Freddy Galvis to the Padres and essentially hand Crawford the starting shortstop job.
Next: Phils option Roman Quinn, Zac Curtis, Zach Eflin
If Crawford’s average can tick back up and he still maintains that strong on-base ability this year, he very well could be locked up alongside his future double-play partner Kingery.