DUNEDIN, Fla. — In 2022, the Phillies opened the season with a young center fielder. So, coach Paco Figueroa got Matt Vierling together for a meeting with the veterans on either side of him.
“I hit Nick [Castellanos] in the chest, and I’m like, ‘You’re the leader of him,’” Figueroa recalled telling Vierling. “I hit [Kyle] Schwarber in the chest. ‘You’re the leader of him.’ I told him, ‘Whatever happens to Nick, it’s your fault, and whatever happens to Schwarber.’
“You’re teaching him to think like, ‘I’m in control.’”
Four years later, Figueroa, the team’s first base, outfield, and base running coach has had a variation of that talk with Justin Crawford. Because the Phillies are committing to a 22-year-old rookie in center field, and they want to make sure everyone knows who’s in charge.
It was fitting, then, that Crawford led off the Grapefruit League season for the Phillies on Saturday. Six pitches into his first at-bat, he hit an elevated two-strike cutter from a major-league lefty (Toronto’s Eric Lauer) that one-hopped the wall in left-center field for a double.
As first impressions go, it was pitch perfect.
“That definitely feels good, getting the first one, first at-bat like that,” Crawford said, beaming after playing five innings of the Phillies’ 3-0 loss to the Blue Jays. “Yeah, it’s kind of nice to be able to get that and then just try to hopefully build off that.”
OK, some perspective: It was an auspicious start, nothing more. Crawford was always going to play a lot this spring, but he figures to see even more at-bats than usual once camp empties out of teammates who are playing in the World Baseball Classic next month.
There’s time, then, for Crawford to keep refining a swing that produced a .322 average in the minors but also a high rate of ground balls. Near the end of last season, he moved his hands up, closer to his ear, to get his bat to the ball more quickly. He’s sticking with that for now. There will be additional tweaks.
But spring training will also be a time for Crawford to show he can handle center field. He played exclusively center in the minors until the second half of last season in triple A, when he made 30 starts in left.
And opinions were split, even among Phillies officials, over which outfield spot is his best right up until they decided to give him the keys to center.
“He can play,” said Figueroa, who has coached the Phillies’ outfielders since 2018. “Like any young guy, he’s going to get to the big leagues and you’ve got to be patient with him. But one thing that I see is his makeup. He just knows how important the X’s and O’s of the game is, the mental, the physical, the preparation. He’s great with that.”
It’s in Crawford’s blood. His dad, Carl, was a four-time All-Star outfielder. His godfather, Junior Spivey, played five seasons in the majors. His personal hitting coach, Mike Easler, had a 15-year career and won a World Series with the “We Are Family” Pirates in 1979.
Crawford focused in the offseason on a more efficient first step in the outfield. His track-star speed enables him to compensate for taking indirect routes to the ball. But he also knows he can be more precise.
“It kind of started with my set-up and that kind of helped clean up my angles,” Crawford said. “Then I did different types of drills that kind of helped clean up my angles as well. And just in my training, first-step drills, fast-twitch [movements], things like that.”
Figueroa said the Phillies’ player-development staff didn’t highlight a particular skill that needs refinement. “It’s a little bit of everything,” according to Figueroa, who believes it all begins with the pre-pitch preparation.
The biggest test in the Grapefruit League opener came in the fourth inning. Crawford got a good jump on Addison Barger’s sinking liner and made a sliding catch.
“At this level, I think his speed is game-changing,” left fielder Otto Kemp said. “It’s game-changing on the base paths and even in the outfield. I’m excited to see him kind of take control in center field in Philly and just show everybody what he can do.”
To Figueroa, one of the best moments of camp came a few days ago. The Phillies were doing a drill — known as “pop-up priority” — that emphasizes communication within a hierarchy of defensive positions.
“We had all the guys out there, and it was like a high fly ball almost to where the shortstop could get it,” Figueroa said. “But he ran in there yelling. And look, he’s at the top of that pyramid. That’s him. So, that was a good sign to me of him taking charge.”
Surely, Saturday was another good step.
“The work that I do every day, especially with Paco and everybody we have here, it really helps me have more confidence,“ Crawford said. ”I truly feel like I could play that position and stick there.”
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