Turnaround Finally Begins For J.P. Crawford

DURHAM, N.C.—J.P. Crawford was not in a good place when he took a 10-day hiatus in mid-June. He was struggling badly yet again at Triple-A Lehigh Valley, and nothing he was trying was working at the plate.

Fast-forward a month, and everything has changed. The Phillies’ No. 6 prospect is scorching hittable pitches instead of fouling them back, keeping with his pre-pitch plan, and once again resembling the dynamic player that made him one of baseball’s top prospects.

“I think sometimes pulling away from the game a little bit . . . and being able to sit back and come back a little bit slower, take his time, and work on a few things, it helps,” Lehigh Valley manager Dusty Wathan said. “He’s been using his lower half better. He’s done an outstanding job with his approach. His exit velocity has been up since he’s gotten back. He’s really used his hands. He’s always had a good approach. It’s just making solid contact, and that’s what he’s doing right now.”

Crawford, who declined to speak with Baseball America, entered Friday hitting .288/.373/.652 in July, a stark turnaround from what came previously. He hit .234/.325/.301 over the last two years at Triple-A prior to this stretch.

Most notable has been Crawford’s power surge. He has six home runs 18 games this month. He had six home runs in 153 career Triple-A games before it.

“We haven’t talked about much mechanically,” said Phillies minor league hitting coordinator Andy Tracy, who was with Lehigh Valley on its road trip to Durham. “He’s just putting the balls in play that he’s supposed to put in play, instead of fouling it back. When you put the pitch in play that you’re supposed to hit, usually good things happen and that’s what he’s doing right now.”

The hot stretch has been well-timed for Crawford. After his repeated struggles over more than a year’s worth of games at Triple-A, his prospect stock was firmly trending in the wrong direction.

One thing that stood out all along to the Phillies player development staff, however, was they never sensed Crawford’s confidence wavering.

“He’s a guy that’s always had confidence,” Wathan said. “I think what we’re seeing now is he’s going up there with the ability to drive the ball. That confidence to drive the ball to where he gets himself into a hitters count and is able to barrel the ball, instead of at times being a little bit too passive.”

That delicate balance of passivity and patience was a focal point of Tracy’s instruction with Crawford. Before he could drive the pitches he was supposed to, he had to properly identify and attack them.

“Narrowing down his thought process on things, simplifying things, and not making it too complicated at the plate, all those type of things,” Tracy said. “Just increasingly knowing his plan and what he wants to do. I think that his plan is simpler and he has the ability to execute it and not try to do too much within an at-bat.”

Crawford still has a ways to go to prove this stretch is a true turnaround rather than just a hot streak bound to end.

But he is finally having sustained success at Triple-A, and that in itself is a positive step he has taken for the first time.

“Ultimately you never know if you’ll be able to look back on this in 20 years and say ‘Ok, that’s the real J.P. Crawford,’” Wathan said. “But a lot of these guys, J.P. included, have been given expectations by the media and by scouting departments and things, so I think sometimes we don’t take that into account, the expectations other people have for them. He’s never been a guy that’s tried to live up to other people’s expectations. He’s having a lot of fun and a lot of success.”