Reggie

Crawford

The estimated rehab time in 10-12 months, which puts Crawford’s 2025 season in jeopardy. He dealt with shoulder soreness all year and was shutdown in early in June.

Formerly a first baseman and starting pitcher, Crawford is done as a position player now and has been used as a reliever, rather than as a starter, this season. He had a 4.66 ERA and a 19/5 K/BB ratio in 9 2/3 innings for Richmond. Bishop, a 2019 first-round pick who has mostly struggled and was left unprotected in the Rule 5 draft over the winter, was hitting .242/.314/.358 in Double-A.

Neither player was likely to make the major league roster anyway, and now they are among the earliest reassignments this spring. Crawford carries some intrigue as a first round pick in the 2022 MLB Draft. He had been a two-way player and was hitting as lately as this year’s AFL season; however, the Giants have decided that he will focus exclusively on pitching now. He threw just 19 innings last year between two levels, allowing six earned runs on 15 hits while striking out 32 batters compared to just 10 walks. It will be interesting to see what a season of just pitching does for his development.

Crawford is being developed as a two-way player after being selected by the Giants in the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft, but is hitting exclusively this offseason in the AFL. The 22-year-old slugger certainly made some noise in this AFL contest, circling the bases on an inside-the-park homer for his first round-tripper of the fall campaign, and wound up finishing with four RBI. He split this season between Single-A San Jose and High-A Eugene posting a .793 OPS at the plate and a sparkling 2.84 ERA across 19 innings of work in 13 starts. He’s among the most intriguing prospects in baseball for fantasy managers to monitor over the next few years.

Crawford, the Giants’ first-round pick from last year, posted a 4.09 ERA and 18/4 K/BB ratio in 11 innings with Class A San Jose while also going 4-for-16 (.250) with a homer and two doubles. Standing at 6-foot-4 and 235 pounds, the 22-year-old Crawford missed all of 2022 after Tommy John surgery, but he’s displayed impressive velocity on the mound as well as intriguing power potential at the plate. The Giants appear committed to seeing how Crawford develops as a two-way player. It’s worth noting that the club also invested their first-round pick this year in a two-way player, selecting 18-year-old Bryce Eldridge out of James Madison High School in Virginia.

Crawford was announced as a two-way player when selected by the Giants with the 30th overall selection in the 2022 MLB Draft and will reportedly receive a $2.298 million signing bonus.

This is an interesting pick, in part because Crawford being announced as a two-way player when that wasn’t discussed in the past. The left-hander required Tommy John surgery over the fall, but he’s a hurler with a high 90s fastball and wipeout slider. He’s also a quality athlete with plus power in his bat, so the Giants could let him swing while he rehabs. Ultimately, he’s probably a hurler; and very likely as a reliever at the highest level.