For a few moments on Saturday, Phillies fans forgot about the drama.
Justin Crawford, the left-handed-hitting rookie who everyone expects to be the everyday center fielder this year, walloped a ringing line drive double off the left-center field wall in his first plate appearance of spring training.
It was a beautiful sight.
Crawford’s penchant for hitting tons of ground balls has been well-documented, and despite finishing with an .863 OPS in 112 AAA starts a season ago, fans entered the spring tamping down expectations. To be honest, no one is expecting much from Crawford in his first season. He’ll likely hit out of the nine-hole in the order. The fear is Crawford’s ground ball swing will severely limit his productivity at the Major League level, dampening expectations for the 22-year-old before he’s played his first official big league game.
So seeing him rocket a deep fly ball to the opposite field off a left-handed pitcher with seven years of MLB experience had everyone feeling really good. That he followed that up with a single in a subsequent at-bat, and made a terrific sliding catch in center, only helped improve the vibes.
This off-season has been brutal. After re-signing Kyle Schwarber to an expensive free agent contract and grabbing Mitch Keller as a right-handed set-up man in the ‘pen, Dave Dombrowski’s winter of our discontent has permeated into the spring.
Sure, the Phillies won 96 games a year ago. Sure, they boat-raced the NL East by 13 games. It all feels hollow because they lost in four games to the Dodgers in the NLDS, another playoff series in which the same bats fell silent and the same relief pitchers gave up untimely hits in another early-round exit.
When you add in the failed pursuit of Bo Bichette in free agency, the Nick Castellanos drama and Bryce Harper’s anger at Dombrowski, it’s clear this team needs some things to go right down in Clearwater before the team breaks camp next month.
Crawford’s debut was a good start. Schwarber went deep in his first plate appearance of the spring. That was nice, too. As Phils fans, we need more.
We need Andrew Painter to look more like the young phenom who appeared to have a spot in the Phillies’ rotation earmarked ahead of the 2023 season before Tommy John surgery knocked him out for all of 2024 and caused him to be largely ineffective in 2025. A dominant Painter would do wonders for concerns about the sudden fragility of the starting rotation.
Speaking of that rotation, seeing Zack Wheeler up on the bump and throwing hard would be amazing. An effective Aaron Nola, looking to bounce back from a brutal 6.01 ERA in half a season, would be great, too. Castellanos’ replacement in right field, Adolis Garcia, could ease a lot of concerns by hitting a few meaningless bombs down in Florida. And hey, maybe someone pops up from out of the blue to make an impact, like right-handed outfielder Bryan de la Cruz or a minor league guy like Nick DeMartini. Maybe Aidan Miller, once his back heals, pushes for a big league spot sooner rather than later.
And wouldn’t it be nice to see the Phillies participating in the World Baseball Classic have some big moments? It could be quite the showcase for Harper, who one would believe is taking Dombrowski’s “elite” comments to heart by having a more impactful season that he did last year.
So, who will it be? Who will be the pleasant surprise the Phillies desperately need to change the narrative?