Amy Freeman brought her skinny son to Bishop Gorman’s campus more than three years ago with a purpose. They waited in Gino DiMaria’s office. It’s nestled inside a sprawling athletic training facility at the Las Vegas private school that grew into a sports powerhouse.
“Hey,” another coach told DiMaria, “you got somebody who wants to play baseball.”
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DiMaria eyed the kid. Usually, the players who came to Bishop Gorman were bigger. “All right,” DiMaria said, and he greeted them. The boy’s name was Justin Crawford. Freeman told DiMaria, the baseball coach, that her son was transferring. He was enrolled. Ready to go. And he plays baseball.
“I looked right at Justin,” DiMaria said. “And he’ll tell you the same story. The first thing I said, I go, ‘Are you good?’ Straight out. And he looked at me and smiled.”
Freeman interjected.
“Well,” she said, “he better be good because his dad played in the MLB.”
“Really?” DiMaria said. “Who’s his dad?”
This was the MLB Draft defined by famous fathers. Jackson Holliday, son of Matt, was the No. 1 pick. Druw Jones, son of Andruw, was No. 2. And Justin, Carl Crawford’s son, went 17th to the Phillies. He was born before the 2004 season, Carl’s first All-Star season, and he was old enough to learn what it was like to be in big-league clubhouses by the time Carl’s career ended in 2016. He saw enough of his dad’s at-bats to want to mimic the sweet swing.
“When I was younger, I used to, and it used to get on my mom’s nerves so much because I would go up there striking out trying to hit exactly like him,” Justin, 18, said. “But I think once I finally grew out of that, then I kind of just started doing my own thing.”
The Phillies did not draft Crawford, who is talented but a substantial project for a player-development program that is not known for its hitting instruction, because his dad was a successful major leaguer. It helps because bloodlines are important. Justin is 6-foot-3 and 175 pounds. His speed is regarded as his best skill, but evaluators see lots of projection in his body as he matures. Whether that translates into big-league talent will require years to know.
“I really don’t like to do comparisons because I don’t think they’re very fair to, obviously, the younger player,” said Brian Barber, the Phillies’ director of amateur scouting. “But the biggest comparison would be they both run really fast. Really, beyond that, I think there are a lot of differences to their games.
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“And obviously, no offense to Carl, who was a superstar in the major leagues for a long time, but I would think Justin is a lot more advanced defensively than Carl was at that time. Carl was probably more physical than Justin is at this point (whereas) Justin will need to come in and work on getting a little bit bigger and stronger. As an 18-year-old, we’re absolutely not concerned about that whatsoever.”
Carl Crawford, now a record producer, lived in Houston while Justin and his sister were in Las Vegas with Freeman. “His mom has done one hell of a job,” DiMaria said. “She’s an awesome lady.” Carl was involved from afar. DiMaria said Carl came to three or four games at Bishop Gorman. He told DiMaria that he did his homework on the program and the coach.
“They all told to me send him to Gorman because he’ll get the discipline, the structure, and he’ll learn how to play the game the right way,” Carl told DiMaria three years ago. His response? “Well, I’m glad you did.”
Before Justin took batting practice at Bishop Gorman that fall of his sophomore year, DiMaria heard the chatter. “Everybody,” he said, “was like, ‘Oh, this is Carl’s kid.’ I go, ‘But it’s Carl’s kid. It’s not Carl.’ He’s this skinny kid.” Then he took some swings. Then he ran what DiMaria said was a 6.19-second 60-yard dash. “Oh my God,” DiMaria said, “this kid is going to be unreal.” He kept growing. He committed to play baseball at LSU.
“Everybody says, ‘Well, he’s still skinny,’ DiMaria said. “Well, if you actually look at him, he’s gained muscle. He just keeps growing upwards. But it hasn’t affected his swing and it hasn’t affected the way he runs. He’s blazing fast. He can run everything down. He kicks into a second gear.”
Round 1️⃣, Pick 1️⃣7️⃣
Congrats to Justin Crawford (@Justincrawfordd) on getting selected No. 17 overall by the Philadelphia @Phillies in the 2022 MLB Draft! #DudeAlert@gormanbaseball (NV) 2022@FiveToolNV / #MLBDraft pic.twitter.com/XJRVLVQFAG
— Five Tool Baseball (@FiveTool) July 18, 2022
Crawford, once he signs his first professional contract, will instantly become one of the best hitting prospects in a pitching-heavy Phillies system. The slot value for the 17th pick is $3,792,800, and Crawford is expected to sign for somewhere at or near that figure. The Phillies, earlier in the last decade, drafted athletic prep players like Crawford and failed to develop many of them. It’s a high-risk, high-reward style of pick — just as the club’s previous two first-round selections of Mick Abel and Andrew Painter were. Under Barber, they are not afraid to bet big.
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“I wouldn’t describe him as raw in any way, to be honest with you,” Barber said. “I think the bat is advanced. And he’s hit against high-level competition throughout the summer.”
There are questions about how much power he’ll tap into, although the Phillies view him as a “no-doubt center fielder.”
“The power is developing, it would probably be the last thing for him to come,” Barber said. “And it’s going to require him to put in work as far as getting stronger. I’ve been able to speak to Justin personally and talk to him at the combine and he knows that’s one of his priorities when he gets into pro baseball right away.”
Crawford said he was excited to be exposed to a professional strength program; the Phillies have made it a priority to re-evaluate how they prepare the youngest players in the organization before they even step onto a field for their pro debuts. He will be one of the first tests of that under farm director Preston Mattingly.
Crawford’s best asset is one the Phillies hope will age well as he adds strength.
“I would say my speed, obviously, and just my all-around awareness of the game,” Crawford said. “I think I have a high IQ for the game, and I take a lot of pride in that. I thank my dad a lot for that because I’ve kind of just got that just from growing up with him.”
DiMaria said Crawford will have to make some adjustments to handle higher velocity. “I told scouts they have not even seen his best potential yet,” DiMaria said. “He’s got so much more. A lot of kids his age peak already. He hasn’t even come close to his full potential. He’s going to be dangerous. He’s really, really that good.” What makes him say that? Crawford, in the coach’s mind, did special things with so much attention on him because of his last name.
“If a pitcher got him, he always came back to the dugout,” DiMaria said. “And he’d come right by me and the coaches and says, ‘I got him. That will never happen again.’ He always said that, and the next time he got up, he would always find a way to get a hit.
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“It’s his IQ, that’s what it is. He gets it. He knows what he has to do.”
— The Athletic’s Alec Lewis contributed to this report.
(Photo: Abbie Parr / Associated Press)
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