For Phillies Prospect Justin Crawford, The Time Is Now

It may be time for the Phillies to call up prospect Justin Crawford. (Photo by Bailey O’Neill/Minor League Baseball via Getty Images)

Minor League Baseball via Getty

Come on, Phillies, it’s time to call the kid up. The kid being Justin Crawford, the 21-year-old who’s conquering Triple-A this season.

Crawford’s call-up would come off the heels of a trade-deadline performance that left Phillie-Land feeling a little blah. Yes, the Phils nabbed a checkmate closer (Jhoan Duran). But the other key piece that they acquired (Harrison Bader) was a letdown, especially after it looked like Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was shoving in all his chips after the Duran deal.

Philly fans craved Eugenio Suarez or Steven Kwan or even an underperforming toolshed like Luis Robert, but Bader it is — a 31-year-old journeyman outfielder who wields a slick glove but weak bat, although his offensive production has sprung up in 2025.

There’s someone else the fanbase is craving: Crawford, who has earned a promotion after slashing .325/.411/.426 with 33 stolen bases at Lehigh Valley this season. He hits lefties (.364); he hits righties (.316); and scouts say his breathtaking speed gives him future Gold Glove potential in centerfield.

Here’s the kid making dazzling catch/break-dancing move in spring training:

Publicly, Dombrowski has kept it noncommittal on Crawford, telling The Athletic on Thursday, “We think he’s ready to play at the big-league level. We could bring him up. If we do bring him up, he needs to play a lot. I’m not sure that we’re in a position to do that at this point today. But he’s not somebody that we would hesitate to bring up, if we decided that was the right thing to do.

“He, like (Andrew) Painter, like a lot of those youngsters, they can use more development time. It will never hurt them… But he’s also in a position where we think he’s ready to do that when called upon.”

Former Phillies GM and current broadcaster Ruben Amaro said on The Phillies Show that dropped Friday that he had expected Crawford to be on the team by August 1, saying, “I thought for sure that Crawford would be in the big leagues playing everyday in centerfield.”

Amaro predicts Crawford’s call-up is imminent. “He will be in centerfield, and (Brandon) Marsh and Bader are going to platoon in left, and (Nick) Castellanos will be in right… And I think that’s the way it’s going to go, and sometime soon,” Amaro added

The casualties of Bader’s arrival and Crawford’s promotion will be Max Kepler and Johan Rojas. Kepler will probably get released (see Whit Merrifield, 2024) and Rojas, who still has options, will get sent to Lehigh Valley.

Bader alone isn’t a massive upgrade but pairing his arrival with Crawford’s promotion would create a buzz. It would also give hope that the outfield’s offense could see incremental gains in both left and center, which wouldn’t be hard to do considering how feeble Kepler (.203/.297/.357) and Rojas (.224/.280/.289) have been this year.

Calling up Crawford could also provide a much-needed offensive spark, along with providing a youthful exuberance, which would spice up a team packed with businesslike veterans. And the only way to find out is for the Phillies to call the kid up.