Seldom-seen Brandon Crawford having a positive influence in Cardinals’ clubhouse
Watching Brandon Crawford in the St. Louis Cardinals dugout was a clear demonstration of the vision he had in mind for his season.
Upon arriving in Florida after signing a free agent deal with a new team for the first time in his career, he explained to the gathered media that it was important to him that his five children – four, really, one is an infant – get a chance to see him play and really remember it.
All seven members of the immediate Crawford family gathered on the bench in the home dugout Saturday afternoon and smiled broadly for a photo. They even got the baby to look in the right direction.
Is Crawford, then, confident he made the right choice when he decided to play this year?
“I think it would be hard to answer that fully right now,” he said. “But, I mean, seeing them out here and having fun and shagging [batting practice] with me out in center field? Yeah, that’s the kind of stuff that makes the struggles through the first couple months worth it.”
Those struggles have been substantial in the season’s early going. Crawford had just three hits in his first 31 at bats, paired with three walks and 12 strikeouts. At shortstop, where he’s filled in from time to time for Masyn Winn, he’s recorded -4 outs above average in just 77 defensive innings.
Following a fourth place finish in MVP voting in 2021, Crawford turned in a .652 OPS in 2022 and a .587 mark last year. After 13 seasons with the San Francisco Giants, the only team he’d ever known as well as the team he grew up rooting for in the Bay Area, they opted not to bring him back even on a minor league deal, turning instead to former Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed as a backup infielder.
Within 48 hours of San Francisco reaching an agreement with Ahmed, and simultaneous to Winn missing out on some spring training reps with a sore back, the Cardinals offered Crawford a $2 million big-league deal, vaulting him onto the roster and into an entirely unfamiliar and foreign world.
“Most of them are pretty obvious,” Crawford said when asked about the biggest differences in transitioning from San Francisco to St. Louis. “And then obviously playing time is much different from previous years.”
Called up over Memorial Day weekend in 2011, Crawford immediately took over as the Giants’ starting shortstop and held that spot for thirteen years, save for two months in his rookie season in which trade deadline acquisition Orlando Cabrera held down the fort. He played at least 143 games every year from 2012 through 2019, winning three Gold Gloves and two World Series championships.
Only 33 players across the league racked up more plate appearances than Crawford over that span. Performing every day, and at a position as demanding as shortstop, became an essential part of his routine, and now he’s left learning something else entirely.
“I knew coming in that I wasn’t going to be the starter and that playing time was going to be a lot more limited than I was used to,” he said. “Fortunately for us, Masyn’s gotten off to a really great start. I mean, one of the better shortstops really in the league right now. That’s kind of limited my playing time probably even more. I’m happy to see it. He’s helped us out a lot. Arguably one of our best players during the first couple months of the season.”
In his major league career before this season, 31 plate appearances would represent the work of a not particularly busy week. Now, for Crawford, that’s two months, and fighting through a tough stretch simply isn’t an option.
“Fortunately, my swing has felt a lot better,” he said. “I’ve felt like I’m in a much better place really since the month started…I felt like I was kind of fighting myself all of April, where it was like, I already know my swing doesn’t feel right, but then I’m also facing big league pitching once a week.
“It’s tough, especially when my swing doesn’t even feel right in batting practice. That was obviously tough, and this month I’ve felt a lot better.”
Asked whether his shortened spring was part of the issue, Crawford cracked a wry grin and said, “I’m sure that having 11 at bats going into the season didn’t affect me at all.” He signed on February 27 and didn’t appear in a game until March 9, and even then in limited duty as he worked himself into playing shape.
All the while, he’s continued to be a positive influence in the clubhouse and a valuable sounding board for teammates – in more ways than one. He quickly assumed his familiar role of clubhouse DJ, and his postgame victory mixes have injected the right amount of energy into a clubhouse in desperate need of some after a dreary last season.
Whether this is Crawford’s last season remains to be seen. It’s certainly been his strangest, and he still sees a path to make a mark where it counts.
“Hopefully going forward, I continue to feel good about my swing and good about the at bats,” he said, “and contribute a little bit more than I have been so far, at least on the field.”
