It’s a position he’s fielded as superbly as anyone else in the past decade, with two All-Star appearances and three Gold Gloves in his trophy case—not bad for someone scouts once thought was destined to move to second or third base.
It should come as no surprise that the guy whose best memory of his big league debut was his first ground ball—not his go-ahead, seventh-inning grand slam—has been a mainstay at the position for so long.
That’s a remarkable turnaround for a guy who, coming into ’21, had a career mark of just 93 and a previous career-high of 113, in ’15.
So how has Crawford reinvented himself at this stage in what was already an accomplished career? With age comes wisdom, and Crawford has improved his plate discipline as he settles into his mid-30s.
That improved plate discipline hasn’t made much of an impact on his swings and misses, but it’s greatly improved the quality of contact whenever Crawford puts the ball in play.
From 2018–20, Crawford’s 1.49 ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio was the 38th-highest among 164 qualified hitters, placing him in the company of David Fletcher and Ender Inciarte.
Once an all-fields type of hitter, Crawford has abruptly become pull-happy over the past two seasons, with nearly 50% of batted balls going to the right side.
Crawford faced a shift 23.9% of the time in 2018—then a career-high—and has since topped that mark in each subsequent season, reaching 43.0% this year.
There aren’t many familiar faces still around from San Francisco’s Even-Years dynasty, but Crawford is one of the holdovers—along with 34-year-old Buster Posey and 33-year-old Brandon Belt—enjoying a renaissance year of sorts.
Though he might have been considered safely below that top tier until very recently, he could vault himself into a much higher echelon whether he’s able to maintain something close to his current form at the plate.
If given the chance to sign elsewhere, it would surprise no one if Crawford opted to stick around with the team he grew up watching and put his new record even further out of reach.