December 16, 2025
Nathan Ray Seebeck/Imagn Images
The Phillies have a plan for Justin Crawford. He just needs to do his part.
Rob Thomson said he called Justin Crawford on Monday night, before the Phillies' one-year deal with free-agent outfielder Adolis García was made official.
For the Phillies manager, it was important to.
"I knew that he was gonna hear about the Adolis deal, and being a young kid, I just wanted to reiterate the fact that he's coming into camp to win a job," Thomson explained. "Signing Adolis does not affect Justin at all."
They're both part of the same picture, actually, but only as long as they earn their keep within it.
García, the 32-year-old right-handed bat, was officially introduced as a Phillie during a Zoom conference call with the local media on Tuesday, after word broke about his one-year, $10 million deal with the club through the 24 hours prior.
Thomson, along with Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, joined him on the call to field questions about how exactly they intend to fit García into the lineup.
They have a pretty straightforward plan.
García is coming in to be the everyday right fielder, meant to replace the inevitably departing Nick Castellanos. Brandon Marsh will take up left, and then in center, there will be a clear opportunity for Crawford, the organization's top outfield prospect, to come and take the starting job in spring training.
Otto Kemp, Johan Rojas, and Gabriel Rincones Jr. will be looked toward as bench options, Dombrowski said.
The Phillies, after another playoff failure this past October, went into the winter anticipating a bit of an outfield shakeup – and fans for even longer than that.
They want it to be time now, but it will be on Crawford to make it so.
"If you're going to give Crawford an opportunity, you've got to give it to him," Dombrowski said. "That's where we are. We're gonna give him the opportunity to go out there and have a chance to play a lot.
"So basically, I think our outfield is pretty well set."
So long as the plan stays on track.
Adolis García comes to the Phillies looking to rediscover his 2023 form.
A big part of that hinges on García.
A two-time All-Star, and a Gold Glover and ALCS MVP during the Texas Rangers' 2023 run to the World Series, García's bat fell into decline ever since – dropping from an .836 OPS in 2023 down to .684 in 2024 then to .665 in 2025 – all while a high strikeout rate exacerbated the dropoff.
Dombrowski, though, spoke highly of the reports that his scouts turned in on the outfielder, and holds a belief that Kevin Long and the Phillies' hitting coaches will be able to work with him to get his swing "more under control."
"To me, it's a matter of not trying to do too much," Dombrowski said of García at the plate. "The tools are there, the ball jumps off his bat still, bat speed's still there, exit velocity is very good, so those are all things that we feel encouraged about."
And if it can all come together again, it would put an effective right-handed bat in the middle of the order to reinforce the Phillies' lefty-heavy heart of Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber.
"It all depends on performance and things like that, but I think that if Adolis does what he normally does, and he's just himself, I think he's one of those protector guys for those left-handed bats," Thomson said. "So where that is [in the lineup], I'm not really sure, because I'm not really sure right now where the top three guys are gonna line up. We'll figure it out, but I'm expecting really good things from Adolis."
Justin Crawford is being given the setup to take the Phillies' everyday center fielder job this spring.
Then the even bigger part of that hinges on Crawford.
The 17th overall pick by the Phillies in the 2022 draft, fans have been tracking his progression ever since, and with his move up to Triple-A Lehigh Valley last season, they've been waiting on that first chance for the big-league club to call him up to the Show.
The 21-year-old lefty bat slashed .334/.411/.452 across 112 games for the IronPigs last season, with seven homers, 23 doubles, four triples, and 46 stolen bases.
There have been concerns about the kind of contact he induces at the plate not translating well into the next level against major-league fielders, but he displays the speed, athleticism, and vision on both sides of the ball that can mix and meld into the true everyday center fielder that the Phillies have been missing ever since they broke out into annual postseason contention.
Crawford now represents the possible start of a youth movement that has been on the horizon for an aging Phillies club for a while now, too, which also includes top infield prospect Aidan Miller, and key farm arms Andrew Painter and Gage Wood, who each figure to be within reach of the majors over the next year.
Crawford could be the start of it all now this spring. The Phillies want him to be, but it'll come down to him to make it so.
"We think Justin's gonna be a good player," Dombrowski said. "But again, with young players, you have to give them the opportunity."
His chance is here now.
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