Crawford discusses two-way path with Giants

This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado’s Giants Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Giants two-way prospect Reggie Crawford took advantage of Single-A San Jose’s day off on Monday to make a quick visit to Oracle Park, where he was spotted taking in batting practice alongside his uncle, Frank Vernusky.

Sporting a gray sweatshirt from the 2007 All-Star Game in San Francisco, Crawford took some time to chat about his path with the Giants, who selected the two-way standout with the 30th overall pick of the 2022 Draft. Crawford missed his junior season at UConn after undergoing Tommy John surgery, but he’s back on the mound and at the plate now that he’s healthy and in his first full professional season in the Giants’ organization.

“It feels great,” said Crawford, the Giants’ No. 9 prospect. “Obviously, it was a long road filled with ups and downs like everybody says. But it’s really good to be with a great group of guys in San Jose. It’s an unbelievable culture from the coaching staff down. … I’m just happy to be out there again.”

The Giants are being extra cautious with the 22-year-old Crawford, who is currently capped at two innings per pitching appearance. He’s thrown nine innings in his first five starts, giving up five runs on nine hits while striking out 15 and walking three. He’s also hitting once a week, going 4-for-16 with two doubles and a home run in four games at designated hitter.

Crawford, who bats and throws left-handed, played first base in college, but the Giants are limiting him to DH duties for now.

“Doing both is the baseball that I’ve known for my whole life,” Crawford said. “I know there’s still a ways to go. That’s the most exciting part because it’s a learning process, whether it’s on the mound or it’s at the plate.”

Even with the rise of Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani, two-way players remain relatively rare around baseball, creating additional challenges for Crawford as he tried to map out his workload with San Jose.

“We pretty much have to come up with our own plan,” Crawford said. “It’s pretty much our own schedule because obviously pitchers have their schedule, hitters have their schedule, but I can’t ultimately follow either/or on a daily basis because it’s not the same. We’re kind of rolling with the punches and learning week by week, day by day, what works and what doesn’t work. I feel like we’re really getting a good understanding of where we’re at and what it’s going to look like down the road.”

Crawford hopes he’ll be cleared to take more swings as he ramps up his hitting progression, especially after launching his first professional home run with San Jose earlier this month.

“It was finally nice to feel one of those again,” Crawford said, smiling. “Everybody was super pumped up for me. They gave me the silent treatment when I came into the dugout.”

Crawford is flashing impressive power on the mound as well, as he said his fastball has been sitting at 96-100 mph since coming back from the surgery. He’s currently in the process of expanding his arsenal, as he’s incorporated a changeup and is working to add more depth to his curveball and a few more ticks to his slider to better differentiate his two breaking balls.

“I was 75 percent fastball up until like two starts ago,” Crawford said. “There’s a point where they can just sell out for the fastball and if they get fooled on the offspeed, they know the chances are a fastball is coming and it’s going to be in that square. So that’s what we saw. Now it's all right, maybe we spin a little bit more. Maybe we kind of bait them with a fastball that’s a little bit more off the plate. Just stuff like that. That is very valuable. I’m not losing sleep if I give up a home run because I learn from that. That’s been really cool to see because I’d rather see what’s flawed and kind of tweak it from there.”