Philadelphia Phillies Boast Fastest Player Among MLB’s Top-Ranked Prospects

Many things about Justin Crawford’s game stand out to Major League scouts. Those are the qualities that led the Philadelphia Phillies to select him the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft.
So far, he’s been as advertised, especially considering he is the son of former MLB star Carl Crawford.
In three minor-league seasons he’s slashed .316/.371/.442/.813 with 12 home runs and 130 RBI. He’s reached Double-A Reading, and he has his eye on reaching Triple-A Lehigh Valley sometime in 2025. He’s already appeared in the MLB Futures Game twice.
But the Phillies won’t be paying him big money to hit home runs once he gets to the Majors. They’ll want his speed, most likely patrolling center field at Citizens Bank Park.
In fact, it is his speed that catches the eyes of everyone evaluating talent.
MLB Pipeline released its newest Top 100 prospects late last week and Crawford made the list, coming in at No. 64. But Pipeline also released another list — the players that had the highest-rated tool among all Top 100 prospects.
Crawford made that list. His speed grades out at 75, which is nearly perfect on the 20-80 scouting scale.
That speed is no more apparent than when Crawford is on the basepaths. He has scored 158 runs in 213 minor-league games. But he’s perhaps the best thief in minor league baseball in the past two years.
In 213 games he has 99 stolen bases. In 2023 he had 47 stolen bases and last season he had 42 stolen bases.
Pipeline pointed out that his 89 steals is 17th in minor league baseball in the last two years and that no player in the Top 100 had more than 66 in that span.
For comparison, the Phillies’ best current base stealer is probably shortstop Trea Turner, who has swiped 279 bases in his career. But he’s never recorded more than 46 stolen bases in a single season, though he has led the NL twice in stolen bases.
When Crawford reaches the Majors, he’s a prime candidate to become one of the best base stealers in the game.
Three other Phillies prospects were named among Pipeline’s Top 100 — pitcher Andrew Painter was ranked No. 8, shortstop Aidan Miller was ranked No. 27 and catcher Eduardo Tait was ranked No. 93.
Painter and Miller were named among the Top 100 prospects as released by Baseball America last week.