I am not ready to knight Crawford as the next Cal Ripken Jr. or Jimmy Rollins. He has only hit well in AAA the last couple of months. I am optimistic, however that he can become the player, the team envisioned when they drafted him number one.
Franco did hit 25 homers and bat .255 last year and his sophomore season gave us all hope he was the real deal. He is only 24. But at this point the Phillies have to see who they have. Crawford can play SS, 2B or 3B. Galvis can play SS, 2B or 3B and I guess now the OF. Franco can play 1B or 3B. Hernandez can play 2B and in a pinch be a backup SS/3B. So they see who are the best three out of those four and plug them in. Flexibility is a good thing. Crawford's first full season in the Majors as a backup at all three positions isn't the end of the world. I have a feeling when his time comes, he would be comfortable at any of those three spots.
Kingery will start at AA and depending on this experiment, I hope will play and stay at the position he will be asked to play in the Majors before his call up.
Does Hoskins stay in LF? Then you have Franco and Joseph to look at at 1B. John Kruk played LF and 1B for his first few seasons and did ok. I think Hoskins beats both Joseph and Franco. But will they have three healthy productive outfielders who can stay on the field in 2018?
Again this is all about flexibility and one thing we learned this year when guys like Pedro Florimon are your starting CF and Mark Leiter Jr. and Jake Thompson get so many starts, this team needs flexibility.
I hope they keep Galvis at SS and Crawford pushes Franco out at third. He could move to SS later. Or I hope Crawford pushes Franco to be the hitter we had hoped and Crawford is a super sub.
But to say get rid of Galvis for Crawford is insane, especially given when both of them can play well at multiple positions.
