Crawford injured, replaced in Arizona Fall League by Stankiewicz

Top Phillies prospect J.P. Crawford will miss the remainder of the Arizona Fall League season after suffering a small tear in his left thumb, as first reported by CSN’s Jim Salisbury.

Crawford, who was the Phillies top draft selection in 2013 (16th overall), had gone 3-for-20 (.150 average) in five games with Glendale in the AFL this month.

The 20-year-old shortstop missed time early in the 2015 season with an oblique strain.

In a season split between Class A Advanced Clearwater and Double-A Reading, the lefty batting Crawford sported a combined .288 batting average with a .793 OPS in 107 regular season games.  He was also named a mid-season All-Star in the Eastern League with Reading and competed in the MLB All-Star Futures Game.

The ailment for Crawford does not require surgery and he is expected to be healthy for spring training.

Replacing Crawford with the Glendale Desert Dogs will be infielder Drew Stankiewicz, who was an 11th round draft pick by the Phillies out of Arizona State University in 2014.

The 22-year-old lefty spent time during the 2015 regular season with Clearwater and Class A Lakewood, posting a .283/.345/.368 slash line in 99 games.  “Stankie”, as he’s referred to by teammates, splits his time on defense between shortstop and second base.

The son of former big league player and minor league coach Andy Stankiewicz, Drew attended Arizona Fall League games as a child.

“My excitement level is great,” Stankiewicz expressed on Friday.  “I remember watching these games when my dad was a coach back when I was little and (I) always wanted to play here.”

The call to fill the void on the Glendale roster came as a surprise for Stankiewicz, but he wasn’t just sitting at home on the couch getting rusty.  He was already set to stay active on the diamond this autumn.

“The call came as a surprise because I was going to work out with Team USA and literally checking in and 10 minutes later I had to return all the stuff because of me playing here. I am ready for this opportunity as I have been working out regularly with my off-season program,” the five-foot-nine 160-pounder said.

Stankiewicz understands the call for him to tackle this challenge was under less than ideal circumstances with a teammate getting hurt, but he’s looking forward to the chance to play among some of the top prospects in baseball.

“I am honestly just really happy about my opportunity to play right now.  Worked out great me being here in the off-season anyway.  And (I’m) just looking to make the best of this opportunity and play hard.”