Craw Q&A: Longest-tenured Giant talks odd offseason, MLB future originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
After Buster Posey retired, Brandon Crawford sometimes joked that — while Brandon Belt technically had been in the big leagues longer — Crawford really was the longest-tenured Giant because of how much time Belt had spent on the Injured List. This year, there’s no competition for Crawford. It’s actually not even close.
The second longest-tenured Giant is Austin Slater, who debuted in 2017 after Crawford already had won two World Series, two Gold Gloves and played more than 800 games for his hometown team. Change has come quickly at Oracle Park, and heading into his 13th season, Crawford is the last one standing from a familiar group of infielders.
Posey is now one of his bosses. Belt is a Toronto Blue Jay. Evan Longoria is an Arizona Diamondback, along with another close friend, Madison Bumgarner. Brian Sabean is back in New York and Bruce Bochy is back in a dugout, managing the Texas Rangers.
For all that is unrecognizable about the current Giants, one thing remains the same. On Opening Day, Crawford will jog out to shortstop for the team he grew up rooting for.
The Giants tried to change that over the offseason, pursuing Carlos Correa, which would have nudged Crawford to third. Of all of their mistakes over the winter, failing to adequately keep Crawford in the loop during all of that was near the very top, but in the end, Crawford remained at short, and he’s hopeful that a bounce-back season is coming.
Crawford turned 36 last month but has no plans to slow down. As he caught up on the phone Friday morning, he was driving to Scottsdale Stadium, ready to get one more workout and hitting session in before flying back to the Bay Area for the first FanFest in four years.
Here are his thoughts on what has changed for the Giants, that odd offseason, what his future holds and more:
Q: You’re headed to the facility right now, which is something you couldn’t do last offseason because of the lockout. How big of a difference is it to just have a normal offseason routine again?
Brandon Crawford: “I think it’s a huge difference just from a baseball standpoint. The weight lifting and conditioning and stuff like that, the facility might not have been quite as nice as what I was used to, but I was still able to get everything done last year from that standpoint. But baseball wise, it was really hard to be able to get on a field and take batting practice or do long…