For now, fans hoping to see outfielder Justin Crawford on the field for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs in their final homestand of the season will have to keep hoping. Crawford and Otto Kemp collided while both were chasing a fly ball down the third base line with Crawford coming from his left field spot and Kemp coming out from third base. The collision sent both to the ground with Crawford getting the worse end of the deal. The replay appeared to show Kemp’s shoulder going into Crawford’s mouth area. When Crawford walked off the field trainers were holding a bloody towel to his mouth as he immediately left the field and was taken to the clubhouse for further evaluation.

The evaluation showed that Crawford had chipped at least two teeth and later showed that he had suffered a concussion. The Phillies top offensive prospect did not play last week with the team on their trip to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the geographically closest rival to Lehigh Valley.

While it is not anticipated that Crawford will play this week in the team’s final homestand against the Syracuse Mets, there has not been any definitive announcement from the team.

At the time of the injury, Crawford was hitting 7-47-.334/,411.432 with 46 stolen bases in 112 games with the IronPigs. With 508 plate appearances (PA), Crawford easily qualifies for the batting title in the International League (IL) and coming into the final week of the season is leading the league with Indianapolis’ Nick Solak in second place with a .329 average. Crawford will easily set the new mark for highest batting average in a season, surpassing Ali Castillo‘s .316 average in 2019 and Mitch Walding‘s franchise mark for OBP, set at .390 back in 2018.

Crawford’s mark of 88 runs scored is still tops in the IL, but Jonathon Long is currently at 86 runs scored and has a solid shot at surpassing Crawford. Crawford was also close to setting the team record for runs in a season when he went down with the injury as he is just two shy of the 90 runs scored by Weston Wilson in 2023. Another mark that Crawford was closing in on is the team record for stolen bases. With his 46 stolen bases, Crawford was hoping to become the first IronPigs player to steal 50 bases in a season, which would have made him the team’s single season leader surpassing Rich Thompson (48) and his mark set back in 2011. Crawford has now slipped to third in the IL in stolen bases behind leader Nashville’s Jared Olivia (53) and Jacksonville’s Jacob Marsee (47).

Rafael Lantigua (82) and Gabriel Rincones Jr. (80) have an outside shot at setting the team record for runs scored in a season, but they would need a big week to do so. Oscar Mercado also has long odds on catching Thompson’s stolen base mark as the ‘Pigs outfielder comes into the week with 40 stolen bases.