Good Signs From Three Question Mark Players

Adolis Garcia | 2024-2025

Season	WAR	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
2024	0.3	154	637	580	68	130	27	0	25	85	11	5	45	177	.224	.284	.400	.684	98
2025	2.7	135	547	507	58	115	28	0	19	75	13	4	28	135	.227	.271	.394	.665	93

Garcia set to work with Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long on a fairly extensive list of issues. First, Garcia needed to stop chasing pitches out of the strike zone, but when the pitch is in the zone, stay aggressive. From there came the mechanical changes. Long got Garcia, who by all reports has been a willing student, to not wrap his hands as much as they were in the past. For a model, Long used Kyle Schwarber. The result is that the bat head isn’t as tilted toward the pitcher as much. The goal was to get Garcia looser at the plate and get the bat through the zone quicker.

On Tuesday, Garcia had four hits, including his first home run of the spring. That day alone raised his average from .192 to .300, showing why you can’t look just at stats in Spring Training. What you can look at now is that Garcia has also drawn six walks this spring while striking out just twice. In other words, it took a while, but it’s working.

Who knows what we’re going to get from Andrew Painter or Justin Crawford?

In what was possibly his final tune-up for the season, Andrew Painter had another strong outing: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, 52 pitches / 34 strikes.

Andrew Painter’s Spring Training stats

IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	WHIP	AVG	#P – K
11.2	7	3	1	2	8	0.77	.171	166-107

Remember that Painter’s main issue was command. He has four strikeouts for every walk and has a 65-percent strike rate this spring. His pitches also flattened out last season when he was at Lehigh Valley. That issue has also resolved itself and he averaged 0.8 home runs this spring. Again, spring stats can bounce like a Superball dropped from an airplane, but the overall numbers — and the eye test — seem to point to Painter being able to pitch at the next level and join the Phillies rotation.

As for Crawford, he spent the offseason working on lowering his hands in his batting stance. The thought was that would help him lower his groundball rate, or at least get him to hit the ball harder on the ground rather than having more of a chopping motion that drives the ball into the ground and results in weak groundballs. While his spring numbers aren’t great – .244/.295/.317/.612 – the shape of his swing looks more big-league ready.

Crawford’s speed is showing itself this spring. Against the Yankees Saturday, Crawford singled and stole a base, allowing him to score on a single by Dylan Moore. In his final at-bat, Crawford hit a grounder to third and reached on a throwing error by Roderick Arias, who was obviously aware of Crawford’s speed and rushed the throw. Crawford went to second on a single by Edmundo Sosa and scored on two fielder’s choice groundballs. The 22-year-old has the ability to change innings even when he does hit the ball on the ground, making him a different kind of offensive weapon.

Fans were also concerned with Crawford’s defensive play in center field, but playing in Florida where wind and tough skies can make even Gold Glove outfielders look foolish at times, Crawford has played well. He committed his first error of the spring against Detroit on Monday. Earlier in the month he picked up his first outfield assist of the spring.

For now, it appears that three big question marks that the Phillies had coming into Spring Training have gone a long way toward erasing the questions. We’ll know before long how all of this translates into the regular season.

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