Phillies news & links: J.P. Crawford is here!!!

Let’s go back in time to July. J.P. Crawford had just come off the disabled list after majorly struggling for April, May, and most of June. Baseball America had dropped him in their rankings significantly due to his continuing struggles dating all the way back to 2016. Then he tweeted this.

AND EVERYTHING CHANGED FOREVER.

Okay, maybe not. But we’ll always look back at that as the turning point for him. And looking at the replies to that tweet, at the time it made me feel less insane for still having an unwavering faith in our young future shortstop. Crawford doubters weren’t hard to come by, and they were loudly and insistently crapping on him for not automatically and immediately adjusting to a higher level of pitching. But there were a lot of people who still had faith in him. And for Crawford, youth, persistence, hard work, and God-given talent paid off, because...

J.P. CRAWFORD IS BEING PROMOTED TO THE PHILLIES

::choirs of heavenly angels sing::

This is the day we’ve been waiting for. It came a little later than we expected, but he’s going to be worth it. And if there’s one thing Crawford has proven, it’s this: be patient with him, and your patience will be rewarded. He’ll need time to adjust to the majors — both now and next season — and we should be willing to give it to him.

I went on the Felske Files podcast with John Stolnis and Justin Klugh last night to talk about Crawford, and you can listen to that here. And coincidentally, Ethan Witte wrote about something I talked about a LOT on the podcast: Pete Mackanin should play the kids, or subject himself to THE WRATH OF LIZ. (He didn’t actually write about that last part, that’s just me. But that doesn’t make it any less true.)

SERIOUSLY THIS IS SO EXCITING, THIS IS WHAT WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!

J.P. Crawford is very happy about being promoted to the Phillies

Duh, right? Of course he is.

He had more to say about his year in Triple-A, from Tom Housenick’s column about the call-up.

"No one likes to struggle," he said. "But I did not give up. My dad and mom taught me way better than that. I fought through it and now I’m here.

"I never struggled like that, but fortunately I had good coaching staff and a great, great clubhouse. They kept my mind off it and I just played baseball."

And speaking of family...

LITERAL TEARS ARE HAPPENING TO ME, TOO.

Let’s get to know J.P. Crawford

Our dear, dear friend Chris Jones has dedicated his life to chronicling the Phillies through the medium of the gif, and once he’d gotten himself under control after yesterday’s Crawford news, he used his otherworldly talents to show the world a little bit of J.P.’s talent.

And then he retweeted some Crawford gems from earlier this season.

It was so appropriate he did this on Labor Day, a day that is meant to celebrate workers everywhere. Because Chris did some work. Thank you, Chris!

Nick Williams got his first career stolen base

Now for a little non-J.P. Crawford news.

This team is going to be exciting next year, guys. It’ll be the first full year in the majors for many of them, so we’ll have to be patient and adjust our expectations. But it’s going to be exciting and fun. This is the team we’ve been waiting for!

GUYS J.P. CRAWFORD IS GOING TO BE HERE!!!!!!!!