Giants 2022 1st-round pick Reggie Crawford out 10-12 months after surgery

Minor medium setback for a major comeback.

The San Francisco Giants might spend some of their offseason resources searching for a left-handed arm to feature in the bullpen because, unfortunately, their 2025 relief plans just took a hit. On Thursday, the team announced that left-handed pitching prospect Reggie Crawford — their first-round pick in the 2022 MLB Draft — underwent surgery to repair the labrum in his left shoulder. The surgery, which was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache — a familiar name to anyone who closely follows athlete injuries — has an expected recovery time of 10-12 months.

Crawford, who is seemingly always jovial, optimistic, and motivated, posted a picture following the successful surgery.

It has been a highly unique journey for Crawford, after he was selected with the 30th pick just over two years ago. A two-way player at UConn who displayed tons of power as a first baseman, Crawford was scouted primarily as a pitcher … despite throwing a mere eight innings in college. He had mightily impressed in short stints in both the Cape Cod League and Futures Collegiate League, and while his bat was intriguing, outlets such as ESPN, Baseball America, and MLB Pipeline listed him solely as a pitcher in their pre-draft analysis.

The Giants gave him a chance to do both. They clearly prioritized his arm, occasionally referring to him as a pitcher who they also let hit. And that was all he got to do in his debut season in 2022, as he was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery suffered during college.

In 2023 he made his professional pitching debut, as his hitting was put on the back-burner (he had just 19 plate appearances). They exercised extreme caution with his arm (and eventually shut him down with a lower body injury), but the results were tantalizing: in 13 games between Low and High-A, Crawford struck out an outrageous 32 batters in just 19 innings.

Perhaps as a reward for his patience, perhaps to fuel his competitive fire, or perhaps to get a more honest assessment of his talent as a hitter, the Giants sent Crawford to the Arizona Fall League last year, to work exclusively as a first baseman and designated hitter. It went about as you would expect for an almost entirely-inexperienced hitter against upper-Minors competition, as Crawford hit just .138 and struck out in nearly half his plate appearances. When the Giants convened in Scottsdale for Spring Training in February, Crawford announced that he would be moving forward only as a pitcher, though the Giants admitted that they may revisit the hitting at some point down the road.

Crawford’s outrageous talent was again on display to start this year, showing why he entered the year with, according to Baseball America, the best fastball and the best slider in the system, all from the left side. He struck out 19 batters in just 9.2 innings with AA Richmond, then 11 batters in 8.2 innings with AAA Sacramento, while president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi openly admitted that the organization would love to see him in the Majors in the coming months.

But Crawford suffered what seemed like a mild injury in mid-June, and was placed on the 7-Day IL, with the Giants eventually revealing that it was soreness in his labrum. The hope was apparently that the ailment would heal naturally, but at some point it must have become clear to doctors that surgery was necessary. So Crawford had the shoulder repaired, and now seems likely to miss the entirety of the 2025 season.

It’s hard to know what Crawford’s future is. He is without a doubt one of the most talented players in the Minor Leagues … 99-mph fastballs and unhittable sliders from the left side don’t grow on trees, and Giants national crosschecker Brian Bridges told The Athletic that, “I was telling [Giants scouting director Michael Holmes] right before the draft I said, ‘Michael, you’re getting a freaking deal. There’s no shot in hell that he would be available with the 30th pick of the draft if he was playing this year. He could go first overall.’ And I really don’t think that was an exaggeration. He’s that much of a high-end talent.”

He has a superstar personality, with Holmes telling The Athletic, “He’ll win the city over when he gets to the big leagues.” And the results have been there — what player strikes out 30 batters in 18.1 innings in AA and AAA after beginning the year with just 19 professional innings pitched, total?

But the questions about his ability to stay on the field remain. This is now his second major arm surgery, to go with various lower body ailments. Between college, summer ball, and the Minors, he’s thrown a mere 53.2 innings in his five seasons since graduating high school (and he’s struck out 15.6 batters per nine innings in that time!). The pessimistic approach is that it’s unclear if he’ll ever be able to stay on the field, which is compounded by the fact that the Giants still hope he can be a starter someday, not just a reliever. The optimistic approach is that, if he can flash this much dominance when barely ever pitching, imagine how good he could be if he ever is healthy?

We unfortunately may have to wait until the 2026 season to get an answer to that question. Heal up, Reggie! Better days ahead.