Brandon Crawford on the end of his Giants tenure: 'I was not wanted back' (2024)

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It was far too quiet in the St. Louis Cardinals spring clubhouse Thursday morning. So Brandon Crawford used his phone to scan for Bluetooth devices. He correctly guessed which one connected to the clubhouse sound system. And he cranked up a playlist.

Different uniform. Same Crawford.

It took three days after arriving in Jupiter, Fla., for Crawford to resume his accustomed duties as clubhouse DJ. It’ll take a lot longer for many folks to adjust to the jarring sight of Crawford wearing Cardinals red from headband to cleats. (Yes, his extensive “show shoes” collection is due for an expansion.)

It’s rare when a player spends so much time with one organization that you cannot imagine them wearing any other uniform. Crawford’s identity as a San Francisco Giant was as deep and durable as they come: the 12 consecutive Opening Day starts; the Gold Gloves and the Silver Slugger award; the all-time franchise record for games played at shortstop; his role in winning two World Series championships. Beyond that, Crawford’s ties to the Giants began from the time he could toddle. His mother, Lynn, has the Photo Day evidence from Candlestick Park to prove it.

It was difficult for Crawford to imagine setting aside his lifelong Giants identity and playing for any other franchise. He knows it’s also been difficult for many Giants fans to accept this week’s news of his major-league contract with the Cardinals. So as he settled into his new spring training environs in Florida, he wanted to give those fans an explanation.

In a phone interview with The Athletic, he wanted to make clear that leaving the Giants wasn’t his preference or his decision.

“The bottom line is I was not wanted back by the one person whose (opinion) matters,” said Crawford, referring to Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. “So I went with a team that gave me a major-league contract. The Cardinals have a long history and tradition. I’ve admired and respected the way the Cardinals have played throughout my career and the way the organization has been run.

“But the bottom line is I wanted to come back to the Giants. That was obviously the ideal situation for me.”

Crawford said he made his feelings known to Zaidi in November when the club president detoured from the GM meetings in Scottsdale, Ariz., and suggested an offsite face-to-face meeting. Crawford told Zaidi he was not seeking to reclaim his role as the everyday shortstop. He expressed a willingness to play multiple positions while mentoring Giants rookie shortstop Marco Luciano and other young infielders. He said he would be happy in a support role while spending another season making baseball memories for his four oldest children, ages 5 to 11, all of whom had cajoled him into postponing retirement.

“I had no playing time expectations,” Crawford said. “Just help out and be a veteran mentor type for Luciano, Casey Schmitt, (Tyler) Fitzgerald, continue being that guy for Thairo (Estrada), whoever else I could help out in that capacity. That’s what I came to him with.”

Crawford recalled Zaidi’s reception as tepid to the point that he wondered whether it was personal. Yet he held onto hopes of returning when the offseason lurched into 2024 and the Giants hadn’t added the infield depth they had identified publicly as a roster need. Then the Cardinals made their $2 million guaranteed offer last week and Crawford’s agent, Joel Wolfe, extended Zaidi one final opportunity.

“I was told I could earn the last spot on the roster like anyone else could as a non-roster invitee,” Crawford said. “That was the nail in the coffin.”

Zaidi, reached by phone, said it would be inappropriate to comment on what was said during his private conversation with Crawford in November. But he pushed back on any implication that personal animosity might have played a part in the decision to move forward without him.

“He’s been one of our most popular and important players and we negotiated a two-year extension with him (after his banner 2021 season) which everyone was really happy with,” Zaidi said. “So any notion there was a concern about coexistence just doesn’t match the reality that we’ve both been here for the last five seasons and we’ve had some really great moments. He’s been an important member of this team and a real leader in the clubhouse as well.”

And what about Crawford’s claim that he was willing to play in a reduced, versatile role?

“That assessment is 100 percent fair,” Zaidi said. “He had interest in coming back and was open to a different role. The main thing we’ve discussed internally was the challenge of the fit because his status in the organization would actually make this supportive, mentorship role challenging for him, even with the best of intentions. I actually don’t question his intent or that he would do everything he could to mentor our young players and help bring them along. I just think we expect our younger players will have their ups and downs, as young players do, and having the greatest shortstop in franchise history on the bench … it was just going to create a dynamic where it was going to be harder for our young players to play with a margin of error.”

Crawford said he understood Zaidi’s line of thinking but disagreed that his presence would have made for an untenable situation.

“With the whole ‘Being over Luciano’s shoulder’ thing, I feel I could have made it very publicly apparent that wasn’t the case,” said Crawford, who turned 37 in January. “I don’t even want to be playing every day because physically I’m not sure I could do that anymore with how much I’ve been hurt the last couple years. To transition to a role player makes sense. So I feel I could have navigated around that.”

Zaidi’s secondary concern, which he expressed on Thursday, was that Crawford wouldn’t offer the versatility the Giants will require to round out a bench that is shaping up to include Wilmer Flores, Austin Slater, and a backup catcher.

“The last spot has to be someone who plays infield and outfield and can come off the bench and steal a base,” said Zaidi, who identified rookie Tyler Fitzgerald as a player in camp who matches that description.

Crawford said he was puzzled when Zaidi told him he didn’t have experience playing at infield positions other than shortstop, where he has been stationed exclusively except for a one-inning appearance on the mound. It was a statement Crawford found especially curious because prior to the 2023 season, the Giants were prepared to move Crawford off the shortstop position — without discussing it with him — until their $350 million agreement with Carlos Correa fizzled because of issues with his physical.

The lack of communication leading up to the Correa agreement wasn’t Crawford’s only misgiving over how last season transpired. He acknowledged that his final two seasons under former manager Gabe Kapler were “not very fun at all and not how I wanted to go out.”

“A lot of it was because of injuries and not playing well, but some of it was … the lack of communication, not playing for three straight days without a single word spoken to me about it,” Crawford continued. “It just wasn’t a very fun environment. I loved the players. We had a good clubhouse for the most part. But the way it went down wasn’t very fun.

“Thinking about my career in general, I would have been fine had I not gotten any offers. But at the same time, it wasn’t how I pictured the last couple years going. I just pictured having a little more fun. So that played a part (in wanting to keep playing).”

Crawford’s career uncertainty last September made for some awkwardness when the Giants turned their final regular-season series into a career sendoff. Crawford was non-committal at the time about whether he’d retire. But his laconic speech to the fans after the final regular-season game sent a wave of subliminal messages: he wasn’t convinced this was goodbye, either to the Giants organization or to Major League Baseball.

Because Crawford didn’t know last season would mark the end for him in San Francisco, he held back expressing his full slate of acknowledgments to those who made his Giants career possible. He wanted to express those thoughts now. So he began our phone interview by thanking Giants ownership, former GMs Brian Sabean and Bobby Evans, as well as former scouting director John Barr for drafting him. He thanked the front office for believing in him and extending his contract twice. He thanked the coaching staffs and training room staffs and kitchen staffs and weight room staffs for their professionalism. He thanked all his former teammates, many of whom have become friends for life. And he thanked Giants fans for consistently supporting him throughout his career and for “being the best fans in baseball.”

Crawford had to be reminded: Cardinals fans really enjoy referring to themselves as the best fans in baseball.

“Well, all I know is the Giants fans were the best fans in baseball from 2011 to 2023,” Crawford said. “Actually, also before 2011, because that’s when I was an actual Giants fan.”

When the Cardinals announced Crawford’s signing, GM John Mozeliak clarified that Masyn Winn, a 21-year-old rookie with 37 games of major-league experience, would remain the team’s everyday shortstop. Crawford was brought on board to support Winn, not to compete with him.

The shortstop situation in Giants camp is different. Luciano is another 22-year-old prospect who saw brief action in his first call-up last season, but he has been told that he is part of an open competition this spring with Fitzgerald and Casey Schmitt. The competition also includes Nick Ahmed, a 33-year-old pure shortstop and two-time Gold Glove Award winner whom the Arizona Diamondbacks released last season.

The Giants brought Ahmed to camp on Monday — the same day Crawford jetted to join the Cardinals in Florida. The difference is that Ahmed’s deal is a non-roster contract with no obligations or promises.

Luciano, who was set back early in camp with a mild hamstring issue, made his exhibition debut on Thursday against Arizona at Salt River Fields. In the first inning, he made an errant throw that cost Logan Webb a pair of unearned runs in a 2-1 loss.

Giants manager Bob Melvin has watched Luciano in drills but said he still has a lot to learn about how the young shortstop plays the position at game speed. Other broad factors will influence the shortstop battle as well. If the Giants are feeling good about the length and production of their lineup in the waning days of spring, they might be more comfortable starting a glove-first shortstop like Ahmed, whom they can tuck in the No. 9 spot, then installing their best defensive infield behind opening-day starter Logan Webb and his groundball-inducing tendencies.

“We’re not 100 percent sure who’s going to start for us (at shortstop) at the beginning of the season,” Melvin said. “They’re all involved.”

All except the shortstop who has started the past dozen season openers. This opener will be the first time the Giants have begun a season with anyone other than Crawford at short since Miguel Tejada in 2011.

The playlists sounded a lot different back then.

(Top photo: Peter Joneleit / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)