Brandon Crawford’s time as the San Francisco Giants’ shortstop nearly came to an end this summer.
Before San Francisco backed out of the Carlos Correa deal, they reportedly had informed Crawford — who has played more games at SS than any other player in Giants history — that he’d be moving to third base to make room for the team’s new star.
In the aftermath of that, Crawford said all the right things. But how did he really feel?
Now that Crawford will start the season at shortstop with Correa still in Minnesota, Tom Tolbert asked the Giants legend at FanFest on Saturday how he felt when Farhan Zaidi and Gabe Kapler called him 15 minutes after the Correa report, to tell him he’d be moving to third base.
Crawford gave two answers. The first was political.
“Carlos is a very good shortstop, a very good player,” Crawford said after a moment of uncomfortable silence. “I understood what we were trying to do, bringing him on board, but now he’s with the Twins so now I don’t have to worry about playing another position, I’m still a shortstop.”
Then, Crawford was more transparent.
“I’ve been a shortstop my whole career, so it definitely would have been a challenge to learn something else,” he continued. “I wouldn’t say I was ever excited about trying to learn a new position. At the same time it would have been a new challenge that would have been interesting to try. Definitely happy I’m still a shortstop.”
Crawford has played in the field for 1,525 games as a member of the Giants. For all 1,525 of those games, it was at the shortstop position. At least for one more season, that streak will continue.
“I would have been a little bit disappointed to end that streak,” Crawford concluded. “Definitely happy to keep it going this year.”
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Catch Tolbert & Copes weekdays from 2 – 6 p.m. on KNBR 104.5 / 680 and streaming live on KNBR.com.