Sunday sure felt like goodbye for Brandon Crawford, with standing ovations aplenty and a ninth inning curtain call to boot.
But Crawford, 36, hasn’t made any decisions about his next move. He has made clear he plans on waiting for the offseason to figure out his future.
The most decorated shortstop in franchise history played his 1,654th game in the Giants’ regular season finale — all in a Giant uniform. After the game, the Bay Area kid turned Bay Area icon hinted at what he and his family might have to mull over in the coming months.
“I mean, the main thing will be if I want it to come back and play baseball next year,” Crawford said at his locker.
“That would be probably No. 1. I don’t know. Talk with the family, see how they feel about everything and kind of go from there. From there, obviously, it’s opportunity to play.”
Crawford toughed through his 13th season, hitting the injured list multiple times and struggling when he was on the field. He finished with a career-low .194 batting average and his lowest OPS since his 66-game rookie cameo in 2011. He played only 92, again his lowest in a 162-game season since 2011.
“There were a lot of parts I didn’t enjoy, unfortunately, this year,” Crawford said. “But that’s baseball. You fail a lot in this game. Failing isn’t very fun. That’s probably partially why I haven’t made a decision yet. This year was far from how I pictured it going. Whether it was going on the IL or just not playing well, just not how I pictured to go out. So I mean, that’s definitely a factor.”
Crawford and his wife, Jalynne, are expecting their fifth kid this month. Their four children each threw out the ceremonial first pitches on Sunday, including an impressive back handspring from Jaydyn.
Given Crawford’s age and performance this season, it’s unclear if he’ll draw interest from around the league if he decides to keep playing. For the Giants, the team has a mandate to get younger and more athletic, so could turn over the shortstop position to top prospect Marco Luciano and Casey Schmitt, who homered twice in the finale.
But Crawford is still revered in the Giants clubhouse, and the club could always use veteran leadership.
“It’s hard to bet against someone who has overcome bets his whole career,” acting manager Kai Correa said postgame. “‘I don’t know if you’re going to hit enough, I don’t know how long you’re going to play shortstop. Oh, you might be done.’ I think he might’ve been ‘done’ four times now, based on people’s evaluations. So I wouldn’t want to bet against someone like that.”