In his first two full seasons with the Dodgers, Crawford posted 5.4 WAR despite missing more than 100 games. In the 2013 postseason, in fact, he was the best hitter the team had — reaching base in all 10 games and posting an on-base plus slugging percentage of almost 1.000.
Included in his 13 hits were four home runs — two of which came in a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series. The game is more famous for Juan Uribe’s go-ahead home run in the eighth inning.
Off the field, there isn’t anything negative to say about Crawford. Despite the slumps and the speculation, he never rocked the boat. The veteran that he is, he always seemed to be a positive, calming force in a clubhouse already dealing with plenty.
But alas, despite a couple decent seasons and a good stretch in the postseason, the Crawford Era reached the beginning of the end last spring. Crawford saw his batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage all drop by around 30 points in 2015.
In addition, both his home run and stolen base totals were cut in half. Add into the equation the fact that his defense was … “weak,” and it was clear that Crawford’s days were numbered. The slump was only magnified by the fact that the Dodgers had a surplus of outfielders.
Aside from Andre Ethier and Yasiel Puig, the likes of Joc Pederson and Scott Schebler were in the pipeline, Scott Van Slyke was quietly producing in a reserve role, Kiké Hernandez was chomping at the bit, and Alex Guerrero was a name with cache at one point.
Basically, the Dodgers didn’t have room for an aging outfielder with a .304 on-base percentage, no power and below-average defense. The problem was, cutting someone due $20 million a year through 2017 wasn’t going to be easy.
And so, Crawford remained — until this week. After what was probably a long series of conversations, the Dodgers finally cut the cord.
After 320 games spread out over parts of four seasons, Carl Crawford’s time in Dodger blue is over with — and, unfortunately, it wasn’t a day too soon.
