Reginald David Crawford (born December 4, 2000) is an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

in the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

organization. He was drafted in the first round, 30th overall, by the Giants in the

2022 MLB draft The 2022 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on July 17–19, 2022, in Los Angeles. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was based on the reverse order of the 2021 M ...

High school

Crawford grew up in

Frackville, Pennsylvania Frackville is a borough in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States, incorporated in 1876. Today, the intersection of Interstate 81 and Pennsylvania State Route 61 is located near the borough, which is approximately northwest of Philadel ...

, and attended North Schuylkill High School, where he was a member of the baseball and swimming teams. In swimming, Crawford won the

Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc., also known by its acronymn PIAA, is one of the governing bodies of high school and middle school athletics for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the United States. The PIAA's main ...

state championship in the 50-yard

freestyle Freestyle may refer to: Brands * Reebok Freestyle, a women's athletic shoe * Ford Freestyle, an SUV automobile * Coca-Cola Freestyle, a vending machine * ICD Freestyle, a paintball marker * Abbott FreeStyle, a blood glucose monitor by Abbott La ...

with a record time of 20.45 seconds during his junior year. As a senior, he batted for a .482 average with eight home runs and 39 RBIs and had 4–2 record as a pitcher with 49 strikeouts in 33 innings pitched. Crawford was selected in the 37th round of the

2019 MLB Draft The 2019 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft was held from June 3 to 5, 2019. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2018 MLB season standings. In additi ...

by the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

, but did not sign with the team.

College

Crawford attended the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

and batted .365 with a home run and 16 RBIs and had one pitching appearance through 13 games of his true freshman season before it was cut short due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. After the season, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

for the

Westfield Starfires The Westfield Starfires are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Westfield, Massachusetts. They play in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL), a wood-bat league with a 56-game regular season comprising eight teams from northern Ver ...

of the

Futures Collegiate Baseball League The Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL) is an eight-team collegiate summer baseball league. It has four franchises in Massachusetts, two in Connecticut, and one each in New Hampshire and Vermont. Format The Futures League is a wood-bat ...

, and was named the league's Co-Top Pro Pitching Prospect at the end of the season after recording three saves and striking out 10 batters in innings over five appearances. As a sophomore, Crawford hit .295 and led the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and M ...

with 13 home runs and 62 RBIs while also posting a 1–1 record with one save and a 2.35 ERA and 17 strikeouts in innings pitched. He played summer baseball for the

Bourne Braves The Bourne Braves are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Bourne, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's West Division. The Braves play their home games at Doran Park on the c ...

of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

in 2021. Crawford was also selected to play for the Team USA Collegiate National Baseball Team. Crawford tore the

ulnar collateral ligament Ulnar collateral ligament (or UCL), may refer to: * Ulnar carpal collateral ligament * Ulnar collateral ligament of elbow joint * Ulnar collateral ligament of thumb The ulnar collateral ligament of the thumb runs along the ulnar side of the met ...

during a fall scrimmage against Rhode Island and had

Tommy John surgery Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, colloquially known as Tommy John surgery (TJS), is a surgical graft procedure where the ulnar collateral ligament in the medial elbow is replaced with either a tendon from elsewhere in the patient's bo ...

, causing him to miss his junior season. After the conclusion of the 2022 season, he announced that he would be entering the NCAA transfer portal and ultimately committed to transfer to

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

Professional career

The

selected Crawford in the first round, with the 30th overall selection, of the

2022 Major League Baseball draft The 2022 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on July 17–19, 2022, in Los Angeles. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was based on the reverse order of the 2021 ...

. He signed with the team on July 28, 2022, and received a $2.3 million signing bonus. He made his professional debut with the rookie–level

Arizona Complex League Giants The Arizona Complex League Giants are a professional baseball team competing as a Rookie-level affiliate of the San Francisco Giants in the Arizona Complex League of Minor League Baseball. The team plays its home games at Scottsdale Stadium in Sc ...

, hitting .158 in six games. In 2023, Crawford split the season between the Single–A

San Jose Giants The San Jose Giants are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Located in San Jose, California, the Giants play their home games at Excite Ballpark. Games San Jose Giants ga ...

and High–A

Eugene Emeralds The Eugene Emeralds (nicknamed the Ems) are a Minor League Baseball team in the northwest United States, based in Eugene, Oregon. The Emeralds are members of the Northwest League and are affiliated with the San Francisco Giants. Eugene plays their ...

. As a batter, he hit .235/.263/.529 with one home run and five RBI across 18 games. As a pitcher, he recorded a 2.84 ERA with 32 strikeouts across 13 starts. On February 14, 2024, Crawford announced that he would focus primarily on pitching moving forward.

References

External links

UConn Huskies bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Reggie 2000 births Living people Baseball players from Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania Baseball pitchers Baseball first basemen UConn Huskies baseball players Bourne Braves players Arizona Complex League Giants players San Jose Giants players