RaysBaseball.com:Crawford’s future: Hoping for ‘the best’

Anthony DiComo of MLB.com takes a look at Carl Crawford’s contract year. It was originally featured here.

All-Star left fielder’s contract runs out at end of season

By Anthony DiComo / MLB.com

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — Carl Crawford isn’t sure where he might end up next season, but he made one thing perfectly clear on Monday: He can see himself staying with the Rays.

“I’m hoping for the best, like always,” Crawford said, explaining that “the best” scenario would be a return to Tampa Bay.

That doesn’t mean, however, that he believes he’ll wind up there.

Set to enter next offseason as one of the most desirable players on the free-agent market, Crawford is sure to face trade rumors and contract speculation all season. The Rays, through their owner, Stuart Sternberg, have insisted in recent days that they will do everything in their power to re-sign him.

Crawford, meanwhile, will be forced to shove aside the distractions and focus on having his best season yet.

“I’m pretty sure it’ll probably get to a point to where it’ll irritate me a little bit,” said Crawford, who reported to camp two days before the Rays’ first full-squad workout. “But I’m going to try and be a professional about it, go about my business and handle it the way other players do. I’m not the first player that’s got to go through this, and I won’t be the last.”

He is one of the more talented players to go through the process, however, coming off a season in which he hit .305 with 15 home runs, 96 runs scored and 60 stolen bases. If Crawford, who turns 29 in August, can even approach those totals this summer, he should command something similar to the seven-year, $120 million contract the Cardinals gave Matt Holliday this winter.

Crawford wouldn’t comment when asked whether he might accept a hometown discount from the Rays, his employer for the first eight seasons of his big league career. But even if he would, signing him to a new contract might still eat up roughly a quarter of the team’s payroll.

To date, Crawford said, the two sides have not had many talks, and he would prefer to wait until after the season to decide his future. So unless Tampa Bay opts to trade Crawford, free agency seems inevitable. But neither he nor the Rays anticipate it being a distraction.

“His routine is so solid,” manager Joe Maddon said. “When you get a routine freak like that, they’re really just able to stay in the moment a little bit better.”

“I try not to think about it,” Crawford said. “I try to look at the important stuff, like winning. We’ve got a good team this year, so I don’t want to take the attention away from that.”

No doubt, the Rays rank among baseball’s best clubs — though they play in one of its toughest divisions. With Crawford, they should also continue to be one of the game’s most aggressive teams on the basepaths.

To that end, Crawford spent his offseason working on core training and baserunning, particularly on his explosiveness taking off from first base. The result is a player who, like so many others this time of year, says he’s in the best shape of his life.

He’ll continue that work this spring, where the reality of his contract situation has already begun to sink in. Every time Crawford does something for the last time at Charlotte Sports Park, he may also be doing it for the last time as a Ray. And he knows it.

“It’s kind of sad when you think of it like that,” Crawford said. “But I just keep in mind that that’s the way things are. The thing that keeps me going is knowing that we have probably one of the best teams here this year. A lot of good things can happen.”

That feeling, however, isn’t entirely new to Crawford. Heading into last spring, even despite coming off an American League pennant, the possibility of a trade seemed just as real as it does now. Though he made it through the season untouched, Crawford gained a sense of what it’s like to live with an uncertain future.

“I think he treated last year like it was his last year here,” said Rays designated hitter Pat Burrell, who went through the free agency process for the first time two years ago. “I’m sure he can look back and build from that experience. He’s an unbelievable player now, and he’s going to continue to get better.”

Most important, according to Burrell, will be making it out of his walk year unscathed. But avoiding injury may be easier said than done for a man who plays with reckless abandon, both on the basepaths and in the field.

That much, Crawford says, won’t change.

“I have to play the way I play,” he said. “I don’t know how to play at another level.”

Nor will the thought of continuing to play on the turf of Tropicana Field factor into Crawford’s contract decision.

“I can play on this turf as long as I want to,” he said. “It’s not like I’m going to be crippled, walking with a cane or something.”

More likely, he will be running, patrolling the outfield in Tampa Bay — or somewhere else. Though the answers won’t likely come for Crawford until after the season, the rumors are sure to dog him all year.

But his heart — for now, at least — remains in Tampa Bay.

“I understand a lot of things are going against us,” Crawford said. “But anything’s possible.”