Giants legend and long-time shortstop Brandon Crawford has announced his retirement in a post on his personal Instagram account today. The Giants announced (X link from Justice delos Santos of The Mercury News) that Crawford will be celebrated at the club’s upcoming game on April 26, when they will be hosting the Rangers, managed by Crawford’s former skipper Bruce Bochy.
“Growing up in the Bay Area and going to games at Candlestick,” Crawford says, “I always dreamed of playing for the San Francisco Giants. Being drafted by my hometown team and spending most of my career with them far surpassed any dream I had as a kid. I definitely pretended to win a World Series in my backyard – but winning two? That was beyond my wildest dreams.” He goes on to express gratitude to that organization as well as the Cardinals, his family members, coaches, teammates, fans and many others who he crossed paths with.
As Crawford himself mentioned, he could hardly have asked for more of the platonic childhood baseball dream. In 2008, he was drafted by the club he grew up cheering for, with the Giants selecting him in the fourth round out of UCLA. In 2010, the Giants won the World Series, their first title since the club moved from New York to San Francisco. However, Crawford was still a minor leaguer at that time.
He was able to make his major league debut in late May of 2011, and he did so in memorable fashion. In his first game in the show, he hit a grand slam in the seventh inning, his first major league hit (YouTube link from MLB). That gave the club a 5-3 lead over the Brewers and they held on to win 5-4. Despite that notable start, the first season wasn’t great overall. He hit just .204/.288/.296 and only got into 66 games. The Giants finished 86-76 and missed the playoffs.
In 2012, Crawford took a firmer hold of the shortstop job in San Francisco, getting into 143 games. His offense still wasn’t especially impressive but it was better than the year prior and his defense was well regarded. The club went 94-68, winning the National West and advancing to the postseason. Crawford hit just .217/.321/.283 in the playoffs but the Giants went on to defeat the Reds, Cardinals and Tigers, earning their second title in three years.
The following year, Crawford’s performance held fairly steady. His offense was again a bit below league average but with strong shortstop defense. However, the Giants slid to 76-86, well out of contention. They came back in 2014, with an 88-74 record that was enough to snag a Wild Card spot. At that time, there were just two such spots per league and those clubs faced off in a one-game, winner-take-all matchup. The Giants cruised through that game with an 8-0 victory, then defeated the Nationals, Cardinals and Royals to secure yet another title. The Giants had three trophies in five years and Crawford had two rings with his hometown club before his 28th birthday.
Crawford had his best offensive season to date in 2015, as he hit 21 homers with a .256/.321/.462 slash line. He made his first All-Star Game and collected both a Silver Slugger and his first Gold Glove award. While the team’s performance fell off, Crawford emerged as a legitimate star. The Giants recognized as much and signed him to a six-year, $75MM extension.
It was more of the same in 2016. Crawford hit .275/.342/.430 while continuing to play elite shortstop defense. He won his second straight Gold Glove and found his name on MVP ballots for the first time. Crawford’s offense dropped over the next few years, but he continued to play excellent defense. He earned a third straight Gold Glove in ’17 and another All-Star appearance in ’18.
While Crawford appeared to be on the downswing of his career toward the end of the 2010s, he hit surprisingly well in the shortened ’20 season. It would’ve been easy to write that off as a small sample blip if Crawford didn’t follow that up with a monster year. At age 34, Crawford set a career mark with 24 homers while hitting .298/.373/.522 in 138 games. He earned another Gold Glove and All-Star nod and finished fourth in NL MVP balloting as the Giants reeled off 107 wins to secure their first division title in a decade.
San Francisco re-signed their longtime shortstop to a two-year, $32MM extension on the heels of that resurgent showing. Neither Crawford nor the team managed to sustain their ’21 form, though, and that deal didn’t wind up working as the club hoped. San Francisco let Crawford walk once he hit free agency last winter. He signed a one-year contract with the Cardinals but was limited to 29 games as a veteran backup to rookie Masyn Winn in St. Louis.
Crawford finishes his career with more than 1400 hits and a .249/.318/.395 batting line over more than 6300 plate appearances. He hit 147 homers and drove in 748 runs. Crawford’s production was even more impressive on the other side of the ball. He was one of the preeminent defensive shortstops of his era and earned four Gold Glove nods. Crawford made three All-Star teams, appeared on MVP ballots twice, and won the aforementioned two titles with his hometown club. Baseball Reference valued his career around 29 wins above replacement over parts of 14 seasons. B-Ref calculated his career earnings around $114MM. MLBTR salutes Crawford on an excellent career and sends our best wishes in his post-playing days.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
‘Legend’ is a stretch
Brandon Crawford and Willie Mays are 1 & 2 in lots of things for ex: this comment
Legen, wait for it, dary.
He is indeed a Giants legend
Not much of a hitter but a solid defensive shortstop. Great teammate. All-around good bn dude. Congrats and best of luck in retirement.
Only a couple dozen players in MLB history who hit more home runs as a shortstop. With home games in a pitcher’s park. And a three time all-star and four time gold glover. Nowhere near a HOF guy, but I think he is a “team legend”, and the two WS rings are cherries on top.
Stellar career and I thoroughly enjoyed watching that man play the game. Fantastic SS and heady ballplayer. Too bad there aren’t more like him. Good Luck Brandon. Giant thumbs up. Pun intended.
29 WAR, two titles, four gold gloves, $114M in the bank and yet the top comment here is some rando who presumably has accomplished none of those things showing up to dunk on him
MLBTR’s comments section never fails to be a sewer of humanity
isn’t that true of every comment section though?
“sewer of humanity” may be abit much lol the comment just said it was “abit of a stretch” but I agree he is definitely a giants legend.
Willie Mays is a Giants legend. Juan Marichal is a Giants legend. Willie McCovey is a Giants legend. Brandon Crawford was a good player who was on the Giants.
I don’t think you even know what you were looking at. Crawford and Posey were the HEART of those teams. Without them they don’t win squat. Not to mention being huge in the community also. Both should be HOF worthy.
1,404 hits and a .249 career batting average. I see you’re a member of the Every-kid-gets-a-trophy generation. You also are, undoubtedly, on the bandwagon to get Dick Allen in the HOF, too I assume?
Wonder how many Hits and Homers he would have had if he played half his games in Coors instead of the Grand Canyon? Food for thought. Stats don’t tell the whole story of what is a ballplayer. Well it does to people who play video games I guess. People who never left the house and go yeah i played. i was MVP in Madden 3 times.
Not even close. He as a good player, an integral part of two WS teams, and got to live every kids fantasy of playing baseball for your home team. But he will drop off the ballot on the first round of HOF voting.
If he played half his games at Coors he’d have no rings.
Posey is a HOF for sure. Crawford should go into the Giants’ HOF, but not Cooperstown.
If he played in Coors, best case scenario he’s Troy Tulowitzski, who also is not a HOFer.
Always be remembered as a Cardinal with that 169 avg
Was playing 28 games as a cardinal worth it to him?
He made his 113th million and got his 1,400th hit.
So, maybe it was worth it to HIM, but not to the Cardinals.
Surely he will get into the HOF and wear the STL cap lol
He should definitely be a HOFer. Maybe not first ballot( Probably depend on the class) But if not that then surely soon after. Pretty sure he burned all his Cardinal crud as soon as the season ended. Then went to see a Witch Doctor to get the stench off himself.
Ok definitely a HOFer is an absolute stretch
He only had that one out of nowhere season in 2021 and WS rings where he wasn’t even close to being the MVP of those teams
Hall of very good? First ballot
agreed sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Hall of famer?! Do you understand the amount of guys you would have to let in if Crawford is a hall of famer. Let’s be reasonable so we can just call out a great career.
Brandon Crawford was signed in case Masyn Winn was not ready or got injured. Was not Crawford’s fault that Masyn was one of the few things that went really well for Cardinals in 2024.
An OG member of the greasy-haired Giants, alongside Angel Pagan and Michael Morse. As a Dodgers fan, I salute you.
Don’t forget the greasy beard Brian Wilson
FOREVER GIANT
For real this time! Now get him in the Dugout bench coach sounds good!
I think an infield coach would be better suited. Fitz and Luciano desperately need the help
A true forever Giant. Congrats on a great career and thanks for the 2 Rings.
Awesome career though, loves the game more than anybody.
Def one of my favorite Giants during those even year chips
Great career. Probably should’ve been a SF Giant his whole career. Seeing him in a Cardinals uniform didn’t look right.
I agree not that he shouldn’t of been on my birds but just felt off seeing him in another uni, either way great career and I hope the best for his next chapter.
Farhan pretty much ran him out of town … didn’t have the balls to bench him when he wasn’t a full-time player anymore but Craw seemed he was more than willing to come back on a cheaper contract. He just didn’t fit Farhan’s “winning” formulas.
He was aweful his last two seasons in SF. He played his way out of town
Farhan didn’t run him out of town, Craw ate himself out of town. He put on a ton of weight and could barely run or swing the bat. He showed up in ST totally out of shape. Then he went whining to the media about how he was treated so badly. Hardly the behavior of a “legend”.
Never heard of him.
I think his bat retired in 2022.
His glove slipped several notches as well same year.
the STL experiment was a bad idea – should have went out to hometown fans
A bad idea would be turning down millions of dollars to play a few games. People crack me up with this crap.
Good job Brandon !
Enjoy your retirement.
He made 111m before signing with the Cardinals for 2m. So i don’t think money was the motive. Think he just wanted to make sure he left it all on the field. Play as long as you can is my motto.
Cardinal Legend
Enjoyed watching him play
So what exactly happened in 2021 that caused him to have a career year at age 34, then promptly nose-dive right back into the downward slope of his career’s bell curve?
He only had the one soul to sell…
Posey’s last hurrah gave that team a bump imo
My theory is that the short season in 2020 allowed the OG’s (Crawford, Posey, Belt, Longoria) to refresh their bods.
This 100%
Good health.
Possibly a good mattress? A good night’s sleep is not to be underestimated.
Mattress Firm, is that you?
Bart
“Bench him, he has weak knees”?
How do you sleep at night?
Like a baby!
Julio Franco rec
is anyone from the 2010-2014 champion giants still in the majors?
Bochy is still managing if that counts, he was the manager for those magical championship runs.
those teams with posey, belt, crawford, pablo, lincecum, bumgarner, sergio romo led by bochy seem like they existed a lifetime ago.
3 WS with no acuna/soto/judge/ohtani type superstars. just a group of solid ball players, good defense, gutsy pitching
Voices on here have mentioned that they are happy that no longer those kind of teams will win a WS as finally the era of a team with superstars playing on gigantic deferrals will now and in the future dominate baseball.
Matt Duffy came in right at the end of their run, and technically hasn’t announced his retirement, although he’s currently a free agent.
Adrianza played over 100 games for the 2014 team, he got into some games last year for the twins
Duffman rules! We love him in SF and hope he comes back home to coach someday soon
Actually hasn’t needed to worry about retirement yet, he’s a member of Bochy’s Rangers
He was during the 2024 season. He’s currently a free agent.
Hunter Strickland
Although he is now a free agent but played with Angels last season. He did not flame out, so I think he could find a place in 2025
Adam Duvall…you’re our only hope.
Ehire adrianza played for the twins last year, the genius that threw at harper and ended morse’s career pitched last year
Man he hit a wall as far as performance goes. Like a switch went off. Rmbr him being thorn in side of Dodgers too many times to recollect. Shoulda been forever Giant. Adios.
Getting to play where you watched games as a kid, especially as long as he did, I can’t imagine, especially for a guy who just had a cup of coffee in AAA.
Congrats on a long career.
A fine career, plenty in the bag and two rings. Crawford can hang them up and move onto the next chapter of his life.
It was a misstep to test out if he still has it in St. Louis last year. Should have been grateful for what he got in SF.
You don’t know until you know. At least now he knows.
How do you know he’s not grateful?
It’s too bad he didn’t retire last year. He could’ve been a one-team player and not gone out on such an embarrassing performance in his final season.
He’s not the first and he won’t be the last. It’s hard to admit you don’t have it anymore.
Imo best shortstop in Giants history. Congrats and enjoy the second part of your life in whatever you decide to do. True Giant right there, born and raised!
Travis Jackson
There may have been no finer SS. I think we need to ask was he the best right handed SS of all time? At the very least top 3.
Maybe top 15..
All SS are right handed haven’t seen a left handed one ever so by that metric no he’s not top 3
Like every shortstop, Crawford threw RH but he hit left-handed. Surely that’s what @rockingryan meant. He is second behind Corey Seager for all-time HR’s by LH shortstop, 200>147.
I mean technically Lindor has more hitting left handed than Crawford(167) but I guess we exclude switch hitters for some reason.
@rockingryan
Are you talking sf all time rh ss or mlb, because you have Ozzie and Pete Wagner on that list and a few more but carwford definitely has an argument for at least 3 to 10
Pete Wagner – Who? or were that tight with Honus back in the day where you called him pete.
Brandon Crawford similarity scores on BB Ref
1: Alex Gonzalez
Honus Wagner
Wagner
Banks
ARod
Ripken
Ozzie
Jeter
Larkin
Cronin
Young
Trammell
Reese
Lindor
Correa
Rizzuto
Garciaparra
About a dozen more before Crawford even enters the conversation.
26 ss in the HOF, Crawford maybe makes top 100 list
Makes 58 on this list. Generous imo baseballegg.com/all-time-player-rankings/baseballs…
Very generous
Ridiculous list to me it’s
Weiss
Arod
Crawford
Maybe Brandon’s interpreter had a gambling problem.
Thought the Jays were going to sign him.
I’ll leave it to Giants fans to weigh in on the “legend” part I don’t have the emotional attachment to him but congrats on a solid career and winning the big one a few times. Plenty of grandkid stories down the road.
Grand slam against Pit in the 2014 WC game was awesome. Pirate fans went blank,j
I was hoping someone would mention this. I could feel the energy sucked out of the ballpark when Crawford hit that grand slam.
no
frown
dont mentoin that
Should have did this a year ago so he would’ve have closed out his career with that unsightly batting line with the Cardinals and retired a Giant.
Like that weird last season Dwight Evans spent in Baltimore (though Dewey was still more productive)
A little off topic but it must be depressing the last few years to be a Giants fan.
Why didn’t the Giants bring him back for a day?
They will give him his day on April 26. And Posey will probably hire him to be clubhouse coach two weeks later.
Because he went to the press to say how mean the Giants were to him (and his enormous belly) for not wasting a valuable roster spot on him. I’m probably the only SF fan that never loved Craw. Great defensive SS, but mediocre hitter who rarely came through in the clutch.
Way to squeeze out some more cash. St. Louis must have a great buffet.
You can always borrow money from your brother in law Gerrit.
Travis Jackson was better.
Saw Jackson play, did you?
From the comments you can sure tell the guys that were picked 10th on the 9 player sandlot team
Crawford played 14 years in the majors while you couldn’t get on your neighborhood pickup squad.
Great player with a really nice career. So slick in the field.
Was pretty cool/funny seeing him on an episode of The Thundermans.
Congrats Craw
They will love him forever in SF.
A lot of negative comments for a guy with like 97 percentile career success.
Don’t put him in the HOF please.
The baseball writers will get right on considering your request.
In 5 years
This is off topic, but I was getting an email daily called MLB Morning Lineup and all the sudden it’s not there. I haven’t received it for a few days now. I might add that I don’t know why it started showing up in my email a couple of years ago. Anybody know anything? I miss the daily baseball quiz included in it.
You probably started getting them because didn’t uncheck a box that auto-subscribed you when either created an MLB.com account or voted for the ASG or filled out a survey for something. Did you recently unsubscribe to an MLB service, like MLB.tv or something?
Thanks for the reply Baseball Topics (appropriately named) I’ll do some further digging. I don’t know what I did because I’m a tech doofus!
Well done!
Coming to work for the G’s. They have to change that Culture !!!
73rd best SS of all time. Great career.
I think Josh Smith has a chance to be Brandon Crawford 2.0
Tigers fan here. Hated to face him but he always played the game with effort and grace.
Great career, fun to watch.
Happy trails!
Crawford had a charmed career. In addition to all his accomplishments mentioned in the article, I’ll never forget his 4th inning grand slam in the 2014 playoff game against Pittsburgh, which immediately silenced the raucous crowd.
It’s a shame he couldn’t stay in shape – he easily could’ve kept playing well, but for the past few seasons he was lugging around a huge belly.
Tarnished his reputation by bad-rapping the organization that overpaid him for his last 2 dreadful seasons just because they wouldn’t waste a roster spot on him.
Good Giant for most years. No way a legend.
Who knew he was retirement age…man, this guy was sure good for someone who is 65.
Crawford’s the true professional who not only loved to play but loved playing for his hometown team. FOREVER GIANT!
Thanks for many memories
Literally lived the dream….
One Year Too Long.
He embarrassed himself by staying in the game.
Should have exited after his days as a Giant ended.
I’m sure you would turn down millions to play in 23 games so as not to be “embarrassed”.
Right….
As the mlb show announcer puts it, he’s a slick fielding shortstop. Love this guy appreciate all he has done on and off the field for our community. We got really lucky having him be our shortstop for so many years! Hope you find happiness in retirement you deserve everything! Thanks for making so many memories for my family and I over the years!
Detroit will be willing to send them a replacement. For free…
Congrats on an excellent career. 14 years in the majors and 2 rings. Good luck in the next phase of your life. Glad you won’t be stealing hits away from Padres anymore.
About time.
Good guy and good carat but we’re taking about a guy who has less than 750 runs, less than 1,500 hits, less than 150 hrs, less than 800 rbi, less than a .250 bat, less than a .320 obp with only a couple of good gloves. To discuss him as a future HOF is a joke. Yes, his like Ruzzuto and other pre- WW2 marginal players don’t belong but we’ve gotten way past the days of voting in your buddies.
Cool player! Nice writeup. Not from San Fran or a fan; would have liked to have seen more of his play but he always seemed effective when I did see him on the tube. Great for him that he lived his kid-hood baseball dream, along with a timely retirement.
Timely would have been at this time last year as a forever Giant. However, Say Hey as many other did the same, As a Giant fan of 65 years and one who waited 50 for the first of 3 WS wins, I loved watching this guy and the 2010, 2012 and 2014 teams, what a great teams. They were not loaded with stars but as a team with Bochy leading them they were great teams!