Crawford’s clean-up surgery on knee deemed ‘success’

PHILADELPHIA >> Earlier in the week, Phillies’ general manager Matt Klentak predicted some unexpected challenges for top organizational prospect J.P. Crawford. By Friday, he was proven correct.

According to the Phillies, top prospect J.P. Crawford had arthroscopic surgery Wednesday on his left knee, performed by team orthopedic surgeon Michael Ciccotti. He said in a team statement that the surgery was “successful,” explaining that loose bodies were removed from the shortstop’s knee.

Crawford will need four weeks of rest and, after that, will have a “normal” offseason, according to the report from Ciccotti, who added Crawford will be “ready for spring training.”

In his recently completed season, his fourth as a professional, Crawford hit a combined .250 with seven home runs at Reading and Allentown.

“We challenged him,” said Klentak, of Crawford’s season. “Even having a 21-year-old at Double-A, but certainly TripleA, is aggressive. I think he’s proven at both levels that he still has the ability to control the strike zone as well as anybody in our organization and probably the best in minor-league baseball.

“I think his defense has taken a step forward. He’s still 21 years old. He still needs to get stronger. He still has some things he needs to work on. As I said all along, players are not always going to excel at every turn. There are going to have bumps in the road and they’re going to have to overcome them. I’m confident J.P. will.”

*** Struggling Maikel Franco was given a night off Friday. Andres Blanco started at third base in the Phils’ 4-3, 13-inning victory over Miami.

“Poor guy, he’s scuffling,” Pete Mackanin said. “He’s swinging wild again. Every time he swings, his helmet falls off. He’s caught up in something and he can’t get out of it.”

Exaggerating only slightly, Mackanin said he will address Franco’s choice of batter’s-box headwear, which usually is so loose that the third baseman must hold it on his head while running, perhaps costing him a step or two on the basepaths.

Franco was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in the Phils’ 15-2 loss Thursday to Pittsburgh. He was 2-for-5 the night before, in a 6-2 victory. In the six games before that, however, he had a total of three hits.

“That’s why I gave him a day off,” Mackanin said. “Mentally, it’s a drain on you. You try to figure it out. Nothing is working. That last at-bat he had (Thursday), he looked like he was trying to hit the ball out of the stadium. That would have been a perfect time to say, ‘I’m just going to try to hit a single up the middle.’ Just the time to work on it, in-game.”

Franco pinch-hit in the 10th Friday, drew a oneout walk and was replaced by pinch-runner Emmanuel Burriss. Mackanin wants to play Ryan Howard as often as possible in the remaining home games, aware that the franchise legend is almost certain to be bought out of his contract at the end of the season. Neither Howard nor the Marlins treated that as a novelty act Friday. With Miami shifting him with a 2-0 lead in the sixth, Howard smashed a home run to deep right to draw the Phils within a run.

The homer tied Howard with Franco for the team lead with 22. It was the 379th of his career, tying him for 70th on the all-time list with Tony Perez and Orlando Cepeda. Both are in the Hall of Fame.