Phillies top prospect Crawford undergoes arthroscopic knee surgery

The Phillies announced that their top prospect, shortstop J.P. Crawford, had arthroscopic surgery Wednesday on his left knee to remove a loose body. Crawford will rest four weeks and according to the Phillies, have an otherwise normal offseason.

He is expected to be ready by spring training.

Crawford, who turns 22 in January, was the Phillies' first-round draft choice (No. 16 overall) in 2013.

He began this season at Double-A Reading, where he hit .265 with three home runs, 13 RBIs and a .787 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 166 plate appearances.

At Triple-A Lehigh Valley, Crawford batted .244 with four home runs, 30 RBIs and a .647 OPS in 385 plate appearances.

On Thursday Phillies general manager talked to reporters about Crawford's season.

"We challenged him," Klentak said. "Even a 21-year-old at Double-A but certainly Triple-A 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."

Crawford had a .398 on base percentage at Reading and a .328 OBP at Lehigh Valley. He made seven errors at Reading and 12 at Lehigh Valley.

"I think his defense has taken a step forward," Klentak said. "He's still 21 years old. He still needs to get stronger. He still has some things he needs to work on."

So despite just ordinary statistics this season, especially at Triple-A, Klentak is extremely confident that Crawford has a bright future.

"As I said all along, players are not always going to excell at every turn,"Klentak said. "They're going to have bumps in the road and they're going to have to overcome them. I'm confident JP will."