Aidan Miller and Justin Crawford are in the Phillies’ plans for 2026 — and have the locker placement to prove it

CLEARWATER, Fla. — For years, a tucked-away corner of the Phillies’ spring-training clubhouse has belonged to the stars. And because the roster hasn’t changed much since 2022, neither have the nameplates above the lockers.

KYLE SCHWARBER #12

J.T. REALMUTO #10

AIDAN MILLER #81

BRYCE HARPER #3

TREA TURNER #7

Wait, take two steps back.

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Schwarber did a double-take almost as soon as he walked through the door here Wednesday, even before Realmuto pointed it out. Left fielder Brandon Marsh stopped Miller in the hallway and said, “Man, you got a good little locker spot there.”

“They’ve all kind of made little comments here and there about it,” said Miller, who now occupies the space once reserved for Nick Castellanos, the disgruntled $20 million right fielder who no longer has a locker because he will be traded or released by the weekend. “I was surprised seeing it myself.”

He shouldn’t be. Nobody should.

Never mind that Miller is 21, the second-youngest player among 68 in camp. Or that he dressed at a temporary locker on the other side of the room last spring and lived with his parents 20 miles north of the Phillies’ complex.

Miller is in the Phillies’ plans — and sooner than later. So, it isn’t a coincidence, according to manager Rob Thomson, that he and fellow top prospect Justin Crawford (No. 80 in your spring-training program) are taking up residence on Millionaires’ Row.

“We upgraded a little bit,” Crawford said, laughing.

In 2026, after back-to-back divisional-round knockouts, the Phillies will still be led by Harper & Friends, few of whom have aged out of their prime. But they also aren’t getting younger.

As it is, the Phillies are trying to become only the 10th team in baseball history to make the playoffs with four players, age 33 or older, getting at least 500 plate appearances. If new right fielder Adolis García joins Harper, Turner, Schwarber, and Realmuto, the Phillies would be only the third team to make the playoffs with five. It hasn’t happened since the 2007 New York Yankees.

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So, the Phillies must get younger if they’re going to prop open the proverbial window to contend long beyond this year. And that’s where Crawford, Miller, and 22-year-old pitcher Andrew Painter come in — and why they may be the three most important players in camp.

“Crawford and Miller and Andrew, we know they’re all very talented,” said Zack Wheeler, at 35, the dean of the starting rotation. “It’s good to have those guys around. You can’t have everybody under big contracts. You got to have some young guys. We have a good locker room to accept those guys. They can ask any of these guys questions, and they’ll definitely help out.”

That’s the idea.

Crawford, 22, is the presumptive opening-day center fielder after batting .300 at every level of the minors. He might’ve gotten called up last August if the Phillies didn’t trade for Harrison Bader at the deadline. His time is most certainly now.

“I’ll say it feels a little different,” said Crawford, who would be the youngest outfielder on a Phillies opening-day roster since Greg Luzinski and Mike Anderson in 1973. “Last year was kind of the excitement of being in big-league camp for the first time. This, I feel a little bit more laid-back and just ready to get to work and compete. Excited to see what happens.”

Crawford insists he isn’t taking anything for granted. His dad, four-time All-Star outfielder Carl Crawford, wouldn’t allow it. Neither would his godfather, Junior Spivey, who played five seasons in the majors, or personal hitting coach Mike Easler, who had a 14-year major-league career.

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And then there are Crawford’s new neighbors in the high-rent district of the clubhouse.

“I came in and still it was a little surreal,” Crawford said despite getting a heads-up from a teammate of where his locker was located. “It was like, ‘Wow,’ from being over there [on the other side of the room] last year. So, it’s pretty cool and definitely a good, nice moment.”

The Phillies did this in 2023 with Painter. They gave him a locker alongside Wheeler and around the corner from Aaron Nola and a chance to compete for a spot in the rotation as a 19-year-old. But he tore a ligament in his right elbow, had surgery, and missed two seasons.

Painter has a good chance of making the team out of camp in part because Wheeler will be behind the other pitchers as he comes back from thoracic outlet syndrome, a condition in which a vein is compressed between the collarbone and rib cage. Wheeler had a rib removed last September.

But Painter isn’t merely a placeholder. The Phillies remain bullish on his future even after he struggled last season in triple A. Many rival evaluators “cut him some slack,” as one NL scout said, after the two-year absence and believe he still has top-of-the-rotation potential.

And if Crawford and Painter are ticketed for the opening-day roster, Miller may not be far behind. It isn’t only the placement of his locker. As camp opened for pitchers and catchers, Thomson confirmed that Miller will get reps at third base, in addition to his natural shortstop, a spot occupied by Turner.

It won’t be the first time. Miller played third base at J.W. Mitchell High School, up the road from here in Trinity, Fla., before the Phillies drafted him in the first round in 2023. This spring will be about “relearning” the position, he said, notably the footwork and the hops.

“I just want to get there [to the majors],” Miller said. “I don’t care where it is in the field. As long as I’m there, I’m cool.”

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If Crawford, Painter, and Miller can get there, the Phillies will have threaded the needle of replenishing the roster while also contending. It’s a tricky balance.

Thomson was a coach with the Yankees in 2017 when they successfully blended youth (Aaron Judge, Gary Sánchez, Greg Bird, Jordan Montgomery, and Luis Severino) with a veteran core en route to 91 wins and Game 7 of the AL Championship Series.

“I think there’s some similarities there,” Thomson said. “If you want to have a really healthy organization for a sustainable future, you have to be able to infuse some youth along the way.”

And it starts, symbolically, with a couple of kids lockering alongside the stars for six weeks in February and March.