Crawford, Nola will report to Minor League Camp next month

The Phillies top two prospects will not be reporting to the big league clubhouse at Bright House Field later this month.

Neither Aaron Nola or shortstop J.P. Crawford will be participating in major league camp when spring training gets underway in two weeks.

CSNPhilly.com first reported the news on Nola on Thursday morning. A Phillies official confirmed the news on Nola, and said that Crawford would also be participating on the minor league side this spring.

There had been some speculation that Nola, the team's first round pick (7th overall) in last June's draft, could get a big league audition this spring, regardless of the team's intentions of starting him in the minor leagues in 2015. Nola has been considered a fast-riser type since arriving in the Phillies system.

But the club's baseball operations people decided the 21-year-old Nola was better suited for refining his skills in minor league camp.

Nola, who was pitching for LSU this time last year, has made just 11 starts in his professional career. He went 4-3 with a 2.93 ERA in 12 games between Class A Clearwater and Double-A Reading late last summer.

The 20-year-old Crawford will join Nola - and fellow pitching prospects Zach Eflin, Tom Windle and Ben Lively - at the Phillies minor league facilities on the Carpenter Complex when that camp opens in March. Crawford, the team's first round pick (16th overall) in 2013, finished his first full season in the Phillies organization at Class A Clearwater.

Crawford hit .285 with a .781 OPS, 11 home runs, 23 doubles and went 24-for-38 in stolen base attempts in 123 games between Clearwater and Low-A Lakewood in 2014. Crawford was recently rated as the 7th best prospect in all of baseball by ESPN baseball prospect guru Keith Law.

The Phillies brass believes both Crawford and Nola will have a better opportunity to prepare for the minor league season in minor league camp; their at-bats and mound time won't be as limited as it would be if they were competing for time on the big league side.

Earlier this week, Crawford and Nola, at No.1 and No.2, respectively, topped Baseball America's updated top 10 list of the best prospects in the Phillies system. Of the 10 players on that list, only corner infielder Maikel Franco, ranked 3rd by by Baseball America, has been invited to major league camp this spring.

In addition to Eflin (4th on Baseball America's list), Windle (5th) and Lively (6th), outfielders Roman Quinn, Carlos Tocci and Aaron Brown, slotted 7th-through-9th by Baseball America, and lefthander Matt Imhof (10th) will all participate in minor league camp in Clearwater next month.