The Philadelphia Phillies' outfield situation is a mess right now, as both Harrison Bader and Max Kepler are headed toward free agency and Nick Castellanos is a goner.

So where will the Phillies turn? Will they make a push for Kyle Tucker? Will they ultimately just re-sign Bader? Will they move Bryce Harper back to right field?

Or do they have a more natural solution internally?

Philadelphia president Dave Dombrowski spoke about the circumstances recently, and he identified a possible answer for the club: top prospect Justin Crawford.

“In my mind, Crawford has a real strong chance to be with our club,” Dombrowski said, via Matt Gelb of The Athletic. “We’re giving him that opportunity to be with our club. We think he can play center field. Will that be our best with him in center? He’s never played right, so if it’s not center, he would have to play left. Is that our best setup as we go forward? I don’t know that. It’s very dependent, but we feel very comfortable if we said, ‘OK, you’re our center fielder.’ If that were the best (way), he would be fine to do that.”

Crawford is the third-ranked prospect in the Phillies' system and is coming off of a terrific 2025 campaign in which he slashed .334/.411/.452 with seven home runs and 47 RBI over 506 plate appearances while also stealing 46 bases at Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

The 21-year-old was originally selected by Philadelphia with the 17th overall pick of the 2022 MLB Draft and has managed a .322/.385/.446 slash line across 325 minor-league games.

Dombrowski added that no matter what the situation, he feels that Crawford could have a spot on the big-league roster in 2026.

“Are we better off signing somebody as a corner guy?” Dombrowski said. “Are we better off signing somebody who is a center fielder? What makes us the best? But I think we feel comfortable with him either way.”

The idea of the Phillies putting such a young player on to their major-league roster and having him play such a significant role next season does seem risky, but based on Crawford's production in the minors, you can understand why Dombrowski is so confident in him.

That being said, even if Philadelphia does plan on using Crawford next spring, you have to figure that the Phillies will still have to add an outfielder somewhere in free agency.

We'll see what Philadelphia decides to do in the coming weeks and months.