With the outfielder recovering from a UCL sprain in his left elbow, the team elected to adjust Crawford's throwing mechanics, which should alleviate the stress the motion places on his elbow.
"There's a mechanic that we'd like to see Carl use, which I would think would be proper," manager Bobby Valentine said. "There's a turn of the body, a step of the legs, a late rotation with the upper body rather than an early rotation with the upper body, and that's kind of a movement from the bottom to the top, a kinetic link from the feet to the place it's being propelled, so we'd just like him to start getting that linkage.
"So we'll do it like this and then kind of go through a throwing motion so he'll feel like the rotation is late, then do it just with the glove."
During the last week of April, Crawford received a platelet-rich plasma injection in his elbow to ease the recovery process. As of Tuesday afternoon, Crawford has returned to taking roughly 15 swings off the tee.
He maintains that his problematic wrist — which required arthroscopic surgery in early January — isn't an issue. It's unleashing throws from the outfield that has proved to be worrisome.
"[I'm] 10 days away from throwing," Crawford said. "That's going to be the true test. I can do all the stuff, but the true test is whenever I start back throwing and I finally get to see how that feels, and that's when I really know where I'm at."
If the elbow passes the throwing test, Crawford would likely take the next step and attempt to collect at least 50 at-bats in the minors.
Have a question for Didier Morais? Send it to him via Twitter at @DidierMorais or send it here. He will pick a few questions to answer every week for his mailbag.
