We construct a type A(1) n−1 affine geometric crystal structure on the Grassmannian Gr(k, n). The tropicalization of this structure recovers the combinatorics of crystal operators on semistandard Young tableaux of rectangular shape (with n − k rows), including the affine crystal operator e 0. In particular, the promotion operation on these tableaux essentially corresponds to cyclically shifting the Plu ̈cker coordinates of the Grassmannian.