Phillies third baseman Maikel Franco will head to the DL after being diagnosed with a “small, non-displaced fracture” in his left wrist, MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki reports on Twitter. 24-year-old outfielder Aaron Altherr will be called up to take his roster spot.
It’s not yet clear what kind of time Franco will miss, but he’ll be in a splint for two to three weeks, per Jake Kaplan of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Twitter). With just six weeks to go in the regular season, it certainly seems plausible that he’ll be out the rest of the way.
That would represent a mildly disappointing way to wrap up an outstanding year for the 22-year-old. But while Philadelphia would surely rather he continue to develop and draw fans into the park, the seemingly minor injury won’t do much to detract from the fact that Franco has already compiled a .277/.340/.490 slash with 13 home runs over 326 plate appearances this year in his first extended action at the big league level.
With a full offseason still to come, it seems unlikely that Franco will have much difficulty recovering and getting back to full speed in time for the spring. And after his breakout work thus far, it is all but certain that he’ll be penciled in as the starting third baseman for the rebuilding Phils entering 2016, whether or not he returns to the field this season.
At least this improves the Phillies chances of locking down the #1 draft pick.
So by calling up Altherr, does this mean that Asche goes back to 3B and Altherr becomes the LFer? Or since it now looks that Utley doesn’t get traded, he goes back to playing full-time at 2B and Cesar Hernandez plays 3B?
maybe a little bit of both- it definitely makes sense to get Altherr in there somewhat consistently; of course there is no real reason to be playing Utley if they arent showcasing him for a trade.
Maikel Franco To DL With Fractured Wrist
I am sorry to hear of this, he was definitely a rose among thorns this year.
I enjoyed watching him when I had the chance.
His home-run to tie the game off of Chapman earlier this year was exceptional.
Not a Phillies fan but that kids future is BRIGHT!
What a Medical Staff, First it’s a bad bruise and a couple of days off , then little more time , Now a fracture . Where do these people go to Medical School , You could get a better Diagnosis from the Voodoo Doctor.
The Phillies athletic training and medical staff has not been all that great in recent years. They have misdiagnosed and had missed diagnoses far too often.
With that said, providing they did x-rays, which they should have, then this one may not be their fault. Sometimes fractures are hidden to x-rays by swelling.
For example, my girlfriend hurt her foot/ankle really badly playing soccer a few weeks ago. We went to the ER, had x-rays, found no fracture. She was given crutches, told she had a bad sprain and that if she wasn’t off the crutches in 1-2 weeks that she needed to come back for more x-rays.
Well it’s been 3 weeks, she’s still on crutches, follow-up x-rays determined there was indeed a fracture in there that was masked by they initial swelling.
If this is the case with Franco, then there is nothing much they could have done other than what they did. Unfortunately until you can see the fracture, the symptoms of a bad bone bruise and a fracture are nearly identical.