The Brewers have selected the contract of utilityman Nick Franklin, per a club announcement. He’ll take the active roster spot of infielder Eric Sogard, who has been optioned.
To open a 40-man spot, the club has shifted catcher Stephen Vogt to the 60-day DL. That means he won’t be eligible to return until the end of the month. It seems, though, that the veteran receiver has suffered a setback in his efforts to return from a shoulder injury, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tweets. We’ll have to await further word before assessing.
The news represents a disappointing turn for Sogard, who signed a one-year, $2.4MM deal to return to Milwaukee before he even formally reached free agency. Sogard, 31, had turned in his best season at the plate at the MLB level in 2017. But he’s off to a brutal start this year, with a .100/.194/.150 slash over 68 plate appearances.
As for Franklin, he’s back in the majors for a sixth-straight season. Once a top prospect, Franklin has never quite consistently produced at the game’s highest level. In his 921 total plate appearances in the bigs, he’s a .213/.285/.360 hitter.
Why not Orf?
don’t burn an option when he would be relegated to split time duties
He comes up and hits Villar will see a lot of the bench. 900 ABs from Franklin is a good enough sample size to say he just doesn’t have a big league bat.
But unlike orf, he can catch which is another down spot in the lineup.
Don’t burn an option for a 28 year old batting .366 at AAA?
Bring him up and play him for 7 out of 10 games and see if he can hit. It would appear Villar is in the doghouse right now, so the platoon thing shouldn’t be an issue.
Brinson hit .331 at Triple-A last year. How’s that translating to the majors?
Franklin never hit in the bigs.
And how else do you find out if a player in the minors can hit in the bigs if you don’t f$&?ing bring him up and give him a chance?
It’s not a complicated situation.
I thought the same thing
Nick Franklin has actually been transitioning to catcher, it’ll be interesting to see how Milwaukee uses him. He plays just about every position on the diamond except third, pitcher and center
Does orf have to hit .400 to get a call up? He’s already 29 give the guy a shot. I get they want the left handed bat (switch) but we need some production from 2B no matter what side it’s from.
This is ridiculous the only way this is plausible is if you know Franklin won’t be up for very long and his 40 man spot will be needed later for Nelson.
Sad news for the former Face of the MLB
and he promptly got hurt