TODAY: Franco’s deal with the Giants is official, as per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News (Twitter link). Franco will earn $300K in guaranteed money ($245K in salary, $55K as a signing bonus) and another $200K is available to him in incentives.
NOVEMBER 15: Right-hander Enderson Franco is close to a deal with KBO’s Lotte Giants, according to Bae Joong-hyun of Ilgan Sports (hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). The contract will become official once Franco’s medical check is complete.
Franco will go to one Giants organization from another, as he elected to become a free agent earlier this month after spending the previous two seasons in San Francisco. This stint resulted in Franco making his MLB debut during the 2019 season, appearing in five games and posting a 3.38 ERA over 5 1/3 relief innings. He didn’t see any action in 2020, however, as the Giants outrighted Franco off their 40-man roster in June, and he wasn’t included in the team’s alternate training site roster.
The move to South Korea is the latest stop in a pro career that began as an international signing with the Astros in 2009. Over 10 minor league seasons with the Astros, Rays, Marlins, Braves, and Giants, Franco amassed a 4.57 ERA, 2.64 K/BB rate, and 7.0 K/9 over 889 1/3 innings, starting 163 of his 183 career games on the farm.
“NPB’s Lotte Giants” ???
Lotte is for the KBO not NPB just a heads up
He’s going to Korea, not Japan.
That’s a nice ladder in the background
You literally quoted Dan Kurtz of *MyKBO* how can you write this article and get the countries/leagues confused? Pretty careless mistake and embarrassing coming from MLBTR. Korea and Japan are two different countries.
Nah, I’m pretty sure they are the same country. Duh.
Move on with your life. People make mistakes.
Or, are you completely infallible?
Hey, did anyone mention yet that they accidentally put NPB instead of KBO? I don’t think anyone has pointed that out yet.
South Korea, not Japan. The NPB is a higher caliber of baseball than the KBO but there have been more KBO players coming to the MLB recently.
The better question is … what is an “Enderson Franco” and why should anyone care
Would’ve given respect if it was North Korea … they throw that high heat!
As people have pointed out that is a bad f up. No one who knows anything about baseball would put “NPB Lotte Giants”! Can we see it fixed, please. It shows a kind of arrogance as well as ignorance. And this is my favorite player I have never heard of, so I need to know if he is going to the Lotte Marines, Yomiuri Giants, or Lotte World for some intense shopping in Korea!
Lotte World is a must if you go to Korea! Good stuff!
My apologies for the error.
You mean you are an actual human? And as such could make a mistake? We need our fun, don’t worry about it. It is all a bit confusing: The Lotte Giants (Korean: 롯데 자이언츠) are a professional baseball team based in the southeastern city of Busan, South Korea, and one of the original franchises of the KBO League. The Lotte Giants are owned by Lotte Corporation, which also owns the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball.
Of course, the extreme right-wing Yomiuri Corp. controls the NPB Yomiuri Giants and are just pure evil. (Carp fan.)
Enderson Franco wasn’t very good in MiLB. I trust the Giants front office so, what did he do in Korea that made him worth signing?
Well, he should at least do better than Ricardo Pinto and Adrian Sampson did this last season.
This is the best picture of this guy they could come with?
he’s thrown 5.1 innings in the Majors. likely not a lot of pictures of him.
That’s one of the best pictures of a guy getting a professional picture taken I’ve ever seen