Wander Franco has performed well in his first 52 plate appearances at Triple-A, posting a .348/.404/.652 slash line that befits his status as baseball’s top prospect. However, it doesn’t appear likely that Franco will get a quick promotion to the big leagues, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. The Rays aren’t likely to rush a 20-year-old who is only now getting his first taste of the pros beyond the A-ball level, and naturally, some payroll considerations are likely at play — delaying Franco’s debut until at least late June would probably keep him from reaching Super Two status. A pre-career contract extension would address that concern, but Topkin doesn’t see such a deal as very likely.
Beyond just the financial aspects, the Rays don’t want to make a development misstep with a prospect who represents such a major part of their future. “The team wants “to be ’more’ sure a player is ready, and avoiding the confidence crusher of sending him back. Also, they definitely want to avoid putting a young player in a role of being cast as a ’savior’ as Franco might be if the Rays offense still was struggling when he was summoned,” Topkin writes. This doesn’t mean that Tampa Bay wouldn’t turn to its farm system in the event of a sudden need, of course, but Topkin feels that Vidal Brujan or Taylor Walls (notable prospects in their own right) would get the call ahead of Franco since Brujan and Walls are both a few years older, and also already on the 40-man roster.
More from around the AL East…
- The Yankees are hoping that Rougned Odor will be back from the injured list in time to face off with his old Rangers teammates, as per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com (via Twitter). New York begins a four-game set against Texas beginning today. Odor was placed on the 10-day IL on May 5 due to a left knee sprain. Though Odor has hit just .164/.271/.361 in pinstripes, the Yankees are in need of middle infield reinforcements due to Tyler Wade’s similarly underwhelming offense and Gleyber Torres’ COVID list absence.
- The Red Sox are expected to activate Enrique Hernandez from the 10-day IL on Tuesday prior to their game with the Blue Jays. Boston made the first move in this direction by optioning infielder Jonathan Arauz to Triple-A today, thus clearing a spot on the active roster. A right hamstring strain sent Hernandez to the injured list on May 7, so the utilityman would miss only the minimum 10 days of action. Christian Arroyo’s IL placement due to a hand contusion was also retroactively dated to May 7, but Alex Speier of the Boston Globe notes (Twitter link) that Arroyo won’t join the Sox for the start of their road trip against the Jays and Phillies this week. Arroyo did begin hitting off a tee yesterday, however, so his return might not be far off. The Red Sox have played with a three-man bench for much of the season, and if they choose to stick with this roster alignment, Michael Chavis would be the odd man out once Arroyo is ready to be reinstated from the IL.
Bloody stupid, Wander is obviously ready now. When are MLB teams finally going to give up on the big lie of “every player needs minor league seasoning”? Last season proved it’s just not necessary for a lot more of these players than we thought. These backwards-thinking idiots refuse that some players are just born ready. Like, we lost years of Kris Bryants and whoever else dominated every second of minor league ball’s prime due to this. Wander is just another one. So dumb, stop stealing these players primes from us fans!
Limit long term contracts and pay them earlier. Might even get the CBT eliminated too.
I’m for that but…..MLB and fans both love the free agent signing drama.
In a perfect world – players and owners could agree on percentage and every player gets paid what they are worth based on season prior performance. That would create the floor everyone cries for too. But it eliminates so much drama – no one would ever go for it
NBA does it. NFL doesn’t fully guarantee them. If the MLBPA wants to really move the needle it should be considered. Or they could actually invest in lobbying for the unionization of all professional players not just MLB’ers.
Sorry. I can’t agree fully. A few truly gifted players can seemlessly go to the top levels but most need experience dealing with better pitching. Being able to hit any fastball simply doesn’t cut it in the major leagues. Is Wander such a talent? No idea but waiting a month or two hardly seems like it’s an onerous amount of time
Marc topkin says the rays want to see how Franco deals with failure. What failure? 20 yr old opsing 1.000 in AAA. You can’t tell how he will deal with major league failure without him being in the bigs
He hasn’t yet, but he still might have some struggles. The Rays waiting another 4-6 weeks will give Franco around 40 games of AAA experience. If he hasn’t struggled, then you can start thinking it’s time for the next challenge.
That 1.000 OPS comes from 52 at bats in his first taste of Triple A pitching. And Brujan also has 1.000 ops in 50+ at bats. If anyone should be called up by your estimation then it should be Brujan over Franco. Especially since Brujan has roughly 1600+ at bats in the minors.
It also comes after 2 years of dominating the lower minors vs vastly older competition. Stop excusing this garbage. HE IS 20. He has a sub 10% k rate and almost more walks than strikeouts in AAA (as he has done throughout his minors career). AT 20. Don’t give me the small sample garbage. The point is he should be struggling in MLB not Durham, where he has literally nothing to prove
Remember when Mike Trout first came up? He failed. It happens. He went back down, learned some things, and today he is a pretty decent player.
Remember when Soto and Tatis came up and annihilated the majors? What is your point and why does it change the fact that Franco should be struggling vs MLB, not pretending like he’s “struggling” in AAA
Franchy Cordero could also be the odd man out in Boston. At least Chavis has done some things since being called up
Danny Santana will replace Franchy. The main reason the Sox traded for him was that he has options left.
Chavis still hasn’t learned to lay off the high fastball.
Chavis hasn’t done anything, either. No one survives a 12/0 K/W in 27 PAs. Both him and Cordero should be in AAA for the remainder of the year.
He’s a first-round pick slugging .480. They aren’t going to give up on him that quick.
Why recall an elite guy like Franco when you have a SS hitting .198 with a 35.8% K%?
Willy Adames is 25 years old and has been a top 10 SS since he’s entered the league. While I’m as excited for Franco as the next guy, you don’t throw away a 25 year old top 10 SS, even if he did have a rough first month of the season. Plus he might be getting over his early season struggles. Over the past 2 weeks, Adames has a .278/.350/.583 slash and 163 wRC+.
That’s right! The rays should just trade Franco to the Tigers…..
When was Willy Adames a top 10 SS? Correa, Seager, Bogaerts, Story, Lindor, Turner, Semien, Tatis, Bichette, Anderson, Baez, and Dejong are all above Adames since his call up. Even if you remove Tatis and Bichette, Adames is at best #11 since 2018 when he came up (note that Simmons had a 5 WAR year in 2018 and isn’t on that list).
He’s a nice 2-3 WAR player but not a top 10 SS. A normal team just makes him a semi-regular utility player but he probably has more value as a trade piece for a team like Tampa and there’s no need to let a guy like Adames block either of Franco or Brujan.
Hope you’re responding to the guy calling Willy Adames a top 10 SS here.
Definitely lots of problems with service time dictating when players are called up…but I think it’s ok for Wander to spend a little more time in AAA. He didnt get any time last year. Though I would like to see him get called up later this year if he keeps hitting (and that works for the Rays’ front office too)
This move has absolutely nothing to do with service time and everything to do with a cost conscious team being careful with the first number one overall prospect they’ve had in a long time. Send a middle schooler right to college ?? Just stupid thinking by these morons up above, the Rays don’t care if it helps MLB “market”. The kid was in single A back in 2019 and took all of last year off… no team in the right mind send him right to the show…. confidence is a thing for every human on earth and every person who has more confidence performs better and that’s a fact. Yeah he’s tearing up triple A right now but more then likely they’ll adjust and he’ll go through a period of struggle and he needs to adjust back and learn what they’re trying to do. This is the case of senseless baseball “fans” having no idea what they’re talking about
It all depends on when they actually bring him up to determine how much of a role service time is playing.
If the incentives were different, prospects would be pushed to the majors faster. For example, if every player became an FA at 28 no matter when they come up then it makes more sense to attempt to push guys through the system faster.
The Rays have the ‘luxury’ of slow rolling Franco and making absolutely sure he’s ready because of the way service time works today.
Confidence definitely plays a role, but the average baseball fan also has little insight into a prospect’s confidence and resilience. There are guys who can go out and struggle every day for a month and it won’t phase them. Most top professional athletes are on another plane of confidence and resilience that the ‘average fan’ can’t really relate to.
kc38, lots of mouth-breathers on here. Franco will be up when all parties are ready for his reign.
GO RAYS!!!
Nationals called up Juan Soto from AA (skipped AAA) in May 2018 when he was only 19. It’s time Marc Topkin
That’s a sample size of about 1, right? And for each one you find, I can find 5 that didn’t succeed at all, and another 5 who under-performed what their level of play would be five years later.
JB – I understand your argument but Juan Soto was a monster at 19 like Vlad, like Acuna, like Harper. Those guys were all exceptional not just good or above average. They all succeeded and Wander Franco may be as good or better than all of them. He should be the ONE guy who should be promoted early because he’s just that exceptional. People knew Harper was ‘different’ when he graduated early to play at a JUCO to make the draft a year earlier. Heck, Scott Boras aligned himself with him by his sophomore year in High School. Some guys are simply destined to be great. Wander Franco, is that guy too. Watch him one time and you can see he’s not like the others.
Soto didn’t seem as special as Franco but proved he was by his incredible consistency. Franco, I believe most resembles Acuna but to me, I think he’s going to end up better than Acuna and he’s a Shortstop!! He looks to be better than Tatis at Shortstop and he should put up better numbers than Bogaerts. That’s how good Franco is. He needs to be in the majors as soon as possible and he’s not going to hurt TB’s chances of winning the division or going to the World Series. He’s going to help their chances. They need to get the extra year of control so he should come up for about a month but when it’s clear he won’t be a Super 2, he needs to be in the majors.
You are right that many fail but the true superstar level guys don’t. Franco is the next superstar of the sport.
FYI – Willie Adames was just traded to Milwaukee. That opens the door for the Wander Franco promotion.