June 21, 2021

Wander Franco: Coming up tomorrow

     The top overall prospect is coming to the majors tomorrow. What should we expect from Wander? I don’t think he will be a Xander Bogaerts type player immediately, but he will probably hit .260 with some pop and a bit of speed. Why? Is it because he is overhyped? No, its not. People expect prospects to be incredible immediately, but most of the time they need much more development. Mike Trout for example. When he came up, he struggled, then wound up becoming the best player in the league. 

Soon, in a year or two, Franco will more than likely have an average over .300. 

In his prime I project a .330 average with 30-35 homers, but don’t expect that right now, he is only 20. This means he has plenty of time to figure things out. He will still be a great contributor to the competing Rays. Don’t expect him to dominate in the majors the way he was in Durham. But don’t panic if he runs into trouble either. No matter what he does, Franco is going to be extremely watchable on a team that (due to their irregular use of its pitching staff…openers and all that sort of thing) is already intriguing.