Scouting Wander Franco, MLB's next teenage superstar
Keith Law
ESPN INSIDER
Juan Soto is up, and Vlad Guerrero Jr. is ready, so barring a big surprise move by someone else, Tampa Bay shortstop Wander Franco will be the next teenaged big leaguer.
<offer style="box-sizing: border-box;"></offer>Still just 17 years old, Franco is obliterating the advanced rookie Appalachian League, leading the circuit in average and placing third in slugging and fifth in OBP, while younger than any player ahead of him. He's drawn 27 walks against just 14 strikeouts in 245 PA this summer. By comparison, Baby Vlad had an outstanding season for Bluefield in the same league at age 17 two years ago, and Franco is beating him in all three triple-slash stats (average/on-base/slugging) while striking out less than half as often as Vlad did.
Franco has a deadly combination of incredible hand speed at the plate and a very advanced approach. Across two games of a doubleheader against the Pulaski Yanks, Franco reached base five times -- two walks, a hit by pitch on a 3-2 count, a single on a breaking ball, and a home run on a 92 mph fastball that left the park in about negative two seconds. His hands accelerate from zero to full speed as fast as any teenager I can remember seeing -- Javy Baez, Justin Upton, maybe Clint Frazier, and that's about it -- but his swing is very controlled, with good loft in his finish and hip rotation to add power. Two of his walks were eight-pitch affairs, and he didn't have a bad at bat the entire night. He singled on an 81 mph slider that fooled him, but he managed to stay back enough to line it over the second baseman's head.
Franco wasn't challenged at all at shortstop, making a few routine plays and showing plenty of arm strength for the left side of the infield. He looks fine physically, but at 17 still has growth ahead of him, and I could easily see him outgrowing the position -- but I don't see any reason right now to forecast that he'll move off it. Even at second or third, this is an elite hitting prospect, a potential plus-plus hit tool with power and huge on-base skills. His only real risk factors are his age and the distance he is from the big leagues. If he's not banging on the door of the Trop in two years, however, I'll be shocked. There's MVP upside here with the bat and the very high probability he plays somewhere on the dirt.
• Pulaski started right-hander Luis Medina, who has endured a disastrous season so far that has seen him walk 41 batters in 32.1 innings even as he's repeating the Appalachian League. His stuff is ridiculous: he was 94-99 mph, with his first 14 fastballs all coming in at 98 or 99 before he dipped all the way to 97 on the next pitch, and his 80-83 curveball has real promise with tight spin and a lot of power to it. His fastball is straight, however, and he only got one swing and miss on it, while his changeup is basically a bad fastball at 90-91 with neither life nor deception.
Medina looks athletic and his arm is loose, while his delivery gets him online to the plate -- he's on the extreme third base side of the rubber, which I assume is to ensure he's coming directly towards the plate -- but he has no idea where the ball is going. He threw 44 pitches, just 19 for strikes, and retired only five batters while walking three and hitting two (one of them twice, but the ump blew the call, only to have Medina hit the guy again a few pitches later).
If I had to predict a role for Medina, who is still just 19 years old, I'd say late-game reliever given the stuff and absence of any command, but he has to figure out how to throw his fastball for strikes before he'll have any major league role.
<strike></strike>• The P-Yanks ... that sounded better in my head ... had several notable names from past Yankees international free-agent classes, including third baseman Nelson Gomez ($2.25 million, 2014), who has big raw power but showed a lot of swing and miss in the doubleheader, vulnerable to sliders away and fastballs up at his eyes. He has a 7 arm, but a thick build that doesn't seem likely to stay at third -- and since he has a .281 OBP on the year, it may not matter anyway.
• The Yanks signed Oswald Perez for a relative bargain of $175,000 in 2016, and the Venezuelan shortstop showed a solid approach at the plate on Wednesday while hitting his first professional homer, a bomb to dead center on a 94 mph fastball. Still just 18, Peraza looks like he can hit a fastball, but punched out three times in the doubleheader, all three times on breaking balls. He played short in the first game but didn't have a play the entire game.
• Princeton center fielder Tony Pena has an unusual backstory for a Dominican player -- he signed at 18, not 16, for just $15,000 and didn't have much baseball experience, so he was quite raw when he entered the Rays' system two years ago, struggling badly in his stateside debut in the GCL last year. He's been excellent in 34 games this summer, mostly with Princeton, showing plus bat speed, above-average power, and a surprising ability to adjust to breaking stuff given how crude he was at the plate last season.
<strike></strike>
<strike></strike><strike></strike><strike></strike><offer style="box-sizing: border-box;"></offer>Still just 17 years old, Franco is obliterating the advanced rookie Appalachian League, leading the circuit in average and placing third in slugging and fifth in OBP, while younger than any player ahead of him. He's drawn 27 walks against just 14 strikeouts in 245 PA this summer. By comparison, Baby Vlad had an outstanding season for Bluefield in the same league at age 17 two years ago, and Franco is beating him in all three triple-slash stats (average/on-base/slugging) while striking out less than half as often as Vlad did.
Franco has a deadly combination of incredible hand speed at the plate and a very advanced approach. Across two games of a doubleheader against the Pulaski Yanks, Franco reached base five times -- two walks, a hit by pitch on a 3-2 count, a single on a breaking ball, and a home run on a 92 mph fastball that left the park in about negative two seconds. His hands accelerate from zero to full speed as fast as any teenager I can remember seeing -- Javy Baez, Justin Upton, maybe Clint Frazier, and that's about it -- but his swing is very controlled, with good loft in his finish and hip rotation to add power. Two of his walks were eight-pitch affairs, and he didn't have a bad at bat the entire night. He singled on an 81 mph slider that fooled him, but he managed to stay back enough to line it over the second baseman's head.
Franco wasn't challenged at all at shortstop, making a few routine plays and showing plenty of arm strength for the left side of the infield. He looks fine physically, but at 17 still has growth ahead of him, and I could easily see him outgrowing the position -- but I don't see any reason right now to forecast that he'll move off it. Even at second or third, this is an elite hitting prospect, a potential plus-plus hit tool with power and huge on-base skills. His only real risk factors are his age and the distance he is from the big leagues. If he's not banging on the door of the Trop in two years, however, I'll be shocked. There's MVP upside here with the bat and the very high probability he plays somewhere on the dirt.
• Pulaski started right-hander Luis Medina, who has endured a disastrous season so far that has seen him walk 41 batters in 32.1 innings even as he's repeating the Appalachian League. His stuff is ridiculous: he was 94-99 mph, with his first 14 fastballs all coming in at 98 or 99 before he dipped all the way to 97 on the next pitch, and his 80-83 curveball has real promise with tight spin and a lot of power to it. His fastball is straight, however, and he only got one swing and miss on it, while his changeup is basically a bad fastball at 90-91 with neither life nor deception.
Medina looks athletic and his arm is loose, while his delivery gets him online to the plate -- he's on the extreme third base side of the rubber, which I assume is to ensure he's coming directly towards the plate -- but he has no idea where the ball is going. He threw 44 pitches, just 19 for strikes, and retired only five batters while walking three and hitting two (one of them twice, but the ump blew the call, only to have Medina hit the guy again a few pitches later).
If I had to predict a role for Medina, who is still just 19 years old, I'd say late-game reliever given the stuff and absence of any command, but he has to figure out how to throw his fastball for strikes before he'll have any major league role.
<strike></strike>• The P-Yanks ... that sounded better in my head ... had several notable names from past Yankees international free-agent classes, including third baseman Nelson Gomez ($2.25 million, 2014), who has big raw power but showed a lot of swing and miss in the doubleheader, vulnerable to sliders away and fastballs up at his eyes. He has a 7 arm, but a thick build that doesn't seem likely to stay at third -- and since he has a .281 OBP on the year, it may not matter anyway.
• The Yanks signed Oswald Perez for a relative bargain of $175,000 in 2016, and the Venezuelan shortstop showed a solid approach at the plate on Wednesday while hitting his first professional homer, a bomb to dead center on a 94 mph fastball. Still just 18, Peraza looks like he can hit a fastball, but punched out three times in the doubleheader, all three times on breaking balls. He played short in the first game but didn't have a play the entire game.
• Princeton center fielder Tony Pena has an unusual backstory for a Dominican player -- he signed at 18, not 16, for just $15,000 and didn't have much baseball experience, so he was quite raw when he entered the Rays' system two years ago, struggling badly in his stateside debut in the GCL last year. He's been excellent in 34 games this summer, mostly with Princeton, showing plus bat speed, above-average power, and a surprising ability to adjust to breaking stuff given how crude he was at the plate last season.
<strike></strike>
• A reader asked about Yankees outfield prospect Everson Pereira, but he did not play in either game last night and has been on the shelf with an undisclosed injury since last Thursday. Catcher Anthony Seigler, the Yanks' first-round pick this year, has also been out since last Thursday due to a concussion and is not expected to return before Pulaski's season ends Wednesday.
• Earlier this week, the Down East Wood Ducks, high-A affiliate of the Rangers, came through Wilmington, bringing with them the Rangers' top prospect, centerfielder Leody Taveras, who showed more than anything that he can really work the count, drawing three walks in five plate appearances without a swing and miss. Taveras has a good swing but still doesn't have the strength to make hard contact even when he's ahead in the count, although at 19 he has time to fill out and gain enough hand/wrist strength to do so. He's a plus defender in center already, and even with fringy power would be an above-average regular thanks to his defense and on-base ability.
• Shortstop Anderson Tejeda was also in the lineup for Down East, and while he's more raw at the plate than Taveras is, he may have more pure upside (with lower probability) because of his power. There's some loop length to his swing, and he's going to swing and miss quite a bit \-- way more than Taveras -- but he has 30-homer potential. He's athletic enough for short but already on the heavy side, and off a one-game look with just a few chances in the field I'd guess he ends up moving to second or third.[SUB][SUP]<strike>
</strike>[/SUP][/SUB]
<strike></strike>• Earlier this week, the Down East Wood Ducks, high-A affiliate of the Rangers, came through Wilmington, bringing with them the Rangers' top prospect, centerfielder Leody Taveras, who showed more than anything that he can really work the count, drawing three walks in five plate appearances without a swing and miss. Taveras has a good swing but still doesn't have the strength to make hard contact even when he's ahead in the count, although at 19 he has time to fill out and gain enough hand/wrist strength to do so. He's a plus defender in center already, and even with fringy power would be an above-average regular thanks to his defense and on-base ability.
• Shortstop Anderson Tejeda was also in the lineup for Down East, and while he's more raw at the plate than Taveras is, he may have more pure upside (with lower probability) because of his power. There's some loop length to his swing, and he's going to swing and miss quite a bit \-- way more than Taveras -- but he has 30-homer potential. He's athletic enough for short but already on the heavy side, and off a one-game look with just a few chances in the field I'd guess he ends up moving to second or third.[SUB][SUP]<strike>
</strike>[/SUP][/SUB]
at 22
