The Rays have reached agreement to sign 16-year-old Dominican shortstop Wander Samuel Franco, MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reports (Twitter link). Franco will receive a bonus worth $3.825MM.
Franco was regarded as the top prospect in this year’s international prospect class by both MLB.com and Baseball America. Franco is a 5’10”, 170-pound switch-hitter from a baseball family — Erick Aybar is his uncle, and Franco’s two older brothers are prospects in the Royals and Astros organizations. According to BA’s scouting report (available to subscribers), Franco is described as having excellent bat control, “premium bat speed,” and an overall very polished approach to hitting for a prospect of his age, with many scouts calling him the best hitting prospect of this year’s July 2 class. Defensively, Franco seems to grade out as a sturdy but unspectacular shortstop, though his body type may require a move to second base (where he could become an above-average defender) down the road.
The Rays have long been linked to Franco, and he immediately becomes an important prospect for a team that relies so heavily on low-cost player development. Flores’ deal marks Tampa Bay’s return to July 2 prominence, as the team has been limited to signings of no more than $300K for the last two international signing periods as punishment for exceeding their draft pool in the 2014-15 market. Franco’s bonus alone accounts for a major chunk of Tampa’s $5.25MM overall draft pool, though the Rays can trade for as much as $3,937,500 in additional pool funds in deals with other teams.
McKay and Franco additions should put Rays system in top 5.
Two prospects are not going to cause THAT big a jump in the rankings. Those two guys will not cause the Rays to jump the Braves, Yanks, or White Sox. The Padres and Reds got similarly good prospects as the Rays as well and were already stronger. The Rays definitely improved, but they are not top 5 YET.
The system prospect rankings are not an exact science and I have personally found them only useful in pegging the very worst and very best. Most of the in between ranked teams have so much variation in outcomes it’s kind of pointless.
NO baseball stat is an exact science.
The Rays system might not be as good as those top 3, but they’re in the same neighborhood as the Reds and Padres.
I wander what he’ll do with all that money?
Boooooo
Very quietly, the Rays have rebuilt themselves on the fly without a total tear down and lengthy rebuild. They are currently in the thick of the playoff race with one of the younger teams in MLB, despite losing multiple key pieces to injury, and have the majority of their core locked up for multiple seasons. The Rays also have one of the top farm systems with a nice mix of pitching and position players dispersed across all levels, top ranked prospects and good depth. Kudos to the FO for a nice job withering the storm after losing Friedman and Maddon a few seasons ago.
Rays system has gotten stronger over the last few years. Not counting Mckay as a pitcher & who they acquire as they trade Jake O. & Ramirez during the offseason or following will add to their pitching depth at AAA. Rays have some good position players that will be coming up over the next few seasons as well
Who cares if the Rays system is not top 3. It will start giving them good young players going forward. That is good enough for me.