The Rays are likely to activate Wander Franco from the 10-day injured list before tomorrow’s series opener with the Yankees, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The shortstop has been on a minor league rehab assignment with Triple-A Durham, but he traveled with the team to the Bronx during today’s off day and is likely to be back in the lineup on Friday night.
Franco has been out for two months. He suffered a hamate fracture in his right wrist on July 9, and he underwent surgery a few days later. That procedure came with a five-to-eight week recovery timetable. Franco comes in toward the latter end of that timeline, largely thanks to a couple brief setbacks along the way. Sent out on a rehab assignment in mid-August, the 21-year-old was pulled back a few days later after experiencing some residual soreness. That set Franco back a couple weeks, but he’s been in Durham’s lineup each of the past two nights.
A two-day rehab stint after an absence of this length doesn’t give Franco much time to get back into a rhythm, but the Rays are also facing one of their most important series of the year. Tampa Bay trails the Yankees by five games, and this weekend’s series will be the teams’ final meeting of the regular season. For the Rays to have a realistic chance at winning the AL East, they’ll probably have to at least take two of three to gain a game in the standings. Getting Franco back certainly helps those efforts, even if his second season in the majors hasn’t gone as smoothly as they’d have hoped.
The sport’s consensus top prospect before his promotion last summer, Franco hit .288/.347/.463 through his first 70 MLB games. He already looked like one of the sport’s top overall players, but the switch-hitting infielder has taken a bit of a step back in his sophomore campaign. He carries a .260/.308/.396 line through 247 trips to the plate. He’s been one of the league’s toughest players to strike out, but his power production has taken a bit of a step back. Franco has also had a pair of extended IL stints, missing a month due to a quad strain before this hamate issue.
Relatively slow start aside, there’s no question Franco represents a marked upgrade over the Rays other options at shortstop. Tampa Bay has primarily turned to Taylor Walls there in his absence. A former highly-regarded prospect himself (albeit not one of Franco’s caliber), Walls has stumbled to a .176/.267/.282 line over 408 trips to the dish.
Franco was joined on his rehab stint by Tyler Glasnow, who tossed an inning on 19 pitches last night for Durham. It marked the big right-hander’s first game action since he underwent Tommy John surgery last August. Glasnow, who signed an extension two weeks back, continues to pursue a late-season return to the club. There’s a bit less than a month remaining on the regular season schedule, but the 29-year-old could factor in as an abbreviated starter or reliever for the stretch run and postseason if all goes according to plan.
It wasn’t all positive news on the injury front for the Rays, as they’re shutting down one of their top prospects for the season. Infielder Curtis Mead is out for the year with a forearm/elbow issue, tweets Triple-A broadcaster Patrick Kinas. Mead, a 21-year-old third baseman/second baseman, raked at a .305/.394/.548 clip through 56 games with Double-A Montgomery. That earned him a bump to Durham in late June, where he’d been off to a .278/.376/.486 start before the injury.
That monster showing has elevated Mead’s prospect status. Baseball America slotted the Australia native 3rd in an excellent Tampa Bay system and 24th overall on its most recent Top 100 prospect rankings. While he’s yet to make his major league debut, he’ll no doubt be added to the 40-man roster this winter to keep him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. With a strong start to next season for the Bulls, Mead could factor into the Rays infield by the middle part of next season.
Walls is the best defensive SS in all of baseball. Rays need to move Franco to 3rd and platoon Yandy at 1B even though Yandy is great at 3b also. Good problem to have. Or Walls could be moved in the off season to go play SS every day for someone else. He’s been hitting much better since AS break.
Walls is incredible defensively, but I don’t think you change your franchise player’s position because of Walls’ defense.
But, I would love Walls and Franco on the same side of the infield. Just for the sole reason I can declare right now that any Oasis jokes like “Wander Walls” are pending trademark by me.
Actually 2b and SS makes sense
“Today is gonna be the day that I’m gonna throw it back to you
And by now, you should’ve somehow realised what you gotta do
I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do about turning two”
.171/.285/.256 (.541) with a 26% strikeout rate in his 40 games since the All Start Break.
If that is better, than I all I have to say is YIKES!
Thank you for the numbers. That K rate for someone with his speed is a true waste of talent.
The reason i want walls to stay at ss is so Wander can play DH and stay healthy the rest of year
Walls cannot hit. Defensively he’s great, but he’s a flyball hitter with warning track power. If he somehow learns to get the ball on the ground with less strikeouts, he could hit .250 maybe. His average has fluttered between .160 and .190 most of the year.
Bit can he hit? Over 510 ABs, Walls is .186/.281/.286. That is awful production.
Post AS, Walls is .171/.285/.256, which is worse than before the break.
I’m sorry, but I don’t care if Walls is the second coming of Ozzie Smith, you don’t win long term with players who have a slash of 0.186/0.281/0.286 in 510 AB’s.
“Batting average doesn’t matter”
Lol
Ozzie should never have sniffed the HOF. Never understood that one. The absolute first guy I would remove.
Lol
back flipped and smiled his way in.
His bat was el stinko.
Dreadful
28 homers in 20 years or so.
Seriously hof?
The more I look at his stats the more I agree with you 007.
If he is in then Juan Pierre and J. Damon should be in.
He wasn’t even the best defensive shortstop many of the years he won a gold glove. Then again, gg voting was based solely on name recognition during that time.
Otis Nixon’s of the world. Gawd if Ozzie Smith is in the hall why not Mark Belanger , Omar Vizquel ( leaving out character) was ten times the hof’er Ozzie. Equal D way better O
Juan Pierre and Johnny Damon weren’t even close to the top defensive player at their positions. Defense wins games, and unlike Jeter, was the most gifted SS we had seen to that time. He set the new standard all others have been held to since. If that isn’t HOF worthy, what’s your standard? Bat only?
Being a hole in the lineup at bat for many seasons takes away from the defence. It’s a minus. Especially when pitchers hit. His offence hurt his team. That’s not a hofer , a hofer , doesn’t carry huge minus. helps his team on offence and defence. Dh doesn’t hurt u defensively
I disagree, respectfully. Defense matters. Saving a run is as good as driving a run in. His career WAR was 6 points higher than Alan Trammell who played 20 years in the league in the same position, but was much better offensively than Smith, Ozzie’s defense was a huge part of the team’s overall success in the 80’s. Plus, like you said, he was immensely popular with players, coaches, and fans.
To put it more into perspective, Ozzie’s career WAR average per year was 4.0 and that includes his final 5 “down” years. Trea Turner, currently considered on of the best overall SS, is currently at 4.2 in his prime.
By your logic, Adam Dunn should’ve be a first ballot Hall of Famer lol
Stupidest thing I’ve read today
Edp007
Ozzie should never have sniffed the HOF.
============================
A lot of baseball writers know relatively little about the sport.
I’m not judging Ozzie on this, but he had 76.9 bWAR in 10,778 PAs. Trammell had a 70.7 bWAR in 9,376 PAs. So that’s 9% more WAR in 15% more PAs. So if the writers wanted Ozzie in because he did back-flips, so be it.
But how is Ozzie a 1st ballot with 91.7% while Trammell gets 15.7% in his 1st vote, while only topping out at 40.9%? At least until the veterans committee, you know, the ones that know BB, gave him 87.5%.
Exactly
I would have taking Trammel any day of the week over Smith.
Thank the lord that the reincarnate of Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron is returning.
You forgot Double X and Gherig
Seems wrong of me not to correct my misspelling of the Iron Horse’s name. “Gehrig.”
Wow,!! At the all-Star break, it seemed like the Yankees were a lock for the division and now they’re battling to fight off the Rays and, to a lesser extent, the Blue Jays. Only 3 games separate NY and TB in the loss column. I’m sure Franco is a welcomed sight for Rays’ fans.
Rays are starting to look a little dangerous as we move closer to the post season
These long-term, guaranteed contracts hurt baseball. It affects MLB’s reputation when the more occasional fan base hears about yet another injury or down turn in performance once a player signs such a deal. Yet I understand why teams – especially small market clubs – do this since they need cost control. Bottom line, although it’s not good for the sport, I only see it increasing going forward.
One could argue that having a star player with the same team for 10+ year is very good for BB.
If the player remains a star for ten years but most of the time they don’t remain a star.
There are some HUGE series kicking off tonight, starting with the Rays/Yankees. Rays are only 3 games behind NY in the loss column so if they could somehow pull off a sweep, the AL East really becomes a race. If the Rays want a shot at the AL East title and a first round bye, they must win 2 out of 3 of these games but a sweep would really tighten things up.
There are also some other important playoff impact series starting tonight, including LAD @ SD, ATL @ SEA and CLE @ MINN. All of these teams (expect the LAD) are fighting for either a wild card or division title. It should be great baseball to watch…really looking forward to it!
Of all hof shortstops who would be last pick in a draft. I say Ozzie. Of course I didn’t see some play lol saw everyone who played late 60s to current. baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/hall-of-fam…