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Nick Franklin

Angels Designate Nick Franklin For Assignment

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The Angels have designated infielder Nick Franklin for assignment and will go with Kaleb Cowart as their primary second baseman, Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times tweets. “The direction we’re moving is not going to give (Franklin) a lot of at-bats,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. The Angels have also announced that they’ve selected the contract of righty Troy Scribner.

The Rays parted ways with Franklin near the beginning of the season, and he headed to the Brewers on a waiver claim and then to the Angels in a minor deal after the Brewers designated him for assignment. Overall, he’s batted .179/.269/.283 in 119 plate appearances for the season, failing to make much of an impression despite a solid offensive performance with Tampa Bay last year.

The 25-year-old Cowart batted a strong .311/.383/.482 in 413 plate appearances in Triple-A Salt Lake this season and has hit well in very limited opportunities in the big leagues. The Angels are trying to find a solution at second base after parting ways with Danny Espinosa earlier this month.

Angels Acquire Nick Franklin

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The Angels have acquired infielder/outfielder Nick Franklin from the Brewers, per a team announcement. He had been designated for assignment; the deal sends cash or a player to be named later to Milwaukee.

The Halos’ plans for the versatile Franklin aren’t immediately clear, though he will be heading to the active roster as he is out of options. That will most likely be easier to assess when the club makes a corresponding move to open a roster spot, which hasn’t yet occurred.

Franklin, who’s still just 26, hasn’t hit much this year, with a .195/.258/.317 slash in his 89 plate appearances for Milwaukee. But he hit much better (.270/.328/.443) in reserve duty last year and was long regarded as a quality prospect before he reached the majors.

 

Brewers Designate Nick Franklin, Activate Braun & Villar

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The Brewers have announced that utilityman Nick Franklin has been designated for assignment. Veterans Ryan Braun and Jonathan Villar, meanwhile, were both activated from their DL stints.

Franklin, 26, has not performed well for Milwaukee after coming over from the Rays in a waiver claim right at the start of the season. Through 89 plate appearances, he carries an ugly .195/.258/.317 batting line.

That said, Franklin has shown more at times in the upper minors and even against major league pitching. Last year, he gave Tampa Bay 191 plate appearances of .270/.328/.443 hitting with a half-dozen homers and as many steals. He’s also capable of playing all over the diamond, though the metrics haven’t always been kind to his glovework.

Brewers Claim Nick Franklin, Designate Michael Blazek Fror Assignment

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The Brewers have claimed infielder/outfielder Nick Franklin off waivers from the Rays, reports Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). The Rays had designated the 26-year-old Franklin for assignment over the winter. Milwaukee announced the move, somewhat surprisingly adding that righty Michael Blazek has been designated for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.

Franklin enjoyed a productive year for the Rays in a limited sample of 191 plate appearances last season, hitting .270/.328/.443 with six homers and six stolen bases. However, the former top prospect never settled into an everyday role with Tampa Bay or even a regular position. Last year, Franklin saw time at shortstop, second base, first base, right field and left field, though the majority of his work in the Majors has come at second base.

That defensive versatility figures to play well for the Brewers in the National League, as the switch-hitting Franklin will give manager Craig Counsell a jack-of-all-trades type to utilize in a variety of capacities. While there don’t appear to be everyday at-bats for Franklin anywhere in Milwaukee, he can join speedster Hernan Perez in bouncing all over the diamond and could, of course, take on a larger role in the event of an injury.

Blazek’s DFA is a bit of a surprise, if only because he’s just one year removed from a terrific season out of the Milwaukee ’pen. While the 28-year-old Blazek limped to a 5.66 ERA in 41 1/3 innings last year, he logged an outstanding 2.43 ERA with 7.6 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and a 47.4 percent ground-ball rate across 55 2/3 innings in 2015. Blazek maintained his velocity in 2016 (average fastball of 93.0 mph), but he did see his walk, home-run and ground-ball rates all trend in the wrong direction. Blazek does have a minor league option remaining, so any club that either claims him on waivers or acquires him via trade would be able to send him to Triple-A without needing to pass him through waivers.

While Franklin didn’t pan out with the Rays and Drew Smyly has since been traded to the Mariners, there’s still plenty of talent left in the Rays organization as a result of the team’s trade of David Price to the Tigers. In addition to Franklin and Smyly, Tampa Bay landed infield prospect Willy Adames in that deal, and the 21-year-old Adames is widely considered to be one of the top 50 or so prospects in Major League Baseball. The Rays also have Mallex Smith and minor leaguers Ryan Yarbrough and Carlos Vargas to show for their trade of Smyly to Seattle, creating further residual value from that 2014 blockbuster.

Rays Designate Nick Franklin For Assignment

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The Rays have designated utilityman Nick Franklin for assignment, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Jumbo Diaz, Daniel Robertson, Mallex Smith and Peter Bourjos have all made the Rays’ Opening Day roster.

The 26-year-old Franklin batted a solid .270/.328/.443 in 191 plate appearances with the Rays in 2016, but he posted subpar defensive numbers and was out of options. He also rarely plays shortstop and therefore doesn’t make an ideal utility infielder, and Rays manager Kevin Cash pointed to Robertson’s ability to back up the shortstop position better than Franklin as a factor in the decision, via a tweet from Topkin. With Smith and Bourjos to back up Colby Rasmus, Kevin Kiermaier and Steven Souza Jr. in the outfield (where Franklin also plays), there was no space for Franklin on the Rays’ roster.

Still, it wouldn’t be a shock if Franklin were claimed on waivers. His versatility, experience, relative youth and modestly useful bat could make him a potential fit for teams seeking to fill out their rosters as Opening Day approaches.

Franklin arrived in Tampa via the Rays’ 2014 three-team trade of David Price — the Rays got Franklin from the Mariners and Drew Smyly and top prospect Willy Adames from the Tigers, with veteran outfielder Austin Jackson heading from Detroit to Seattle. Franklin, though, spent a significant portion of his tenure in the Rays organization in the minors. He has posted a .219/.288/.371 line in parts of four seasons in the big leagues.

Tampa Bay Rays: Top 5 Bright Spots Of 2016

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Rebuilding season or not, falling short of the playoffs and finishing with a losing record probably means that more things went wrong than went right for a team. This series, however, will focus on those silver linings that each team can take away from an otherwise disappointing season.

[Related: “Top Bright Spots” archive]

Here are the biggest bright spots for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Note: Evan Longoria’s terrific season does qualify as a bright spot, but not a major one in regards to what was expected and how it affects the team moving forward. His trade value has risen, but it was already high and it’s likely the team holds on to their star third baseman with an eye on contending in 2017.

1. Brad Miller, 1B

When the Rays traded for Miller in the offseason, the hope was that he could give them at least adequate defense at shortstop to go along with 15-20 home runs. As the Mariners had already concluded, the 26-year-old was not very good at shortstop. But, as the Rays discovered, Miller proved that he was capable of much more at the plate, allowing them to hold off on a fallback plan to use him as a super-utility man who could start a handful of games per week.

With 20 homers and an .809 OPS, Miller made his debut as the Rays’ starting first baseman on August 8th. He would go on to hit 10 more homers and finish the season with a total of 30. It was the first time since 2009 (Carlos Peña, 39 HR) that a Rays’ hitter other than Evan Longoria finished the season with at least 30 homers. Versatility is still a key component of Miller’s value, but his breakout season at the plate has him locked in as the team’s first baseman for the foreseeable future.

2. Alex Colome, RP

After being moved out of the rotation in mid-2015, Colome proved that he could handle a late-inning relief role and possibly fill the closer’s role sometime in the future. When Brad Boxberger landed on the disabled list  to start the 2016 season, “sometime in the future” came much sooner than expected.

By the time Boxberger, who saved 41 games for the Rays in 2015, would return from the disabled list in late May (he would return to the disabled list after just one appearance), it was already apparent that he had been Wally Pipp’d. The 27-year-old Colome earned an All-Star bid on his way to a brilliant 37-save season with a 1.91 ERA, 2.4 BB/9 and 11.3 K/9. Finding a closer is not on the team’s agenda for the upcoming offseason.

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Matt Duffy Expected To Undergo Season-Ending Surgery

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TODAY: Duffy will likely remain active through the end of the week before having the surgery, Topkin tweets.

YESTERDAY: Newly-acquired Rays infielder Matt Duffy is expected to undergo season-ending surgery, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The procedure would “address the lingering soreness stemming from his earlier left Achilles injury,” per the report.

Duffy, acquired as the headliner in the swap that sent Matt Moore to the Giants, has continued to struggle at the plate since heading to Tampa Bay. All told, he owns only a .260/.312/.360 batting line over 364 plate appearances on the year. He has hit five long balls and swiped eight bases, though he has also been caught five times after going 12-for-12 on stolen base attempts a year ago.

The Rays are obviously banking on a return to form at the plate. Duffy benefited from a .336 BABIP in 2015, but nevertheless impressed with a solid .295/.334/.428 batting line. Even with some regression, a slightly above-average bat would conceivably make Duffy a highly valuable asset, as he rated as an outstanding defender at third with strong baserunning contributions last year. There are some questions there, too, however: Duffy hasn’t compiled stellar metrics since converting to short, though it’s a very small sample and he had primarily played at the hot corner of late, and his baserunning numbers took a huge dive in 2016 (-3.0 BsR, per Fangraphs).

Certainly, the nagging injury could go a ways toward explaining Duffy’s assorted struggles. He told Topkin that the soreness has lingered, with particular problems when playing on the turf infield at Tropicana Field. A surgical option has been on the table since June, the infielder noted, but the timeline for making a decision had shortened. “The only thing would be the recovery time,” said Duffy. “We want to be 100 percent sure that we’re ready to go by next season. I guess that’s one of the concerns.”

Tampa Bay still has plenty of time to make good on its end of the bargain, and certainly won’t be overly concerned with keeping Duffy on the field late this year with the postseason out of reach. The club controls him for four more seasons, and will be obligated only for the league minimum in 2017.

The need to replace Duffy for the rest of the season presents the Rays with many options, which Topkin details. Tim Beckham and Taylor Motter do not appear ticketed for the majors, he says, which could open the door for a move back to short for Brad Miller and/or some time there for Nick Franklin. Another player who could get a chance is prospect Daniel Robertson, though Topkin suggests the club may actually be “more likely” to go outside the organization and add a short-term veteran such as Alexei Ramirez.

AL Notes: Angels, BoSox, Twins, Rays

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Pirates third baseman David Freese spoke fondly of his two-year tenure with the Angels on Sunday and told reporters, including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, that he had hoped to re-sign with them last offseason. “I wanted to be an Angel. I can’t hide that,” stated Freese, who was an Angel from 2014-15. “From Day 1, I wanted to come back. I loved the guys. We had unfinished business. It just didn’t happen.” Freese said that he and the Angels discussed a return, but the team never actually made an offer. The Angels instead acquired Yunel Escobar, leaving Freese to eventually sign with Pittsburgh. Freese hit a decent .258/.322/.401 and accounted for 4.3 fWAR in 981 plate appearances with the Halos.

Elsewhere around the American League…

  • Red Sox catcher/left fielder Blake Swihart landed on the disabled list earlier today with a left ankle sprain, and manager John Farrell revealed that he won’t be back within the 15-day window. Farrell called the sprain “severe” and added that Swihart will be immobilized for two weeks, Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald was among those to report (Twitter link). With fellow left field option Brock Holt also out, the Red Sox are down to Chris Young and Rusney Castillo at the position.
  • Twins infielder Eduardo Nunez has hit a terrific .331/.359/.497 with six home runs in 193 trips to the plate this season, but manager Paul Molitor isn’t sold on the 28-year-old as an everyday long-term option for the club (via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com). “It’s a slippery slope as far as projecting a guy into that role who has played well for a couple months,” said Molitor. “If you base it on how he’s performed, it’s easy to speculate he could be one of those guys who sheds the role as a utility guy. But I think it’s too early for that.” This has easily been Nunez’s best season in an otherwise unremarkable career since he broke into the majors with the Yankees in 2010, so Molitor’s position is certainly understandable. Nunez, to his credit, has been far better in Minnesota than he was in New York, though. Since joining the Twins in 2014, Nunez has batted .286/.318/.435 with 14 homers in 607 PAs, also chipping in 28 steals.
  • The Rays placed outfielder Brandon Guyer on the 15-day disabled list with a left hamstring strain Sunday and recalled infielder Nick Franklin from Triple-A Durham, Bill Chastain of MLB.com was among those to report (Twitter link). Guyer is now the second notable Rays outfielder to hit the DL in recent weeks, joining center fielder Kevin Kiermaier. The 30-year-old had gotten off to an excellent start pre-injury, evidenced by his .271/.365/.472 batting line in 168 PAs, and helped his cause by reaching base 15 times via the hit by pitch. That’s nothing new for Guyer, whom opposing pitchers have struck a combined 50 times since he started seeing extensive big league action in 2014. Franklin, a former well-regarded prospect with the Mariners, has spent this year in the minors after hitting an unsightly .158/.213/.307 in 109 PAs with the Rays last season.
  • Speaking of the Rays, they entered play Sunday with the second-worst record in the AL, and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times offered some potential ways the team could save its season before it slips away. Among Topkin’s suggestions: Cut $3.3MM outfielder Desmond Jennings loose or demote him to Durham (either option could be difficult now with the Rays’ depth already having taken multiple hits), promote top pitching prospect Blake Snell and find an outside catcher solution – even if it means surrendering a significant haul for Brewers backstop Jonathan Lucroy.

AL East Notes: Franklin, Red Sox, Tanaka

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Infielder Nick Franklin, part of the haul that the Rays acquired in the David Price trade, will be recalled to join the club today, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Once ranked as one of the game’s top 50 prospects by MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus, Franklin struggled for much of his time at Triple-A with the Rays, hitting just .210/.288/.290. As Topkin points out, Franklin did hit .424 with a pair of homers in nine playoff games that aren’t included in that stat line, and he of course had an excellent first half as a rookie with the Mariners in 2013, hitting .268/.337/.451 in 169 plate appearances.

Here’s more from the AL East…

  • The Red Sox could follow the same method they did with Andrew Miller and the one the Royals/Rays employed with Wade Davis by moving some of their current young starting options to the bullpen, writes Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal. MacPherson notes that Brandon Workman already looks like a future reliever and speculates that some or all of Allen Webster, Anthony Ranaudo and Rubby De La Rosa could end up in the bullpen eventually as well. MacPherson also spoke with Miller about the transition from the rotation to the bullpen.
  • Masahiro Tanaka will throw 60 pitches — including some splitters — in a simulated game today, writes John Harper of the New York Daily News. If Tanaka pitches well, he could re-join the Yankees’ rotation and make a couple of starts before season’s end. While that may be too little, too late for the Yankees’ playoff hopes, a few healthy starts from Tanaka would give the Yankees some peace of mind heading into 2015.

Quick Hits: Hernandez, Castillo, Martin, M’s, Pirates

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Left-hander Yasmany Hernandez has left Cuba for an undisclosed third country with the goal of signing a MLB contract, per Diario De Cuba (h/t Baseball America’s Ben Badler). Badler provides a scouting report on the 23-year-old, who led Serie Nacional with a 1.66 ERA this past season. Hernandez will be exempt from international bonus restrictions after pitching five seasons in Serie Nacional, but Badler doesn’t expect teams to show as much interest in Hernandez as fellow Cubans have drawn. Here are more notes from around the game.

  • Badler also recently appeared on the Providence Journal’s Super Two podcast with Tim Britton and Brian MacPherson, where he discussed new Red Sox outfielder Rusney Castillo. Badler says teams are becoming increasingly receptive to spending big money on Cuban players thanks to the successes of players like Jose Abreu and Yasiel Puig, adding that the added power Castillo demonstrated since leaving Cuba increased his value on the market.
  • Free-agent-to-be Russell Martin would be a great fit for the Cubs, Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times writes. Signing Martin would involve making a significant financial commitment and giving up on Welington Castillo as a starting catcher, but Martin could help mold the Cubs’ young pitching and provide a strong example for the rest of its young roster.
  • The Mariners will not retain national cross-checker Butch Baccala, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports. Baccala is the scout who sent Jesus Montero ice cream during a minor league game while Montero was rehabbing, seemingly as an insult regarding Montero’s weight. Montero threw the ice cream at Baccala and was suspended.
  • The Pirates had a quiet trade deadline, but they’ve had a strong second half anyway, MLB.com’s Tom Singer writes. In particular, they didn’t complete a trade for a starting pitcher and didn’t improve what appeared to be a weak bullpen. Since then, though, their bullpen has quietly become a strength, thanks in part to the emergence of John Holdzkom, and their offense has papered over any rotation issues. “You’ll get second-guessed no matter what you do,” says Bucs manager Clint Hurdle. “That’s just the nature of the world. So you gotta do what you feel in your gut is right.”
  • The Rays are ready to see what they’ve got in Nick Franklin, who they’re promoting Monday, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. The Rays, of course, acquired Franklin from the Mariners in the three-team deal in which they sent David Price to Detroit. Since the trade, Franklin has hit .210/.288/.290 in 113 plate appearances for Triple-A Durham, although his track record indicates he’s capable of hitting better.
  • Padres assistant director of scouting operations Don Welke, who arrived recently from the Rangers organization along with new GM A.J. Preller, is enjoying his first month with San Diego, Corey Brock of MLB.com writes. Welke and other members of the Padres’ front office are currently in Arizona, where they’re watching Padres prospects play in the instructional league.
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