Royals betting former top prospect Maikel Franco still has substantial upside
The Kansas City Royals’ boisterous star catcher Salvador Perez raised an eyebrow when an unknown figure approached him this winter while working out at a gym in Miami.
The stranger acted as though they shared a level of familiarity, but Perez didn’t recognize the stocky young Dominican man greeting him. It stunned Perez to learn the man staring him in the face was his new teammate: Maikel Franco, a power-hitting third baseman most recently with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Up until this offseason, Franco had been easily identifiable by dreadlocks that often extended to shoulder length or beyond, but Franco stood in front of Perez with a tightly cropped head of hair.
“I’m just trying to be a new guy, new people, new organization,” Franco said of his new look during Royals’ FanFest last month in Kansas City. “I’m trying to be different. Let’s see what’s going to happen this year. I’ve got a lot of reputation, but I’m just trying to be a new guy.”
The Royals wasted little time in offering Franco a fresh start after the Phillies non-tendered the 27-year-old former top 100 prospect who once posted three consecutive 20-homer seasons in the majors.
Franco signed a one-year deal that will pay him $2.95 million with up to an additional $1.05 million in performance bonuses. Even though he signed a one-year deal, the Royals can offer him salary arbitration and bring him back for the 2021 season.
“He’s just really now entering his prime,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore told The Star at FanFest. “He’s 27, 28 years old, the same when (Hunter) Dozier kind of hit his prime, when Whit Merrifield hit his prime. You saw what happened to Jorge Soler.”
Nobody will likely complain about Franco’s new hair if the 6-foot-1, 215-pound right-handed slugger shows he can still swing a pretty mean bat.
“We have a player who is really hungry, who wants to be in Kansas City, who has a lot of upside and we control him for two years,” Moore said. “So it makes perfect sense for us.”
Philly falling out
Signed as an international free agent by the Phillies in 2010, Franco distinguished himself as Baseball America’s 17th-best prospect in 2013. The publication ranked him 56th in 2014, the year he reached Triple-A and later made his major-league debut.
From 2015-18, Franco averaged 21 home runs, 23 doubles and 70 RBIs per season with a slash line of .255/.306/.442.
In 2018, he led the club with a .270 batting average, hit 22 home runs and finished the season as the only player in the majors with at least 20 home runs and 62 or fewer strikeouts.
After the Phillies made a failed bid for free-agent third baseman Manny Machado last winter, Franco began 2019 as the club’s starting third baseman. But by the end of the season he’d been the subject of trade deadline rumors, demoted to Triple-A and relegated to the bench.
“I know my game. I know what I have to do to get better,” Franco said. “I know what I have to do to be a good teammate. That’s what I’m looking for, trying to be me every time and trying to do everything that I can do to help my team.”
Last season, Franco slashed .234/.297/.409. While many of his metrics hadn’t changed significantly from earlier seasons (strikeout percentage, barrel percentage, exit velocity, hard hit percentage), it appeared he fell victim to bad luck.
At the time of demotion to Triple-A in early August, he’d slashed a career-worst .231/.296/.405, and his .228 batting average on balls in play ranked third-worst among qualified hitters.
But his ground ball percentage — he’d hovered between 44% and 50% in the majors — also worked against him with a Phillies regime that’s a proponent of launch angle.
Scott Kingery, who hit 19 home runs and slashed .258/.315/.474 in 2019, provided a fresh-faced and cheaper (Franco made $5.2 million in 2019) alternative at third base, and had a better launch angle.
The signs were abundantly clear that the club sought to move on from Franco in the offseason.
“That’s one of the reasons I came in, a new organization ... just go out there, do my thing and try to be ready every single day and show my talent. And I know I can be a great third baseman and an everyday player,” Franco said.
A familiar face
The day after he became a free agent, Franco received a phone call from a familiar number — Rene Francisco, the Royals assistant general manager for major league and international operations.
A longtime scout, Francisco is well known in the Dominican Republic. He also served as general manager of the Gigantes del Cibao in the the Dominican Professional Baseball League, a club Franco helped guide to its lone championship during the 2014-15 winter season.
“The one thing that did show was if he got hot, he could carry that team,” Francisco told The Star. “He did carry that team for a while. He’s a very streaky hitter.”
Franco had spent 2014 getting his first taste of Triple-A and then the major leagues as a September call-up at age 21.
“Obviously, the power stood out, how hard he hit the ball, and his defense was pretty good,” Francisco said. “He was a young kid at that time. He played happy. He just kind of enjoyed the game. He had a lot of fun in the game during winter ball.”
When Francisco called this winter to let Franco know the Royals had strong interest in signing him, Franco was immediately receptive.
While Francisco doesn’t claim to know the ins and outs of Franco’s situation with the Phillies, he’s confident that the Royals coaching staff can help him reach his potential.
“I know our coaching staff cares,” Francisco said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to put your arms around the player and just give him a little love. I think it’s going to work out with us.”
Francisco also senses Franco is motivated to prove he’s still the player who was once widely regarded as a top young prospect.
“We want to help him. He wants to be helped,” Francisco said.
A new starting point
The Royals didn’t wait until spring training to dive in and start helping Franco. He spent most of January working out in Miami with bench coach Pedro Grifol and special assignment hitting coach Mike Tosar, as well as catching prospect MJ Melendez, plus Soler and Perez.
Grifol lauded the scouting and front office staff for having identified a player in Franco who fits in with his teammates and who is motivated and willing to put in the necessary work.
“The guy has a will to be great,” Grifol said of Franco. “He’s going to will himself to be a very, very good major-league player, even more than what he already is. He has put up numbers, but he’s not comfortable with that. He’s hungry for more, and I believe his character and his makeup will himself to be the very best that his talent has to offer.”
The initial plan called for Franco to work with the staff in Miami for a week, but he kept working with them for three and a half weeks.
Grifol worked with Franco on hitting the first day, but Franco and Tosar worked together daily for the rest of the workouts. Tosar has worked with American League home run champion Soler as a personal hitting coach during offseasons.
One of the first things Franco said to Grifol and Tosar was that he needed to stop hitting the ball on the ground so often.
The main focus of his hitting work in Miami, according to Franco, has been to keep his “eyes behind the ball.” The phrase is a favorite of Tosar’s.
“Keeping your eyes behind the ball” or focusing on the back of the ball, translates into keeping your swing horizontal, Grifol explained.
Focus on the top and your mechanics get vertical. Then you lose your legs, your rhythm, timing and make contact out in front, making you more likely to roll over harmless ground balls.
The other adjustments, such as lowering his hands and preaching an aggressive mindset, came from what Grifol described as “bi-partisan” discussions between Franco and the staff.
They asked Franco a lot of questions, he provided answers and they came together to find a solution that worked and also felt comfortable for him.
Franco has used different stances and different mechanical changes through the years because he’s so adaptable. But the result at the end of his time in Miami was a stance that looked similar to a few years ago when he was a force.
Franco didn’t consider a lot of the things they worked on to be “changes” at all because they just felt right to him.
“What that tells us is he’s been there before,” Grifol said.
The Royals aren’t overly worried about whether they’ve got the “new” Franco or the “old” Franco. They believe they can still get the best Franco.
