On September 22, the Rays added Franco to their Player pool of players who would be eligible to play in the Major League Baseball postseason. Franco did not appear in an MLB game, and did not play in any minor league contests due to the cancellation of the minor league season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. After going hitless in his first five at-bats of the spring, the switch-hitting Franco -- batting left-handed -- unloaded on the first pitch he saw from right-hander Miguel Yajure in the second inning of the Rays’ 3-1, six-inning win over the Pirates.
In the fifth inning, Franco tied things up for the Tampa Bay Rays with a three-run homer off Eduardo Rodriguez, the first hit of his promising career. Tampa Bay Rays rookie Wander Franco — considered the No. 1 prospect in baseball — hit a three-run home run and doubled his MLB debut Tuesday against the Boston Red Sox. In the Rays' seventh inning against reliever Josh Taylor, Franco doubled to left on a ball that left the bat at 105 mph. But the Rays challenged the call, which was overturned, keeping the inning alive and bringing up Franco.
Minor leagues
Tampa Bay’s 21-year-old star shortstop slugged his first home run of the season in the third inning, the highlight of an encouraging all-around night for the Rays’ lineup in their 6-5 win over the Cubs. Franco’s talents were on display again in the seventh, when he crushed a low slider from lefty Josh Taylor to left field for a 105.3 mph double. Franco hustled and slid into second base, jumped to his feet and inspired rounds of “WAN-DER FRAN-CO” chants from the crowd of 12,994. MLB's No. 1 prospect made his big-league debut Tuesday night vs. the Boston Red Sox and came through in the clutch.
The 20-year-old infielder said he was “born to hit.” And when he finally arrived in the Major Leagues, Franco wasted no time showing off the skills that made him baseball’s best prospect. Trailing 5-2 at the bottom of the fifth inning, Franco's first hit was a home run on a fly ball to left field against Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodríguez, allowing Kevin Kiermaier and Yandy Diaz to cross home plate in a three-run homer. Stepping up to the plate for the first time in the first inning, Franco received a standing ovation. He swung at the first two pitches he saw, both strikes, and fouled them off. He then took four straight pitches outside the zone and earned more cheers from the home crowd as he trotted to first base. Franco quickly came around to score his first run, as Randy Arozarena loaded the bases with a one-out infield single and Francisco Mejía followed by knocking a single into shallow left field.
Recent Games
Franco jumped on a breaking ball from Rodriguez and blasted it 362 feet into the left field stands for his first hit in the majors, tying the game 5-5. He’s only played 85 games in a Rays uniform, including the postseason, but the former top prospect has already shown a mature approach, incredible talent and a remarkable ability to come through in big moments. Franco’s two-run blast was the Rays’ first home run since Brandon Lowe went deep in the seventh inning of Thursday’s game against the A’s at Tropicana Field. It came in Franco’s first game at The Friendly Confines, the historic ballpark that’s 87 years older than him, and in his return to the lineup after being scratched late Monday afternoon. Two days after turning 20 years old, baseball’s top prospect launched a titanic home run well beyond the right-field fence and the neighboring boardwalk at Charlotte Sports Park. The ball traveled so high and far that it was nearly impossible to track, leading to plenty of guesses about where it actually landed.
On May 31, 2022, Franco was placed on the 10-Day IL due to a strained quadriceps. On July 9, 2022, Franco was placed on the 10-Day injured list, two days later it was announced Franco would miss 5-8 weeks due to hand surgery. On September 9, 2022 he was activated off the injured list. “He's unique, special, talented, and we're seeing it in every part of his game,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. Pitcher Adrian De Horta burst into the Rays' clubhouse to tell left-hander Shane McClanahan that Franco had just homered.
Advanced Batting
Batting right-handed against Steele, he took two fastballs to get ahead in the count, then unloaded on a 91.5 mph sinker and ripped it out to left-center field. The ball flew off his bat at 108.3 mph, according to Statcast, and sailed a projected 417 feet into the Wrigley Field bleachers to give the Rays a 3-0 lead. He pulled a home run batting right-handed, then smashed a double to left-center while hitting left-handed in his next at-bat. While the rest of the Rays’ lineup is still trying to get on track, especially during a cold week in Chicago, Franco has been locked in from the start. And it’s not just Franco's power potential that impresses his teammates, of course. Franco reached on an opposite-field single in the sixth inning Wednesday, and he recorded more walks than strikeouts during his first two seasons in the Minors.
If it had caromed off that part of the wall directly onto the field, it would’ve been a double. Even longtime observers of baseball in Boston found Franco's home run to be unusual, perhaps even unprecedented. It was the Rays’ seventh win in their past eight games against the Red Sox, their 17th win in 25 games since the All-Star break and their 70th overall this season, the most in the American League. It quickly put Wednesday night’s lopsided 20-8 loss in the rearview mirror, sealed a series victory in Boston and restored the club’s lead in the AL East to five games.
Landing spot of Wander HR? We're not sure
Franco tested his leg twice, running hard on his first-inning groundout, then aggressively tagging up from second in the fifth inning. But he also conserved some energy by simply jogging around the bases after his first homer since Game 4 of the 2021 AL Division Series. Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. Baseball-Reference Bullpen 100,000+ pages of baseball information, How to Contribute, ... MLB Scores Yesterday's MLB Games, Scores from any date in Major League history, MLB Probable Pitchers, Baseball-Reference Stream Finder, ... Franco became the youngest Tampa Bay player to go deep at Fenway Park.
Maybe that’s just Franco’s naturally advanced approach in action. Maybe it’s his growing comfort and confidence playing a part. But this is what the Rays believe the switch-hitting shortstop is capable of doing, the reason he was such a highly touted prospect at such a young age.
McClanahan recalled a two-week stretch in the Minors when Franco didn’t swing and miss a single time. No matter what Franco does power-wise — and that will determine if he’s a super star or a good player — he will make great contact thanks to a plus hit tool. So Franco means a lot to a whiff-laden lineup, and that was before his prodigious power output in his debut.
Franco batted second in the lineup and played third base in the game. Prior to the three-run homer, Franco fouled off Rodríguez's first two pitches in the bottom of the first before Rodríguez threw four balls and walked Franco. On November 23, 2021, Franco and the Rays agreed to an eleven-year, $182 million contract extension, with a club option of $25 million for a twelfth year. At age 20, Franco became the youngest player in baseball history to sign a contract worth at least $100 million, passing Ronald Acuña Jr.'s eight-year, $100 million contract extension signed in 2019. Franco's deal was the largest for any player with less than one year of major league service. Back in the lineup Tuesday night at Wrigley Field, Franco looked as comfortable as he seemingly always does in the batter’s box.
