Phillies Third Baseman Maikel Franco Showing Signs of Life
By John Town
Phillies third baseman Maikel Franco had a rough sophomore season, but this September is his best month of the year. It’s an encouraging sign as 2016 comes to an end.
It’s safe to say Maikel Franco hasn’t lived up to the expectations set by his rookie campaign with the Phillies. A year after slashing .280/.343/.497, that line has fallen to .253/.343/.497 this season. Our own Evan Gusz detailed Franco’s struggles earlier this month, analyzing everything from his inconsistent mechanics to his low BABIP.
However, Franco’s September is easily his best month of the season. Both his .862 OPS and 131 wRC+ through Saturday are his best marks of any month this year. His three home runs this month pales compared to other months, but he still has six more games to add on to that total.
Franco’s 0.6 fWAR ranks third among all Phillies this month. That number accounts for more than a third of his fWAR total this season.
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This month, Franco’s plate discipline has been noticeably better. For starters, he is swinging at more pitches in the zone and less out of the zone. Prior to this month, he swung at 34.3% pitches outside of the zone and 73.6% in the zone. Now, he is swinging at 29.8% pitches out of the zone and 76.8% in the zone.
In addition, Franco is swinging at less pitches overall. He swung at 52.3% of pitches prior to September and has since lowered that mark to 49.7%.
As he shows more patience and discipline, Franco is making more contact as well. Overall, Franco is making nearly 3% more contact. Inside the zone, his contact rate has jumped 5.8%.
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Along with more contact, Franco’s made better contact in this hot streak. While making hard contact just 29.3% of the time before September, he’s now made hard contact 44.8% of the time. Meanwhile, his soft contact rate fell from 22.6% to 13.8% this month.
On top of that, Franco is hitting far more line drives this month. He ranks fifth among all qualified MLB hitters this month, hitting line drives 31% of the time.
Franco’s ground-ball rate is significantly down this month as well. Before this month, Franco hit ground balls 44.6% of the time, compared to 36.2% in September.
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With this hot streak, there may still be hope for Franco in 2017 and beyond. Without this month, there was nothing to salvage from 2016. Now, Franco has something to build on as this season draws to an end.