Wander Franco, the consensus No. 1 overall prospect in baseball, hasn't allowed the COVID-19-forced suspension of the 2020 season to get him down. In fact, the 19-year-old has used some of his down time to imagine more prosperous times.
Much more prosperous times.
Currently property of the Tampa Bay Rays, Franco told Hector Gomez of ZDeportes and Z101 Digital that he believes he's only a few short years away from being one of the wealthiest players in the sport:
Born in 2001, the Rays signed Franco as an international free agent in July of 2017 and appear to have struck gold. The shortstop slashed .327/.398/.487 with nine home runs and 53 RBIs in 425 at-bats across two different levels of Single A a season ago.
MLB Pipeline offered this ringing endorsement of Franco when they ranked him as the No. 1 overall prospect in baseball earlier this year: "If you were to build a hitter from scratch using all of the physical attributes and skills that have come to define great hitters, he'd probably end up looking something like Franco."
Is Franco getting ahead of himself? Probably, and it's possible that such a declaration will rub some MLB veterans the wrong way. But he is a switch hitter that plays perhaps the most important position and could very well make his major league debut in 2020, should there ultimately be a season. The early confidence that Bryce Harper exuded rubbed some the wrong way when he broke into the majors as a teenager, but it also allowed him to win a National League MVP at age 22, make six All-Star appearances as a Washington National and earn a $330 million contract from the Philadelphia Phillies when he became a free agent after the 2018 season.
Franco may be a bit too optimistic in his timeline, though. First of all, the Rays will control him for at least six seasons, so they would have little incentive to offer him $300 million in four years, even if he's proven to have that type of value. Secondly, the largest contract that the Rays have ever issued is a six-year/$100 million deal to former third baseman Evan Longoria. There's no indication that even if Franco is as good as expected that the Rays will pony up the necessary money to retain him for the entirety of his peak.
That said, if Franco is as good as evaluators expect (and he himself expects, apparently), someone is going to compensate him for his services. Francisco Lindor, Fernando Tatis Jr., Gleyber Torres, Trevor Story, Javier Baez and Carlos Correa are among the star shortstops expected to receive lucrative long-term deals in the coming years. If Franco reaches his potential, he'll be set up well to get at least $300 million someday.
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