FORT MYERS, Fla. — The face-covering couldn’t mask the personality. Franchy Cordero’s laugh, expression and occasional English-speaking wit gave it away.
He is the 6-foot-3, 220-pound gentle giant. The kid from Azua, Dominican Republic who has two goals: 1. Construct the Baltimore Orioles using the identities of his minor-league buddies on the “MLB The Show” video game, and 2. Finally hit his own major league stride.
The first task? That is his hobby. (“I’m just building up the Orioles using my friends in the lower levels,” he enthusiastically offered through a translator.) The second, however, is the job. It’s one that Cordero isn’t evidently joking around about.
“Our staff is raving about his engagement,” said Red Sox assistant general manager Eddie Romero. “He has a natural interest in his swing, our athletic training program and our therapies. He has been incredibly engaged so far. He has a great personality. That speaks to how much he wants to reach his own potential. He has just fit in really, really well. He has been awesome.”
Cordero’s latest first impression has been a good one.
After a COVID 19-induced delay in joining the Red Sox — who traded for the 26-year-old in exchange for Andrew Benintendi — Cordero has done his part to keep optimism on his side. First came the proclamation that he idolized such Sox icons as David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez and … J.D. Drew? (“I just liked watching the way he played the game. It just seemed like it came so easy for him. It was fun watching him, his plate discipline and how he made contact. He was one I just loved watching,” Cordero said of singling out the former outfielder.)
And then came that one swing out in back of JetBlue Park.
“He was hitting balls over the batting cage,” Romero noted, citing the barn-like structure in back of the practice field’s right-field fence. “I have seen a lot of good hitters hit balls on top of the batting cage. But he was hitting them over it. Our staff is like we’ve seen Ortiz and Devers and other guys hit balls on top of it, but not clean over it.” (Note: In a text to WEEI.com Ortiz did confirm that he had accomplished a similar feat.)
So far, so good.
But the winding road that landed Cordero with the Red Sox simply has too many unwanted detours to merit complete benefit of the doubt. Put it this way: This has hardly been a no-doubt-about-it path from the Dominican to his favorite team.
The first bout of disappointment came after his workout with the Red Sox as a teenager, when Cordero — who the year before had just experienced a major growth spurt as a 14-year-old (“I was shorter than my sister who was just a year older than me until then,” he explained). A shortstop all his life, that day he was tested in the outfield. It didn’t work out.
He got his money ($175,000 signing bonus) and his team (the San Diego Padres), but it wasn’t with the team he had idolized all those years.
“He had big power,” remembered former Red Sox scout Johnny DiPuglia, who now guides the Nationals’ Latin scouting department. “He was pretty athletic for a guy his size. He didn’t profile as a shortstop. You were gambling on him running into a couple balls for some home runs. He had a bit of a loop in his swing, but that was the norm for a kid like that with that power. He was a very respectful kid. Yes sir, no sir answers. Looked you in the eye. Good handshake. For me it’s very important, the makeup and the character. … nWe look for more line-drive type hitters and want the power to come later. But a young man he had impressive power. He definitely seemed like a high character young man. Some guys like young power. To each his own. He wasn’t a quick-twitch athlete you normally look for down there. But he was on our radar.”
“I was obsessed (with the Red Sox) growing up as a kid,” Cordero said. “The Yankees and the Red Sox were always on TV and the Red Sox having David Ortiz all the other guys like Manny Ramirez, that’s what made into a big fan and pushed me into wanting to play baseball.”
The Red Sox may have got the ball rolling, but it was his father who truly helped the young man gain the steam he needed.
While Cordero’s mother, a lawyer, was insisting that the only boy of the family’s three children prioritize academics, his dad and uncle were making sure he was going to get every opportunity to live out the dreams of so many young Dominican boys.
“It was a great childhood,” he said. “It was me and my sisters and my parents were dedicated workers trying to give us the best. I was focused on my academics but my father always wanted to have a baseball player. He played before, but never in the pros. He groomed me.”
(There was also the obvious question: Was Frank Cordero good at the game as a younger man? Franchy chuckles and switches to English. “He says yes.”)
The ultimate payoff came on May 27, 2017 when those that first big league at-bat arrived.
Exactly 127 at-bats later, Cordero officially introduced himself to the rest of the world of baseball. A 489-foot home run will do that.
“This isn’t the first time his name has come up in trade talks,” remembered Romero. “His name had stuck out as one that we had asked about in his San Diego days. Then he went to Kansas City and we targeted him as one of the guys if this did happen he would be someone we would love to have. By then there was more refined evaluation, but overall the talent package and physical projection was the same as when he first got on the map.”
Cordero has rode the wave of success, experiencing the highs of that major-league debut and those 67 big-league hits (12 homers) in his 95 games. Those were the highs. The lows? That’s easy.
“The injuries that I have had to deal with,” he said when asked to define his darkest days. “There isn’t a specific one.”
Groin. Forearm. Elbow. And most recently, wrist.
All of it is what Cordero — and the Red Sox — hope is firmly in the rear-view mirror. It hasn’t been easy to this point, with his latest delay serving as a gentle reminder. But all parties involved are banking on better days ahead.
Starting with the ball that sailed over the barn in right field.
“He’s such a physically tantalizing player that I would bet every club in the league at some point has been interested in him because the upside of what he can do is so tremendous,” said Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom. “What’s nice, even though we have to do it right with him, especially given some of the history with him and not rush him, he jumped back in and responded really well. That tells us he was working hard and was in great shape. He just is blessed with physical ability that few people have. The key is keeping him on the field and hopefully we can help him tighten up the approach. But I think if we can keep this guy on the field we will have a chance to see some really exciting stuff.”
“It’s been great,” he said of his brief existence with the Red Sox. “They have all treated me great. But this has been a special experience so far. It’s been really great and I’m looking forward to it.”