Rays expect this to be first of many All-Star Games for Wander Franco

ST. PETERSBURG — Rodney Linares had heard about the kid, not quite 13, being touted as a rising Dominican prospect. So the then-Astros minor-league manager drove over to Santo Domingo one day during the 2013-14 offseason to get a peek at Wander Franco.

“Little guy, everybody talked about him, so you had to go see the kid,” recalled Linares, now the Rays’ bench coach. “I saw a lot of good things.”

Shane McClanahan was a just-signed first-round pick when he was sent to the Rays’ rookie-level team in Princeton, West Virginia, in August 2018 to get a couple starts when he got his first look at the 17-year-old Franco, who was wrapping up a promising debut pro season.

“I think he had a 3-for-4 game,” McClanahan said. “I’m like, ‘This kid’s 17 years old? That’s stupid.’ I was, like, ‘Where was I when I was 17?’ I was a junior in high school. And he’s here just throttling people in the Appalachian league. And I knew from that moment he was special.”

Brady Williams’ first impression of Franco actually wasn’t much. He watched him trudge through the alternate site workouts of the pandemic-delayed 2020 season in scorching hot Port Charlotte as a 19-year-old who hadn’t played above Class A, facing better and more experienced teammates.

But Williams’ view changed dramatically in May 2021, when he was managing the Rays’ Triple-A Durham team and had the 20-year-old Franco in his lineup playing shortstop and batting second.

“There were no lights in Port Charlotte, the games didn’t mean a whole lot,” Williams said. “Then Game One of 2021 in Memphis, that’s when we saw the real Wander. I was like, ‘OK, I see it now.’ ”

Hey now, you’re an All-Star

Six weeks later, Franco was in the majors, and what the Rays have seen for years — the tremendous talent, athleticism and aggressive play — will be on display for the rest of the world Tuesday night, as Franco, now 22 and in his third big-league season, makes his first appearance in a major-league All-Star Game.

That Franco didn’t initially make the team, despite ranking as the top position player in the American League in WAR (4.3 per baseball-reference.com), riled the Rays. He instead was added to the roster last week as a replacement for an injured player (Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge).

Though none of Franco’s basic offensive stats — .278 average, 11 homers, 44 RBIs, .797 OPS — stand out, besides his 28 steals anyway, his overall play — including his increasingly consistent elite defense — has been strong, reflected in his WAR rating, which trails only Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna among position players.

What has also helped Franco this year is availability; thus far he has avoided any extended injury absences, which limited him in 2021 and 2022.

Though Franco doesn’t yet have the career achievements to rank with the game’s top 25-and-under stars, such as Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr., Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Acuna, the Rays are confident in his abilities. That was most evidenced by the franchise-record contract they game him after the 2021 season — when he had played only 70 big-league games — that guaranteed him $182 million over 11 years and up to $223 million over 12.

“He’s a generational talent,” said Williams, now the Rays third-base coach. “He really is.”

More work to do

Just as Franco had to learn and improve to get to the majors — Linares, for example, wasn’t wowed when he saw him briefly during spring training 2019 — there are things he still needs to address on the field and off, such as better controlling his emotions and his behavior toward his teammates.

The Rays benched him for two late-June games — and announced they were doing so, and why — to make that clear to him. Franco said he definitely got the message (and was concerned that issue may have kept him from making the All-Star team) and has been working on it, though it clearly will be an ongoing process.

(One sign of progress was that when he threw his helmet and slammed his bat in frustration during the weekend Braves series, no teammates were nearby.)

“He’s learning,” Linares said. “Here’s a kid that’s 22 years old, that’s all alone. He’s got a multi-million-dollar contract. He’s got probably the weight of the world on his shoulders.

“It comes a time when you know that things get on you. We as grown men go through it, and sometimes we don’t know how to react. But he has learned from all that stuff, and to turn the page on that and keep playing baseball.”

Given the progress the Rays have seen Franco make in his overall game — including pre-game preparation to prevent leg muscle issues that sidelined him in the past — and the projections they have for his future — including an increase in power — they anticipate this to be the first of many All-Star appearances.

“I said it at the beginning of the year that I think Wander has an opportunity to be a perennial All-Star,” Linares said. “Wander has an opportunity to change the face of the organization because he can do it on defense, on the bases, with his bat. There’s so many things that that kid can do that can help an organization win. And he’s doing it here.”

Actually, they’re kind of banking on it.

“I believe our contract would suggest our expectations are for more,” baseball operations president Erik Neander said. “At 22 years old, he has turned himself into an incredibly well-rounded, winning player in all aspects of his game.”

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