Franco is suffering from a fractured left wrist. The Phillies haven’t said so, but it appears likely that he will be shut down for the season.
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Philadelphia has turned to Cesar Hernandez and Andres Blanco as the fill-ins at third base and Franco’s fantastic rookie season is on hold after he hit.
Philadelphia third baseman Maikal Franco has given the Phillies reasons to be optimistic during a awful season. He’ll wear a brace for 2-3 weeks before being re-evaluated. “It’s a very small non-displaced fracture that the original X-ray did not pick up. He’s too important to us”.
The third baseman was unavailable for comment Tuesday, the Phillies said, but is expected to address the situation Wednesday. Overall, he is hitting. 277 with 13 homers, 48 RBIs, 22 doubles and an OPS of.830.
“It’s a big blow”, Amaro said. He’s having a heck of a year for us.
Playing third while mixing in some time at second should not adversely affect Hernandez’s development. Hernandez got the start Tuesday against the Blue Jays and committed a fielding error in the first inning on a hard-hit ball to his left. “We want to have one of our better young players”. “He might end up playing there five times a week”. I’m just going to take it day to day, see how he looks, see how comfortable he looks. “If it looks like it is affecting his approach offensively, then we might make an adjustment”. He was unavailable before Tuesday’s game because he was being examined by the Phillies’ team doctor. Before the injury, Franco was considered to be one of the front runners for the NL Rookie of the Year Award and earlier in the season he was named as June’s NL Rookie of the Month.
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“All I can really say about that is we’ll continue to be open-minded”, Amaro said. “There’s no mandate to keep him”.
