Royals Rumors: Maikel Franco low risk, high upside signing for Kansas City

Kansas City Royals rumors have been rare this offseason, but it looks like the team has signed Maikel Franco.

Finally! Kansas City Royals rumors have been non-existant of late but one has emerged and now is being reported as fact. The Royals have signed third baseman Maikel Franco to a one-year deal worth $2.95 million, with another $1.05 in incentives.

The Royals evidently won over several other interested teams for Franco’s services. Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com was the first to indicate Kansas City may win out. ESPN’s Jeff Passan then tweeted out some fo the details, with Sanchez following up that some incentives are included in the deal.

This is a very interesting deal because Kansas City had Hunter Dozier manning third for most of last year. Jeffrey Flanagan, who covers the Royals for MLB.com, is reporting Dozier will move to right field, with Whit Merrifield taking over in center.

Franco is only 27 years old but has six years of experience, four full seasons, under his belt. He has performed pretty well in 2016 and 2018 but had down years in 2017 and 2019. All of his slash numbers were lower in the odd years, and he earned a minus 1.1 Wins Above Replacement.

The even years, he earned a 1.2 WAR, according to Fangraphs. If this trend continues for Franco, it will be good news for the Royals as 2020, of course, is an even year.

There is hope, however. In his career, Franco has had some awful luck on batted balls. His Batting Average on Balls in Play is only .258 (historically, the league average is close to .300).

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He isn’t a big flyball hitter, getting balls in the air just 36.2 percent of the time. The Royals would need him to hit more line drives than the 18 percent he averages for his career. With a ground ball rate at 45.8 percent, having such a low BABIP is due to a lot to bad luck.

Luck does play a part, but it is not the only reason for such a paltry BABIP. Franco also struggles to hit the ball hard. His career Hard Hit percentage is terrible at 29.8. Compared to Dozier’s 44.7 percent, you can see why maybe a lot of Franco’s batted balls get fielded. He needs to hit the ball harder to improve that ratio of hard-hit balls, and that will, in turn, up his BABIP.

There is some good news. While Franco does not walk much (6.8 percent for his career), he did make a significant improvement in that area last season, walking a career-high 8.4 percent. He also does not strike out at a crazy rate – 15.3 percent for his career and only 14.3 percent in 2019!

Some of the low strikeout rates could be what causes his low Hard Hit ratio – he doesn’t swing hard enough. At only 27, this is something that can be fixed.

If Maikel Franco can continue to improve his batting eye and can find a way to make harder contact, this could be a huge signing for Kansas City. The contract isn’t going to be crippling at all, and there is a lot of upside with Franco.

There won’t be many Royals rumors this offseason, so it was nice to see one emerge and then become a reality so quickly.