The Tampa Bay Rays’ Wander Franco is a special prospect. Many evaluators view him as baseball’s best prospect since Bryce Harper and Mike Trout. Franco is only the fourth prospect to twice be ranked baseball’s top prospect by Baseball America, joining Harper, Andruw Jones, and Joe Mauer.
And there’s a good chance Franco will make it three straight years as Baseball America’s top prospect. He just turned 20 years old on Monday, and he still hasn’t played a game above A-ball. The Rays will likely be patient with the young phenom’s development, but he may make it difficult for them to resist calling him up before long
Franco showed off his skills and massive upside on Wednesday in spring training by crushing a mammoth home run on the first pitch he saw.
OUTTA HERE!
Are you surprised? Wander Franco with a 1st pitch home run for the @RaysBaseball in their spring training action against the Pirates!
Watch the action on FOX Sports Sun & FOX Sports Go: https://t.co/wx9WhSkagu #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/yySF5WQuLV
— Bally Sports Florida & Bally Sports Sun (@BallySportsFL) March 3, 2021
The shortstop said that he doesn’t think he’s hit a ball that far before (again, he just turned 20, so the power should keep improving), and was told that it landed in the parking lot.
Wander Franco said he couldn't remember ever hitting a ball as far as today's home run. He couldn't see where it landed, but he heard it cleared the Rays' office building in right field.
"That one went into the parking lot, I think."
— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) March 3, 2021
Expect to see much, much more of this stuff from Franco in the coming years.
