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Report: Phillies Trying to Sign Maikel Franco to Long-Term Deal
By Jim Adair
Published:
According to Spanish language reporter Hector Gomez of Z101 in the Dominican Republic (YES), the Phils offered Maikel Franco a six-year, $39 million contract. It’s a buy low in case he becomes a star kinda deal, and one that bears striking similarity to the Rays’ Evan Longoria deal – one of the best deals ever – as noted by Joe Giglio.
Giglio points out that the deal could go into effect immediately, and therefore cover “all of Franco’s arbitration eligible years and the first season of his free agency.”
The Rays gave Longoria a similarly-sized deal in 2008, which gave “significant money to a player without a long track record,” but effectively put safeguards in place not to lose said player in their first scheduled year of free agency.
A team like the Phillies, with substantial cap space [edit: currently substantially under the luxury tax], would be essentially betting low-ish on getting an extra year to see how Franco develops. With the Phils in the position they’re in now, there’s no reason they shouldn’t give Franco some dough. Maybe by the end of the deal, we’ll all be pronouncing his name right anyway (it’s FROHN-co).
When he's not writing about sports here or ranting about them on Twitter, Jim is probably watching X-Files on Netflix or drinking a beer somewhere. Jim has nothing against hockey, it's just not his style. He once met Duce Staley at a Sixers game.