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Wander Franco 2023 Player Outlook: Too Expensive for a Currently Flawed Fantasy Hitter
2 years agoThe hype train has come to a near halt with Franco after another disappointing season in 2022 where he played just 83 games, hitting .277/.328/.417 with just six homers and eight steals. That brings his Major League career line to .282/.337/.439 with 13 homers and 10 steals in 153 games. Over the course of one full season, he's been very much underwhelming for fantasy purposes. Underneath the hood, we see a barrel rate below 5% in his last two seasons. He doesn't hit a ton of ground balls (45%) and is not a David Fletcher type guy barely impacting the ball (88 mph average exit velocity), but he has fallen well short of "good" in both of these categories in his short time in the Majors thus far. What does all of this mean for 2023? The ceiling probably hasn't been affected all that much from the lofty heights we had it prior to his arrival, but the floor is certainly much lower than we thought back then - and we have the injury problem as well now. Even if we get a full healthy season out of Franco, there's no reason to be overly confident that he'll be useful for fantasy. It seems wise to take a "wait and see" approach with Franco in 2023 given his top-100 ADP.
