Tampa Bay Rays: How long do we need to wait for Wander Franco?

The Tampa Bay Rays have the consensus top prospect in baseball in their system in Wander Franco. How much longer do we need to wait to see him?

Wander Franco is legit. The consensus top prospect in all of professional baseball, his time for the Tampa Bay Rays is approaching quickly. A switch hitter with an 80 hit grade and 60 power grade, he’s ready to make an impact at the plate for the big league club.

He even got Twitter buzzing this postseason when he posted a picture of his jersey just before the World Series.

Of course, he wasn’t actually included on the roster. But for those brief few hours between the posting of this photo and the announcement of the actual World Series roster, baseball fans were full of hope.

And it got us talking. How much longer do we have to wait for Franco to finally arrive? Current shortstop Willy Adames was an offensive black hole in the postseason. And 2021 will be the last year on his rookie deal before he reaches arbitration.

And If there’s anything we know about the Tampa Bay Rays, it’s that they don’t want to pay anybody if they don’t have to. Case in point, the Rays designated Hunter Renfroe for assignment just one season after acquiring him from the San Diego Padres. Sure, he wasn’t nearly as productive as Adames during the regular season, but he’s a proven power bat from the right side and any team would be lucky to have him as an option off the bench.

And then there’s the pesky “service time manipulation” of it all. With Adames slated to make only $575,000 in 2021, there’s no reason for the Rays to move on from him yet. No matter how talented Franco is.

In an ideal world, Adames moves to the bench and Franco is on the opening day roster. But the Rays have no reason to start Franco’s service time clock before they have to start paying Adames real money. And they have an easy out to keep him in the minor leagues as well. Since Covid-19 cost Franco his minor league season, they can play the “we’re still working on his defense” card all year as he shoots up through the rest of the system. Then, magically, the day after the Rays can get an extra year of service time out of him in 2022, his defense will be MLB ready and he can make the jump.

I hate service time manipulation.

Wander Franco is ready for opening day in 2021. But we might not see him until weeks into the 2022 season. At this point, I’d settle for the Tampa Bay Rays holding him down in 2021 long enough to get their extra year of service time. But I don’t have a lot of faith in them to not be as fiscally conservative as possible.

Franco is coming soon. Just not soon enough for baseball fans.