This past week of work has been so much fun, and I’ve gotten to do a lot of exciting things. Not only have I been working in the radio booth at several Spring Training games, but I also got to go to a media availability for the Rays’ top prospects.
Because I ultimately want to go on and be a reporter for a baseball team, this opportunity was absolutely perfect for me! It was really cool getting to talk to so many up and coming stars of the sport and find out how their development on the way to the majors has been going. It was similar to the first interviews I did that I wrote about in my blog a few weeks ago, but this was even better because they were all one-on-one.
There were six prospects there that I got to speak to, and they were all extremely nice and thoughtful and gave me a lot of good insight into their experiences in the minors so far. I learned a lot, so here’s some of my takeaways from all of my conversations:
If there’s one word that sums up how the Rays organization feels about its minor league system and all the young prospects who are working their way up, it’s excitement. And with all the talent that exists there, it’s pretty easy to understand why.
The Rays’ system is ranked second in Baseball America’s Organizational Talent Rankings of minor league prospects, behind only the San Diego Padres system. This is the fourth consecutive season they’ve improved their standing, and it’s their highest ranking since 2011.
Rays director of minor league operations Mitch Lukevics speaks extremely high of the group and is looking forward to seeing them continue to grow into major-league-caliber players. He says he’s never seen anything like this group come though during his time with the team.
A handful of these top prospects were made available to the media Monday afternoon, and after hearing from each of them, it’s safe to say they’re just as excited for the future of the organization. One of the most highly touted prospects is teenage sensation Wander Franco.
Wander Franco, INF — .351 AVG/.418 OBP/.587 SLG (Princeton)
The young 18-year-old has received accolade after accolade upon coming over to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic. After producing numbers as impressive as the ones he did for the 2018 season, he was named the Appalachian Player of the Year, MVP for Rookie-level Princeton, and named to the Appalachian League postseason All-Star Team. This makes it easy to understand why he’s the №1 prospect in the Rays system and №4 overall in the minors, according to Baseball America.
While trying to maintain this high level of performance, Franco not only has the tough task of adapting to a whole new country and culture as all international players do, but he’s having to do it at an age where most kids are in their junior or senior year of high school. The young star chooses to look at the bright side of this, though, and says he appreciates the opportunity he’s been given and knows he’s lucky to be where he is.
Franco does have some people in his family he can call upon to help him through, though — major-league baseball runs in his blood. His uncles are major league infielders Erick and Willy Aybar, who have spent a combined 17 years in the majors. His two older brothers, Wander Javier (24) and Wander Alexander (22) are both currently in the San Francisco Giants minor league system. And finally, his father, also named Wander, was a professional player in the Chicago White Sox system. Franco credits his success to his family and says all of their experience has certainly helped get him to where he his today.
When it comes to the 2019 season, Franco is looking to turn himself into the whole package. He believes he’s already pretty sound offensively, which is proven by his league-leading 85 hits and 57 RBI, as well as defensively, as he had a .925 fielding percentage last season. But the one things he hopes to improve is his speed. If he can do that, he says he’ll have all the tools necessary to have a good season.
Work at the Trop 