The Phillies hoped he would be a cornerstone third baseman.
In 2020, in 60 games of a 60-game schedule with the Kansas City Royals, he finished with a batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage slash line of .278/.321/.457. OPS+, a metric used to compare hitters across the sport, considers 100 to be average. Franco ended that abbreviated year with an OPS+ of 108.
