Under The Knife 8/22/22

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The more I think about it, we need loans in baseball. They’re a common thing in Euro soccer due to the lack of trades - players are instead bought, which makes things simpler. Instead of having a Rule 5 draft, I think we take the players that are “blocked” and make them eligible for season-long loans. It feels like a win-win and a way for teams to develop even more players.

For the players, they get to go to a major league team. As with the Rule 5, I’d make it mandatory that the player stay up all season. That gets them full salary and benefits, but to make this a little more attractive to teams, I wouldn’t count this as standard service time. Again, it’s a trade-off. I’d probably limit loans to once in a career, just to keep teams from abusing it.

Teams wouldn’t lose a player, but they would lose some control. The loan team might not do things the same way, there’s medical issues, training issues, but overall, those are relatively minor. After the season, the player would head back to the original team, though I think in many cases, teams would be inclined to work out a trade.

I won’t go through and give a bunch of examples, but you can look at a prospect list and see a player who’s blocked, or a player who’s in Triple-A for no good reason aside from service time. Those are the players who could be unlocked and getting more talent - and more young talent - on the field would be good for the game. So let’s get to it:

WANDER FRANCO, SS TBR (fractured wrist)

Wander Franco has had a setback, even if the Rays are trying not to call it that. The star shortstop is having soreness in his wrists with full-go swings. It’s swings, not contact, and it’s soreness, not pain, but nonetheless, the Rays medical staff stopped his rehab assignment and is going to re-set things with a bit more time and treatment.

No one I spoke with would give any time frame, but there’s indications that the hope is that it could be as little as 7-10 days before he’s back on rehab. There is a chance that he will need more time or that the soreness is lingering. It’s going to be something the team may have to monitor all winter and make sure that Franco isn’t doing any damage by playing. It wouldn’t stun me if there’s a specialist trip in here during this re-set, though again, this doesn’t seem to be a complex problem.

While the calendar is working against him, the standings are helping. The expanded playoffs have the Rays firmly in place, so the landing spot for Franco gets a bit bigger as well. The Rays want him back well ahead of the playoffs, but we’ll have to see over the next few weeks how the wrist responds.