Tampa Bay Rays: MLB should market Wander Franco like a teen LeBron James

The Tampa Bay Rays’ have the consensus top-rated prospect in all of baseball. He’s a teenage phenom, he’s a future star in the sport, he’s like the LeBron James of baseball…and you can’t watch his debut on TV.

Tampa Bay Rays‘ phenom and top-rated prospect, Wander Franco, is set to make his debut in spring training today. Willy Adames is scheduled to start the game at shortstop and his relief will come in the form of the 18-year-old who sits atop of pretty much every credible prospect rankings list.

Franco has taken professional baseball by storm. He entered the Appalachian League in 2018 at the age of 17 and cruised to a .351 average, .418 on-base percentage, and a .587 slugging. In his 61 games in Rookie Ball, he hit 10 homers, 11 doubles, and seven triples. He also took 27 walks in just 273 plate appearances while striking out only 19 times. Did I mention that he was seventeen?

Last season, at age 18, he was the recipient of Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year Award.

In 175 professional games, he has more extra-base hits (71) and walks (83) than strikeouts (54). His career OPS sits at .928. Have I mentioned that he’s still only 18 years old?

Spring Debut

He’s destined for superstardom and he’ll be making his debut in a split-squad game against the Detroit Tigers in Port Charlotte without a team of national broadcasters and analysts there to bring the momentous occasion into the homes of baseball fans around the nation.

The game will not be broadcast by either the Rays or the Tigers’ local stations.

In fact, as of less than two hours before game time, I can still get tickets behind home plate for $22. There should be more demand to see a kid with this kind of talent.

Why isn’t the MLB properly marketing this phenom who is in their employ? What if Wander Franco was a high school basketball player?

A Lesson from St. Vincent-St. Mary’s

When it became apparent that LeBron James was the “Chosen One” as Sports Illustrated put when they featured the 17-year-old on the cover of their magazine, his high school turned his status into dollars.

St. Vincent-St. Mary’s High School sold television rights to ESPN. They moved their home games to the University of Akron. They sold season tickets.

They raised ticket prices. They charged appearance fees. They milked the teen for every dollar they could. If he were a paid professional they would call it good marketing, but since he was an unpaid teen trapped in a developmental and learning environment, it was exploitation.

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1113454004456050688

LeBron’s former high school teammate, Maverick Carter commented on the school district’s deal with cable companies to set up a pay-per-view model for people around the country to see the highly-marketed phenom play high school ball.

“His senior year they actually put the games on pay-per-view,” Carter said. “You could watch LeBron James games anywhere in the state if you paid like ten bucks.”

His high school made every dollar they could by marketing and selling a teen LeBron.

“Their complaint is they’ve gone to watch their son play at other venues and maybe a ticket has been $4-$5 and all of a sudden they go watch at SVSM, and it’s $12 for an adult,” said Ohio High School Athletic Association commissioner Clair Muscaro, whose bylaws don’t restrict ticket prices.

LeBron was marketed by national media, the NBA, his school district, and his high school. The forces at work ensured that the entire country knew who this kid was. He was such a hot commodity before he was even drafted, he signed a seven-year, $87 million deal with NIKE.