PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — The first thing you notice, up close to Wander Franco, is a tattoo of the Major League Baseball logo on the left side of his neck. Franco already had it last June 22, when he made his debut for the Tampa Bay Rays, as if he was pre-certified for stardom. Over the winter, he got the date inked above the emblem.
Consider it a handy reminder — thousands of times across the next 11 seasons, the Rays hope — of Franco’s self-confidence and the way he backed it up that very first night. He fouled off the first two pitches he saw, then drew a walk. He later drilled a three-run homer and doubled. He took 10 swings, connected nine times, and did not strike out.
In an age when many hitters are willing to sacrifice contact for power, Franco, who turned 21 this month, takes a more logical approach.
“Well, if you want to hit a home run, you’ve got to make contact,” he said, through a Spanish-language interpreter, in the Rays’ spring training clubhouse last week. “So in my head, I know if I can make contact, good things are going to happen.”