Phillies to meet with Francoeur's reps
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Phillies to meet with Francoeur's reps
You can pencil at least one appointment into Ruben Amaro Jr.'s winter meetings day-planner. Amaro and assistant GM Scott Proefrock will meet with representatives for free agent right fielder Jeff Francoeur, possibly as early as today, according to a baseball source who has spoken to Francouer.
The Phillies are legitimately intrigued with the possibility of adding the right-handed hitting outfielder to their line-up. In fact, Charlie Manuel has apparently expressed interest in working with Francouer to help fix his approach at the plate.
That doesn't mean a deal is imminent. And there is no indication that the Phils are focused soley on Francoeur. Fellow former Brave Matt Diaz is another possibility who is a free agent. And the club has expressed confidence in reserve outfielder Ben Francisco.
Still, Francoeur is very much on the radar.
Francoeur has endured a roller coaster ride over the past three seasons that has seen him move from the Braves to the Mets to the Rangers before being non-tendered by Texas after the World Series.
In Francoeur's first three seasons in the majors, he hit .280 with a .319 on base percentage, .782 OPS, and 62 home runs for the Braves. But he hit just .239 with a .653 OPS in 2008, spending some time in the minors in the middle of the year. In 2009, the Braves shipped him to the Mets, where he hit .268 with a .734 OPS and 21 home runs in 199 before moving to the Rangers this past August.
Francoeur would appeal to the Phillies in several different ways. First, he has always hit well against left-handed pitchers (.300 with an .805 OPS last season, .299 with an .824 OPS for his career). Second, he is a solid defender with a strong arm. Third, he will turn just 27 on Jan. 8, which means he still has some upside.
If the Phils did end up signing Francoeur, they would welcome a player who is the exact opposite of Jayson Werth in his patience at the plate. He averages just 3.42 pitches-per-plate appearance in his career, and has swung at 46 percent of his first pitches (the major league average during the span, according to Baseball-Reference.com, is 27 percent).
Other teams reported to be in on Francoeur are the Royals and the Rockies. But it sounds as if the Phillies have a legitimate shot to sign him, if they choose to go in that direction.
As noted above, people forget how young Francoeur is, because he came into the league at such a young age. Word is that he's a great clubhouse guy, yada yada, so it sounds like a great low-cost high-reward fit for the Phils.— CosmoK
francouer is awful. watches strikes and swings at balls.
Great clubhouse guy (Wow), that swings at everything thrown to him. Another 100 plus strike out guy. I'll have someone to hate on the team more than Ben Francisco that cost us a World Series with his lack of hitting as well as a NL Championship. Keep signing the strike out guys Ruben it will be your ticket out of town. There's hope though as someone hired Ed Wade.— sjphilsphan- I don't know, Francoeur just doesn't do anything for me, neither does Diaz or really any of the other names mentioned beyond the top 2 or 3 guys on the market everyone is chasing. Francoeur has been a disaster at the plate over the last few years, hence why he's been bounced around, sent to the minors, demoted to the bench, etc. I'm sure Charlie the hitting guru sees it as a nice opportunity to work on getting him straightened out at the plate, I just think there's too much likelihood he won't pan out. I'd hate to see Amaro overspend on marginal players during the winter just for the sake of filling a spot or two, especially if it would hinder him from signing a better option later down the road. If ownership is handing down a set budget for next season, I'd almost rather see him file away a couple bucks to see what shakes loose at the trade deadline when the big names surface
- Kinsella, I agree, Francoeur has not been very good, but he only strikes out 1 out of every 5-6 plate appearances, whereas werth Ks every 3-4 plate appearances. werth hits for more power, but only marginally. the upside is that his most recent years were spent on a horrendous and dysfuntional mets team, so if given an opportunity here maybe he performs better/more consitently.— CosmoK
- could be good if Charlie can turn him around. but why not Francisco? He's as good as Hunter Pence and Justin Upton at least. Fill in D Brown as needed— Cranapple
I wouldn't want him full time unless Charlie can change his approach. But with those numbers against lefties i'm interested. Hell Werth hit right handed pitchers better than left last year he was only .287 against lefties.— KINGOFZED- Glad most of you aren't making the decisions. They need someone who hits lefties. He hits .300 against lefties and fields well. Enough said. It's amazing the shots Amaro takes here considering his moves directly led to a WS one year and the best record record in baseball another.— pgcd3
- I know Jeff is a free swinger, but take a closer look at his strike out rates per at-bats and you will see that he doesn't get K'd that much. Each year Amaro has cut out the amount of strikeouts in our lineup (which I am happy about). Burrell, Rowand and Werth struck out way too much hitting behind free-swinging Howard. Still, Phils would be best suited to go after Matt Diaz in my opinion. It should be an interesting week!— bobo_29
- Oh, God!! Please NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...this is like signing Jose Mesa to replace Lidge...— BHam
- What a roller coaster...first you're down when the Mets finally fire Omar Minaya and hire Alderson thereby officially making Rube the worst GM in the division...then you're up when the Nat's Rizzo signs Werth to the worst contract in history making him and so you start thinking "at least we're not that stupid"...and then hours later it's announced that Rube is seriously thinking about signing the disaster that is Francoeur and we're right back down again.— JJHunsecker
- I like Francoeur. Mainly cause he's got a great arm which is what I will miss the most about Werth. Plus, the Phillies are a great organization to come to and will bring out the best in Francouer. Let's do it.— notch44
- Good move ! Charlie can help him with his offense. His D is great.
He's still young and a very good clubhouse guy who has something to prove. We can't make it with Ben Francisco. Brown is still a little green. Francoeur would fit in well in Philly.
— mdcasino 
Francoeur never met a first pitch he didn't like. The Phils already have a guy like that--Jimmy Rollins.- If he gets added it's a lock that someone will throw a complete game with less than 100 pitches against this lineup.— jcu123
