MLB power rankings: Best player on each team

Philadelphia Phillies: 3B Maikel Franco

After showing promise over 80 games in 2015 (.280, 14 home runs, 50 RBI), Franco’s batting average dropped (.255) in 2016, but he hit 25 home runs and drove in 88 over 152 games (581 at-bats) in his first full major league season. An eventual consolidation of all of those numbers, with peripheral numbers to back it up at 24 years old, points to nice upside for Franco.

On the Phillies’ roster these days, with Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and others gone along with their best days, upside potential enough to make Franco the guy for this list. Some moves were made to add veterans last offseason, notably Howie Kendrick, Clay Buchholz and Michael Saunders, but the Phillies are still in rebuilding mode with young players leading the way.

Franco may not make Phillies’ fans or anyone else forget Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt defensively at third base, and he looks far from if you buy into advanced defensive metrics. But offensively Franco is plenty capable, and he’s a building block for a franchise that needs them.

A fairly slow start this season aside, Franco looks like a budding perennial All-Star for years to come. The Phillies can afford to have some level of patience at this point, and they have their third baseman in place for a while as long as Franco continues to make progress.