The Toronto Blue Jays have had success in recent years turning around the careers of a pair of underachieving power hitters, so it’s easy to see why Juan Francisco is so intriguing.
The Blue Jays signed the 26-year-old Dominican to a minor-league deal on April 1, a week after Francisco was released by the Milwaukee Brewers. Last summer, the big left-handed hitter – he’s six-foot-two and generously listed at 245 lb – went deep an impressive 18 times in just 348 at-bats with the Brewers, but after Milwaukee signed Mark Reynolds in the off-season, Francisco suddenly found himself in a spring training battle with Lyle Overbay for a backup role at first base.
When he lost out to the more defensively reliable Overbay, the Brewers cut Francisco loose, deciding they didn’t want to pay $1.3 million for a left-handed pinch hitter. But to an American League club like the Blue Jays, Francisco offered value as inexpensive organizational insurance at first base and DH – he can also play third in a pinch – and maybe, the potential of something more.
In 50 plate appearances with triple-A Buffalo to start 2014, Francisco batted .341/.420/.568, enough to earn himself a promotion to the big club after Adam Lind landed on the DL with back stiffness. Since then Francisco has filled in admirably for Lind, batting .286/.375/.571 through eight games including a pair of jaw-dropping home runs, both of which served as reminders of his tantalizing potential.
Watch: Francisco’s two tape-measure bombs vs. Red Sox
While coming up through the Cincinnati Reds system, Francisco was regarded as that organization’s top power-hitting prospect after hitting 38 home runs over 173 games at the triple-A level. Now 26, he is a player just entering his prime. It’s worth remembering that Jose Bautista was a journeyman major-leaguer until his breakout 2010 season at age 29, and that the Blue Jays had placed Edwin Encarnacion on waivers in 2011 when he was 27, before his breakout year the following summer.
That’s not to say Francisco is the next Bautista or Encarnacion, but it does suggest that for some sluggers success isn’t merely a product of opportunity, but also one of timing, the right environment, and in the eyes of Blue Jays hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, perhaps the self-awareness to not let your strength become your weakness.
“I loved everything I saw about him since the first day he stepped into the cage for us back in Cleveland,” Seitzer explained prior to Sunday’s 7-1 win over Boston. “But once he gets loose, he starts trying to hit the ball big, hard and really far and that’s when he gets out of his game.”
Seitzer’s proposed solution: shorten that swing, big fella.
“I’ve told him you’re so big and strong, the ball goes so far without you swinging hard, that in order to hit off-speed pitches — which he’s going to get a steady diet of because of how well he hits a fastball — that’s the mindset you have to have. He hit a (splitter) out (Saturday), and he’s stayed on some breaking balls the last couple of games. He’s been impressive.”
Bautista found sustained success after developing a new leg kick and a new start time for his swing. Encarnacion’s mid-career turnaround coincided with a move to a two-handed follow-through on his swing.
“When guys are willing to make adjustments in their career, that’s when they start to figure it out,” Seitzer said. “It comes at different times for everybody.”
Francisco’s time with the Blue Jays is largely dependent on when Lind returns to the lineup — he’s eligible to come off the DL on May 3 — and whether he can show a willingness to improve poor plate discipline that has resulted in an ugly career walk-to-strikeout ratio of 57:268. Also working against Francisco’s long-term prospects with Toronto is the presence of Dan Johnson. The 34-year-old veteran first baseman — an off-season minor league signing — is off to a hot start in Buffalo, batting .310/.440/.535 with four home runs in 71 at-bats. Johnson also boasts an impressive walk-to-strikeout ratio of 16:14, and he is a better defender than Francisco.
But given Francisco’s age, power from the left side and career numbers against right-handers — he’s hit them to the tune of .257/.318/.474/ with 34 home runs in 635 at-bats — he offers an intriguing left-handed DH option who won’t be unemployed for long should the Blue Jays decide to cut him loose upon Lind’s return.
The only real question is whether Francisco can do enough prior to May 3 to convince the club’s brass that, at age 26, he’s a player with his best baseball still ahead of him and one worth holding on to.
