Wander Franco did one of the boldest — and coolest — things you’ll ever see on a baseball diamond.
The Rays’ young phenom fielded a sharp two-out grounder from Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds in the seventh inning of Tampa’s 8-1 victory Wednesday night, but instead of throwing the ball straight to first base, Franco spun the ball up in the air, handled it and fired it over to the bag.
Certainly a risky move, with the possibility of dropping the ball or the base runner beating out the throw, but Franco was able to get Reynolds out with plenty of time to spare.
Pirates second baseman Ji Hwan Bae was on third base and would have scored if Franco had mishandled the ball on his stunt, but the inning ended without incident.
Then, Franco was the first batter to hit in the bottom of the inning, and he promptly crushed a home run 425 feet to center field.
Not a bad evening at the ballpark.
“I mess around in practice sometimes. I tend to do that at practice and I think through instincts it just happened,” Franco said of the infield stunt.
With all the talk in professional baseball about “unwritten rules” and the traditionalists often admonishing young players for showing off, one may have expected a firestorm to develop on Twitter in wake of the move.
The conversation was largely celebratory, though one Twitter user named BaseballHistoryNut wrote: “I’m all about having fun playing a kids game, but yea, I don’t like this at all from Wander Franco.”
He was then attacked in the replies and quote tweets.
“I’m all about having fun playing a kids game, but yea, I’m not all about having fun playing a kids game,” one user responded.
Franco, once the top prospect in all of baseball, is having a breakout season in his third year in the majors, hitting .305 with six homers, 20 RBIs and a .909 OPS through 130 plate appearances.
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