DataBaseball
2026
Maikel Franco headshot

3B · 2022

Maikel Franco

Age
30
B/T
R/R
Height
6' 1"
Weight
225 lb
Number
#7
Born
August 26, 1992 in Azua, DOM
MLB debut
September 2, 2014
dbWAR
7.9
8 season(s)
PA
388
AVG
.229
OBP
.255
SLG
.342
wRC+
65
100 = avg

Maikel Franco is a third baseman for the Washington Nationals. In 2022 he hit 9 home runs and knocked in 39 RBIs, notching 85 hits across 388 plate appearances in 103 games. His batting average was .229, 5.6% lower than the league average of .243. He reached base at a .255 clip and slugged .342, for an OPS of .597, 15.4% lower than the league mark of .706 — 13th of 17 on his team, and 381st of 469 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 87.0 mph off the bat, hit 34.8% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 3.7% of them and made contact on 72.0% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 65 wRC+ puts his offence 35% below average. That comes to -0.2 dbWAR — -15.6 runs with the bat, -0.1 on the bases, +1.0 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2022.

wRC+65
wOBA.262
ISO.113
BB%3.1%
WAR-.2

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2022. These four terms sum to -1.8 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting-15.6Baserunning-0.1Position+1.0Replacement+12.9
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

2.61.1-0.41516171819202122

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
20221033888593911275.229.255.342.113.2623.1%19.3%.262-15.665-0.2
202110340379114702067.210.253.355.146.2255.0%16.6%.264-17.960-0.4
2020602436283811638.278.321.457.179.2986.6%15.6%.330+1.81050.9
201912142891175603661.234.297.409.175.2368.4%14.3%.283-14.6720.1
2018131465117226812962.270.314.467.196.2706.2%13.3%.331+4.81072.2
2017154623132247604195.230.281.409.179.2346.6%15.2%.295-15.3780.7
20161526301482588140106.255.306.427.172.2716.3%16.8%.315-3.51002.0
20158033585145012652.280.343.497.217.2977.8%15.5%.364+12.51322.6

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2022. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP117108261728.241.291.315.27223.9%
vs RHP271263598547.224.240.354.25717.3%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2022.

Loading 299 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 296 tracked batted balls in 2022. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
3.7%
11 barrels
Exit velocity
87.0
mph average
Max exit velo
112.1
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
34.8%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
34.2%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
11.4°
average
Barrel rate3.7%
Exit velocity87.0 mph
Hard hit rate34.8%
Contact rate72.0%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2022.

.276.222.150.113.23517 AB.20824 AB.37516 AB.33342 AB.22041 AB.18832 AB.26319 AB.30030 AB.20030 AB
Below averageLeague averageAbove average
Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .242.

Situational hitting

How Maikel Franco hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by
By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
SituationPAABHHRRBIBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBA
All situations388.229.255.342.262
Bases empty2072003755639.185.213.285.220
Runner on first93892625320.292.323.404.320
Runners on18117148434636.281.304.409.309
RISP888222229316.268.284.415.298

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2022.

Head to head

Put Maikel Franco beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Maikel Franco

Similar players

Nearest 2022 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.