The Orioles didn’t add Christian Franklin to be a daily fixture. They brought him in because he brings a very specific kind of nuisance to the lineup: he gets on base, he moves around the outfield, and once he’s aboard, he can make a game messy in a hurry.
Baltimore landed the 26-year-old at the trade deadline and has mostly used the right-handed hitter against left-handed pitching. But even in a limited look since his major league debut this month, Franklin has already shown why the Orioles were interested.
He walks. He runs.
He forces attention.
“That’s never been something I felt like would be the thing I’m going to be really good at,” he said. “It’s just like, I like to swing at strikes and take balls. And I guess that’s something I’m just good at.”
That’s been the story of his game all year. In Triple-A, Prospect Savant had Franklin chasing pitches out of the zone at a 19.8% clip, good for the 90th percentile.
That patience turned into walks, and the same shape has shown up in Baltimore almost immediately. Through 28 plate appearances, Franklin owns an 18.4% chase rate that would sit among the best in baseball, along with a 17.9% walk rate.
Even with an early .182 batting average, he’s still carrying a .357 on-base percentage.
There’s more to him than just taking pitches, though. Franklin can drive the ball, too. His first big league hit was a double to right field, and in the minors this season he posted six homers, two triples and 17 doubles.
The way he gets to those numbers is where things get interesting. Franklin’s approach is built around identifying pitches up and in, not because that’s where he wants to do all his damage, but because it gives him the quickest read. From there, he says, he trusts himself to adjust.
“I’m going to tell you my whole approach,” Franklin said, realizing that opposing pitchers may read this and learn his approach, too. “But it doesn’t really matter, honestly.”
He broke it down further against left-handers.
“The lefty, I’m good at seeing a fastball in that lane, or a changeup, if it starts in that lane, it’s going to go back over the plate,” he said. “And if there’s a breaking ball pop out over that, I can adjust to that.”
Against right-handers, the picture changes, but the idea stays the same.
“Everything is moving away from you, for the most part, unless they have a sinker,” he explained. “But I trust my eyes enough to be able to lay off a sinker if I see it moving in, and if they hang a changeup, I feel like that’s just a slower fastball and I can adjust to that. That’s just what works for me.”
That’s a different route than a lot of hitters take. Most major league batters are trying to guess right early in the count - guessing pitch type, guessing location, hoping to ambush something they can drive.
Franklin said he used to hunt for the pitch over the plate, too. It worked until it didn’t.
“then I would swing at a bunch of breaking balls that start in the same lane,” he said. Once pitchers caught on, that’s mostly what he saw.
Franklin’s path to Baltimore has been a winding one. The Cubs took him in the fourth round of the 2021 draft out of Arkansas.
The Nationals got him last year in the trade that sent right-hander Michael Soroka to the Cubs. Then the Orioles added him this deadline by sending minor league pitcher Joe Glassey to Washington for a right-handed-hitting outfield option.
The early returns have fit the profile. In his debut earlier this month, Franklin walked and stole a base. On Monday against Tampa Bay, in a loss, he picked up two singles in two plate appearances and stole another bag.
“You can see what he can do, just causing chaos on the bases,” manager Craig Albernaz said Monday. “The stolen base, the two-infield hits, that’s a skill set that we value, too.”
For Franklin, the first month in the majors has been “a lot,” and the last year has brought plenty of movement, with three organizations and two trades. Still, he’s trying to keep the focus simple: show up, play hard, and help however he can.
“Any way that I can help the team,” he said, “whether it’s hitting lefties, whether it’s stealing a base, getting on base, playing good defense, I’m going to go out there and play as hard as I possibly can for this team.”
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