Throughout the Phillies rebuild, with many players moving up and down from the minors, trades, stopgap signings, and more, Maikel Franco has seen it all.
Signed as an amateur free agent in 2010, Franco spent his first four years in the organization in the minors. After appearing in 16 games in 2014, he spent about half of 2015 in Triple-A Lehigh Valley before becoming a mainstay at the hot corner.
With free-agent buzz linking the Phillies to Manny Machado for the better part of a year and a half, Franco seemed like a holding pattern until an inevitable trade or signing.