The 2015 Phillies did not have much, if anything, to be excited about. The team was jumping headfirst toward rock bottom as it began its arduous rebuild in earnest after postponing it as long as possible. By the start of August, the team was 40-64 and well on their way to capturing the dubious honor of having the worst record in baseball.

One bright spot from this miserable season however was that it was the first full season for young third baseman Maikel Franco. The 22-year-old had been the Phillies top prospect and was ranked 56th overall by Baseball America heading into the 2015 season. Franco had made his debut in September of 2014, appearing in just 16 games and hitting .179 with a pair of doubles, but 2015 was to be the year he would come up to the Majors and take his spot as a cornerstone for the next good Phillies team.

The first part of that plan was realized on May 15, as Franco was officially called up to the Major Leagues with the plan being to have him be the starting third baseman for the Phillies. He hit his first career home run only two days later, a solo shot just over the flower beds in left field at Citizens Bank Park against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It wouldn’t be the only major moment of Franco’s career involving the Diamondbacks.

Franco would go on to have an impressive rookie season, hitting .280 with an .840 OPS and 14 home runs. He even captured NL Rookie of the Month honors for June after hitting .352 with 8 homers and 24 RBI in 27 games. It was looking like the Phillies had their own version of a star rookie at third base in the same season that the Cubs’ Kris Bryant took the league by storm.

The Phillies came into Arizona on August 10th actually playing well of late. They had just swept the Padres for their fourth sweep in their last seven serieses. They lost their first game in Arizona by a score of 13-3 however, as starter Aaron Harang surrendered 8 runs on 12 hits in 5.1 innings. But Franco had a nice game, going 2-4 with a pair of extra base hits including his 13th homer of the season. Franco entered play on August 11th hitting .256 with an .811 OPS including three home runs, eight doubles, and 14 RBI over his last 21 games. The Phillies as a team were 16-5 over that span. For the season, Franco was hitting .277 with an .828 OPS in 76 games.

Future Phillie Jeremy Hellickson was on the mound for Arizona, and he quickly retired Chase Utley and Odúbel Herrera on groundouts for the first two outs of the game. That brought Franco to the plate with two outs in the top of the first inning. He took the first pitch from Hellickson for a ball before taking the second for a called strike. The third pitch from the soft-tossing right hander would prove to be fateful, as an 89 MPH fastball from Hellickson rode up and in and hit Franco on the left wrist, sending him to the ground writhing in pain.

The trainer would quickly come out to look at Franco before the third baseman got up to leave the game, still not showing much movement in his left forearm. Manager Pete Mackanin substituted Franco with Andres Blanco as the Phillies went on to lose another laugher by a final score of 13-1.

Initial word following the game was that Franco suffered a wrist contusion and X-rays were negative. After sitting out a few games, the Phillies worst fears for Franco became reality, as he was placed on the disabled list with a fractured left wrist on August 18th. He would go on to miss a little over a month and a half, returning on October 3rd and appearing in just three more games that season.

Franco was never the same again after that hit by pitch. He returned in 2016 and played 152 games, but his offensive numbers were down, as his OPS dropped over a hundred points and finished at .733. He would be even worse in 2017, posting a .690 OPS and -0.1 WAR. He rebounded a bit in 2018 with a .780 OPS, but 2019 marked the end of the road for Franco after the Phillies signaled the end of their rebuild by signing Bryce Harper. Franco spent a brief amount of time as “the best eight-hole hitter in baseball” that season before ultimately finishing with a then career worst .234 AVG and .704 OPS.

The Phillies non-tendered Franco in December of 2019, and he would go on to play three more seasons in the Majors with the Royals, Orioles, and Nationals. His 2020 in Kansas City was his last good year in the Majors, as he hit .278 with a .778 OPS in all 60 games of the COVID-shortened season. Franco went to Japan following the 2022 season, where he’s still playing for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. He’s hitting .234 with a .610 OPS and four home runs in 64 games as a 32-year-old in 2025. Franco owns a career batting line of .224/.268/.352 with 24 HR across 227 career games played in NPB.

In 92 career MLB games and 383 plate appearances before that hit by pitch, Franco slashed .261/.316/.446 with a wRC+ of 107 and an ISO of .185. In 829 career MLB games and 3,190 plate appearances after that night in Arizona, Franco had a batting line of .242/.290/.410 with a wRC+ of 82 and an ISO of .168.

Now, it’s foolhardy to believe that Hellickson’s pitched changed the total trajectory of Franco’s career. There’s a good chance his career plays out exactly the same as it did with or without suffering that broken wrist on August 11th, 2015. But the fact that it happened and Franco never once regained the promise showed his rookie season will always leave the door cracked ever so slightly open to the idea that it was at least a contributing factor.