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Pirates Sign Infielder Nick Franklin as a Minor League Free Agent

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The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Wednesday morning that they have signed infielder Nick Franklin as a minor league free agent and invited him to Major League Spring Training.

The 27-year-old (turns 28 on March 2nd) Franklin missed most of last year with a right quad strain. He played just one big league game with the Milwaukee Brewers and a total of 26 minor league games. In 2017, he hit .179/.269/.283 in 66 games, split between the Brewers and Los Angeles Angels. Franklin is a career .214/.285/.359 hitter in 301 big league games.

On defense, Franklin was a shortstop coming up through the minors, though he has played just 60 innings there in the last three seasons combined. Over the last four years, he has played all nine positions, with most of his time coming at second base and left field during that time.

Between 2010 and the start of 2013, he was considered to be a top 100 prospect in all of baseball.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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