Maikel Franco 'close' to sweet, sweet Phillies baseball

As the losses pile up and the nights get sweatier, we become anxious for something to happen. "Why can't some player just commit some sort of foul act for us all to look down upon?!" we cry into the humid spring evening. Then we kick a pebble, jerk our heads up thinking we heard a whispered rumor about a Jonathan Papelbon trade, and go back inside knowing it was, always, simply the wind.

Well weep into your pillows no more, friends. I present to you: a thing.

Amaro said Maikel Franco getting close. Aaron Nola staying in AA for now.

— Jim Salisbury (@JSalisburyCSN) May 11, 2015

I mean, kind of a thing. Not not a thing, for sure.

It doesn't really feel like Franco is especially "blocked" by anyone at the moment... technically it would be either Cody Asche, who has been bad, or Ryan Howard, who hasn't been that bad. In either case, it doesn't feel like the Phillies are so rigidly set that they wouldn't consider promoting Franco just another move in a more fluid, ambiguous roster situation.

Amaro was just saying how part of the current Phillies philosophy is giving younger players a chance, and Franco is certainly one of those; one of those who is actually tearing it up at Triple A for the IronPigs, hitting .336 with an .889 OPS, leading the team in doubles, home runs, RBI, hits... all that crap.

So hey! That'd be an injection of interest in the Phillies. With the weather heating up, it's becoming what Charlie Manuel always called "hitting season," because the ball carries better, or something, so really, it's the perfect time to Franco somewhere, anywhere, on a major league diamond.

Any word on Dom Brown? No? I figured, I just feel like if we stop talking about him he might just fade away.