December 07, 2015
Phillies third baseman Maikel Franco has filed a grievance against the team over alleged manipulation of the timing of his call-up to the majors, according to a Yahoo! Sports report Monday.
Multiple sources told Yahoo! that Franco, along with Chicago Cubs third basemen Kris Bryant, filed the grievances claiming they were kept in the minor leagues unnecessarily.
Franco, 23, was called up on May 15 despite third baseman Cody Asche being sent to the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs on May 12.
The Dominican Republic-born player, who finished with 14 home runs and a .280 batting average as a rookie, completed 170 days of service, meaning he fell short of the 172 days needed for a full-service year and have his eventual free agency come at the end of the 2020 season.
Instead, because of the two-day difference, Franco will hit free agency at the end of the 2021 season. At the time of his call up, many speculated the Phillies would wait to get him to the big leagues for that very reason, such as MLB.com's Todd Zolecki:
...service time is involved. If Franco remains in the Minor Leagues for at least 40 days (or about the middle of May) the Phillies could push back his free agency from 2020 to 2021. That is important for a rebuilding team not expected to contend until 2017 at the earliest.
Yahoo! reports that neither Franco or Bryant's case has reached an arbitration panel but both accuse their teams of misusing service time rules and operating in bad faith. The issue is expected to be debated between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association for the next current collective bargaining agreement as the current one is set to expire in December 2016.
