The Phillies faced a righthanded pitcher on Friday night and Maikel Franco sat on the bench, seeming to offer a view into how the team sees Franco’s role going forward.
Matt Klentak offered a scenario of playing Franco only against lefthanded pitching, which would place him into a platoon role at third base with J.P. Crawford, a natural shortstop who started Friday at third as Scott Kingery, a natural second baseman, started at short.
Franco found himself out of the lineup after going 5 for 30 on the team’s 10-game road trips. His on-base percentage this season (.