No one is going to sit here and pretend that the Cincinnati Reds are actually…good. OK they had an unexpected spurt at the start of the season but since then they have regressed so dramatically that the mean is but a dot on the horizon by this point.

Nevertheless this should not detract from Franchy Cordero’s dramatic announcement onto baseball’s biggest stage at the start of this week when he batted second in the lineup for the Padres at Petco Park. His figures for the three game series against the Reds are available below:

Obviously this is a very small sample size and even his 17 Major League appearances only gives the barest hint of an indication but so far things are very positive across the board. Defensively Cordero is very capable and although he has struck out in around one-third of his plate appearances (22 in 60) a WRC+ of 165 demonstrates his immense value to the Padres.

San Diego themselves are not exactly lighting things up in the NL West with a record of 27-40. In fact the only reason they are not in last place is because of the woeful season being endured by San Francisco further up the coast. At 15 games back and a rebuild in progress there is little incentive for fans to pay the admission fee to Petco but the chance to see the hard-hitting (average exit velocity: 92.4mph) Cordero might prove to be something of a salve.

If the 22 year old can improve on his plate discipline while maintaining a healthy contact rate then he will surely begin to be regarded as a real talent and exceed beyond the phenom status that he has acquired as a result of this loud start.