By Matt Rappa, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The rumor mill has begun to heat up ahead of next month's Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline on July 31. One Philadelphia Phillies player that has already reportedly drawn interest from other clubs — third baseman Maikel Franco — was one of many topics discussed by Vice President and General Manager Matt Klentak Tuesday morning on SiriusXM's "GM & Co-Mish" show.
Read: Phillies Rumors: Padres Eyeing Third Baseman Maikel Franco
"[Maikel Franco] is talented, … but he hasn't taken that major step forward yet," Klentak said. It's still encouraging [to think that] this guy is still 25 years old, … and he turned around an [Aroldis] Chapman pitch last night and hit it into the left field seats."
Franco's ninth-inning home run — during Monday evening's 4-2 series opener loss against the New York Yankees — was the first any player hit off the nine-year veteran southpaw this season out of 35 appearances. Overall, Chapman has surrendered just 23 home runs to 1,840 batters faced in his career. Franco has hit two of them, and is the only player with multiple home runs against Chapman.
Over his last 10 games, Franco is slashing .310/.375/.552 with one double, two home runs, three walks, six RBI and four runs scored spanning 32 plate appearances.Franco has 10 home runs and 38 RBI in 66 games this season, and among qualifying batters, he is tied for the 24th-best strikeout percentage in the majors — and the 11th-best in the National League — 13.9 percent. His 6.3 percent walk rate, however, is 16th-lowest in the National League.
"You see it. Franco has the ability to hit the long ball. His strikeout and walk rates are very manageable for a power hitter. They're not super high in either department, but this is not sort of a one-dimensional skillset by any means," Klentak said. "He made a play yesterday on kind of a slow chopper to his left coming in, where he had to get rid of the ball in a blink and he did."
Read: Phillies Have 'Had Conversation' on Beltre, Donaldson,
Machado, Moustakas to Replace Franco
Klentak said Franco has "all the ingredients to be good," and that it's of no surprise "when other teams call to check on him," referencing the San Diego Padres' reported interest.
Clearly, Klentak will not come out and say the club is actively shopping the third baseman, but he did have nothing but praise for Franco during the SiriusXM national interview. Time will tell if the five-year veteran is still on the Phillies roster come this fall, as it looks for its first postseason run since 2011.
"They're seeing the same thing we are," Klentak said. "We're hoping we tap into that and Maikel becomes that frontline, consistent player other teams are looking at in the same way."
