Maikel Franco has quickly caught plenty of attention around minor league baseball. The Dominican Republic native, whose name is pronounced similarly to Miquel, was signed by the Phillies in 2010 as an amateur free agent.

The 6-foot-1-inch 180-pounder began his pro career with the Gulf Coast League Phillies in 2010. As that club’s everyday third baseman, Franco posted respectable numbers for a 17-year-old making his professional debut (.222/.292/.330). It was Franco’s defense, however, that immediately began to get him noticed. With excellent reflexes and a top notch arm at the hot corner, Franco impressed many in his U.S. debut.

A year later, Franco began the season in extended spring training and later competed with the short-season Williamsport Crosscutters. The righty hitting Franco looked great against NY-Penn League competition, posting 2 homers, 28 RBI and a .274/.339/.389 line in 42 games before earning a promotion to Class A Lakewood.

As an 18-year-old in the South Atlantic League, the baby-faced Franco struggled mightily. In 17 games for the BlueClaws, the Dominican born prospect went 8-for-67 (.123 avg) and racked up a weak .349 OPS. The Phillies realized Franco was overmatched and that he was growing discouraged, so he was re-assigned back to Williamsport, where he finished the season by batting .333 with 7 extra base hits and 10 RBI over his final 13 games with the Crosscutters.

One definite plus about Franco’s time with Lakewood was that he made no errors in those 17 games. However, striking out 15 times while walking only once in 17 games for the ‘Claws, compared to 30 K’s and earning 25 free passes in 54 games for the ‘Cutters screamed of Franco not being quite ready for the older pitchers of the SAL.

With no career stolen base attempts in two pro seasons, speed is not a facet of Franco’s game.

Mickey Morandini, who managed Franco with Williamsport in 2011 and will surely be reunited with him in Lakewood in 2012, as Morandini was promoted up a level this off-season, describes Franco as being relied on as a middle-of-the-lineup RBI guy. Morandini feels Franco projects as a power bat, as he fills out physically and climbs the developmental ladder.

Still very young – 19 years old until the end of August – Franco is in a great spot to land among the top tier of prospects if he can prove himself offensively at the full season Class A level this year.

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Jay Floyd is PhilliesNation’s minor league insider. You can read more from Jay by visiting his site, PhoulBallz.com.

–Aramis Ramirez has reportedly signed a three-year contract with the Milwaukee Brewers worth between $34-$37 million. He’ll man the hot corner for a franchise that is expected to lose it’s first baseman and could be without the MVP of the league due to a PED suspension.

Obviously, that makes it more likely that the Phillies hold on to Placido Polanco. There had been interest in Ramirez from the Phils side, but that seemed to be more of a backup plan if Jimmy Rollins did not re-sign. Now that Ramirez is out, it seems even more likely J-Roll returns.

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–We wait. It’s been a waiting game all offseason as the Phillies stick to their guns by not offering Jimmy Rollins the five-year contract he so desires. Rollins has lost several potential suitors, first by being adamant about his demands, and then during the Winter Meetings when teams like Milwaukee and St. Louis inked other shortstops to shorter, friendlier deals. Now what’s left?

Just come on home Rollins.

You’d think it’s just down to the Phillies, with perhaps San Francisco waiting in the wings should something go wrong. And I never count out the Red Sox, even though they have Marco Scutaro back in the fold. They’re always willing to spend money.

That being said, it seems like a contract is on the horizon. Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com noted over the weekend that Ruben Amaro Jr. would be meeting with Rollins’ agent, Dan Lozano, to discuss a new deal. No information has been leaked from that meeting as of yet. The two sides have kept it under wraps, which I’m assuming each prefer.

Just when Rollins believed that the Albert Pujols deal may have helped him, he could not be looking at lost leverage. Rafael Furcal is back with the Cardinals for two-years, $14 million. Alex Gonzalez signed with the Brewers on a one-year pact. San Francisco has Brandon Crawford waiting in the wings, plus Ryan Theriot and Jeff Keppinger to hold down the fort until he’s ready.

Is J-Roll hoping Oakland comes in with a late pitch so he can return to the Bay Area? Billy Beane isn’t in the best position to be offering an aging shortstop anywhere near five years.

Basically, it’s now a waiting game. Both sides are holding firm in their positions, but eventually, one will have to break. It seems like it’ll have to be Rollins, or else he’ll lose what little leverage remains.

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–The Phillies remain interested in left-handed reliever George Sherrill, according to Jon Paul Morosi from FoxSports.com. Is he worth it? Just because he’s a lefty and a veteran, it doesn’t mean the Phillies should go that direction.

Last season, he revitalized his career in Atlanta, posting a 3.00 ERA a year after it was 6.69 in Los Angeles. Lefties had some success against him in 2011, but was that driven by luck? Lefties hit .256 against him, but their OPS was a meager .608. Sherill allowed just one homer in 81 plate appearances vs. lefites, as well. His numbers could have been even better had his BABIP not been an absurd .422. Only a four of the 20 hits he gave up were for extra-bases (three doubles, one home run).

Does he fit into the Phillies plans? Possibly, although he turned down a chance to come to Philly before the ’11 season. That being said, should the Phillies give Joe Savery a chance to be the LOOGY and second lefty behind Antonio Bastardo? Guess you can never have too many southpaws.

These two tweets from Buster Olney suggest that the Phillies are not just “serious players” for Michael Cuddyer but will be the team to beat for his services.

Reading between the lines, it seems that even if Cuddyer’s Minnesota Twins come in and match whatever offer Ruben Amaro has made, the Phils will top it. Cuddyer will then have a decision to make: enjoy a nice salary from the comforts of what he knows, or take the slightly bigger contract in a pressure-packed, win-now market.

For better or worse, no matter what you think or what we think, it appears that this is Amaro’s man. And we all know what happens when Amaro sets his sights on a player.

Why do the Phillies covet Cuddyer? Why are they being so pushy so quickly into the offseason? Wasn’t Cuddyer the type of guy they’d only pursue after the markets for Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Madson played out?

Let’s answer each question individually…

1) Why do the Phillies covet Cuddyer?

Because he solves all perceived problems. He can play first base if Ryan Howard is out until mid-to-late May. He can play third base if Placido Polanco still struggles to square the ball up in 2012. He can play left field if Domonic Brown stays in Triple-A as the Phils intend. Hell, he can even play second base when Chase Utley goes down with his annual injury.

Now, Cuddyer’s ability to physically stand at these positions doesn’t mean he is above average at any of them. In fact, he is mediocre to worse at all of them.

(This actually brings up a curiosity of mine … if Cuddyer has a poor fielding history at third base and has only fielded the hot corner in one of the past six seasons, how do we know that he’d be significantly better defensively than even a guy like John Mayberry, who has never played the position? Both would be liabilities, and I am certainly not suggesting that Mayberry should ever see a play at third, but really, if you’re going to go with a bad fielder there, how much worse could he be? Anywho…)

Offensively, Cuddyer crushes lefties (.290/.378/.491 career, and a .993 OPS last year) and has mid-20s home run power, especially at a place like Citizens Bank Park. In the final year of the Metrodome Cuddyer went deep 32 times.

He will be 33 years old on Opening Day next season. And if signed to a high-salaried three-year deal, Cuddyer probably won’t be worth it by the end of the contract. But few players are. If he can make the Phillies a better, less out-prone offense in 2012 and some/most of 2013, wouldn’t you sacrifice dead money in that final year?

2) Why are they being so pushy so quickly into the offseason?

We didn’t expect a play to be made for Cuddyer so early. David Hale of the Wilmington News Journal joined our most recent edition of Phillies Nation TV and among other things, opined that the Phillies’ interest in Cuddyer would be shaped by the market for other players. I agreed. Made logical sense. I expected there to be a more serious, public re-courtship of Jimmy Rollins. But Ruben Amaro always has his own plans, and they usually don’t fit neatly with what we expect.

It appears that Amaro is trying to set the market for Cuddyer himself rather than let bidders slowly drive the price up. For industry men to refer to the Phillies as a “serious” pursuer, the offer had to have been big…”not-messing-around” big.

By making the offer, or expressing the interest he did, Amaro has all but eliminated every team except the Twins from the Cuddyer sweepstakes. All it takes is a quick perusal through MLBTradeRumors to see how many other potential suitors are believed to be shifting their attention.

Whether you are for or against Cuddyer, if the Phillies were going to make a push, this is the shrewdest way to go.

3) Wasn’t Cuddyer the type of guy they’d only pursue after the markets for Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Madson played out?

I personally thought so. Prior to the offseason, I thought the Phils would try as hard as possible to lock up their own guys before shifting attention to external improvements. But it really doesn’t seem like Rollins is a huge priority. The Phils are reportedly going hard after Madson, but little has come out in the way of Rollins, and all you have to do is read Jimmy’s tweets to get an idea of how he sees this situation playing out. At first it looked as if he was simply playing hard to get. Now he’s coming off as completely detached and resigned to not returning.

It took all of one weekend for the Phillies’ offseason to take a completely unforeseen detour.

Is Aramis Ramirez an option for the Phillies? PHOTO AP

Those pining for a hard-hitting, run-producing third baseman, you’re day should be a little brighter. Aramis Ramirez declined his part of the mutual option with the Chicago Cubs for 2012, meaning he will now become a free agent. By doing so, he has forfeited a $2 million buyout.

That matters not, because Ramirez is in for a payday as the only real power threat in free agency at the hot corner. The Phillies could very well be in the market for Ramirez, as the front office made it known that, while Placido Polanco could be in their plans, nothing is out of the question.

With the Cubs in 2011, Ramirez hit .306 with 26 home runs and 93 runs batted in. However, in 2012 he’ll be 34 years old. That doesn’t make the Phillies any younger and could present more aging issues down the road; the same issues the team is trying to combat.

Either way, look for the Phillies to be involved, although to what extent remains to be seen.

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Marco Scutaro is sticking with the Boston Red Sox. They exercised their $6 million team option on the veteran shortstop on Sunday. Scutaro, 36, was looking like one of the better names on the free agent market at that position, but now makes it a little thinner.

His name had been thrown around by some as a possible replacement should Jimmy Rollins and the Phillies part ways, but that’s certainly off the table now.

This just reiterates the idea that the Phillies will push hard for Rollins.

WIll Polly be around in 2012? (Photo AP)

Placido Polanco hit .398 in April with nine extra-base hits, then .243 the rest of the season with 10. His OPS was .972 at the end of April, then .591 the rest of the way. It only got worse in October, when Polanco went 2 for 19 with no walks, runs, or RBI and one rally-killing double play in the first inning of Game 2.

Polanco’s defense was unsurprisingly elite in 2011 – it passed both the eye test and the sabermetric test, as he ranked first in baseball with 14.0 runs saved – but he offered the Phillies very little in the way of offense. The need for more run production at third base became glaring in the playoffs when, batting seventh, Polanco fronted a 7-8 that reached base a combined three times in five games.

With one year remaining on a three-year, $18 million contract that made sense at the time, what do the Phillies do with Polanco? Can they enter the 2012 season with an injury-ravaged contact hitter who seldom makes solid contact anymore?

Well, it might be the Phils’ only option. The majority of the 2012 free agent class is weak, and third base is no exception. Aramis Ramirez could potentially void his $16 million player option for 2012, and has implied his intentions to do so if the Cubs don’t sign him to a multi-year extension. But he is 33, and even after an impressive season, is not the kind of player Ruben Amaro should commit four or more years to. With the contracts of Polanco (next year) and Raul Ibanez (this year) coming off the books, the last thing an aging team needs is to give another older player his last long-term contract.

After Ramirez, the best available third baseman – if you can believe it – is Wilson Betemit. The 29-year-old journeyman has been relatively valuable with the bat the past two seasons, hitting .290 with a .359 on-base percentage and .479 slugging percentage. On the flip side, he is a defensive nightmare at the hot corner, having allowed a total of 47 runs more in his career than the average defensive third baseman. Because of the poor defense, the switch-hitting Betemit is more of a platoon player than an everyday starter. And one has to wonder whether or not his desired situation would be splitting time at third with Polanco or finding more regular work elsewhere.

Polanco’s offensive ineffectiveness in 2011 can be attributed to a back injury and a sports hernia, sure, but that’s kind of the point. He is an elderly man, in baseball years, and has had a plethora of health problems since signing with the Phillies after the 2009 World Series.

It is unfortunate that Polanco’s rock-solid career appears to be coming to an end, because the signing looked great at the time. Polanco was set to add a dimension that Phillies lineup lacked – a pure contact hitter who you could trust with two outs and runners in scoring position. It is ironic that by the end of the second year, that was the very type of situation in which Polanco had lost the fans’ confidence (see: second inning, NLDS Game 5).

The Phils can expect above-average defense at third base for as long as Polanco can stay on the field in 2012, but whatever they get offensively will be a bonus. They will likely have to ride this contract out and hope to acquire a third baseman heading into 2013, when David Wright and Kevin Youkilis could potentially highlight the third base class.