MLB / Players

John Franco

HandednessBats Left · Throws Left

Listed at5 ft 10 in · 170 lb

BornSeptember 17, 1960 · Brooklyn, NY, USA

MLB debutApril 24, 1984

Final gameJuly 1, 2005

Seasons21 (1984–2005)

Cincinnati Reds 1984–1989; New York Mets 1990–2001; New York Mets 2003–2004; Houston Astros 2005

Percentile snapshot

No qualified season. This player never reached the qualification floor — 3.1 plate appearances, or one inning, per game his team played — in any archived season, so there is no season population to rank him inside.

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

136.5

98.3

sWAR

27.5

ERA+ measured against qualified careers (1,000+ IP), 1,334 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	RBI	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1984	54	4	3	0	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000	-130.7	-100.0	.000	1.8
1985	67	8	6	1	2	1	0	.333	.333	.333	.667	82.9	83.9	.309	2.9
1986	74	4	4	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-130.7	-100.0	.000	2.0
1987	68	2	2	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	-127.0	-100.0	.000	2.4
1988	70	1	1	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-131.5	-100.0	.000	3.0
1989	60	3	3	1	1	0	2	.333	.333	.333	.667	89.7	89.8	.310	1.3
1990	55	5	5	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	-124.7	-100.0	.000	1.6
1991	52	1	1	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	-124.0	-100.0	.000	1.0
1992	31	1	1	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	-135.0	-100.0	.000	1.1
1993	35	1	1	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-120.3	-100.0	.000	-0.2
1994	47	3	3	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000	-123.9	-100.0	.000	1.3
1995	48	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.4
1996	51	1	1	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	-115.9	-100.0	.000	1.9
1997	59	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.6
1998	61	2	2	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	-124.4	-100.0	.000	1.0
1999	46	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.1
2000	62	1	1	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	-118.3	-100.0	.000	1.1
2001	58	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.6
2003	38	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.9
2004	52	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.1
2005	31	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.4

Pitching

Season	G	W	L	SV	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1984	54	6	2	4	74	23	36	55	3	79.3	2.61	1.387	6.24	3.33	89.1	143.4	1.8
1985	67	12	3	12	83	24	40	61	5	99.0	2.18	1.242	5.55	3.29	87.6	171.9	2.9
1986	74	6	6	29	90	33	44	84	7	101.0	2.94	1.327	7.49	3.35	87.0	130.9	2.0
1987	68	8	5	32	76	23	27	61	6	82.0	2.52	1.256	6.70	3.32	78.7	167.1	2.4
1988	70	6	6	39	60	15	27	46	3	86.0	1.57	1.012	4.81	3.03	85.0	227.2	3.0
1989	60	4	8	32	77	28	36	60	3	80.7	3.12	1.401	6.69	3.00	83.6	114.7	1.3
1990	55	5	3	33	66	19	21	56	4	67.7	2.53	1.286	7.45	2.85	75.9	148.9	1.6
1991	52	5	9	30	61	18	18	45	2	55.3	2.93	1.428	7.32	2.67	73.0	124.7	1.0
1992	31	6	2	15	24	6	11	20	1	33.0	1.64	1.061	5.45	2.96	84.5	213.8	1.1
1993	35	4	3	10	46	21	19	29	6	36.3	5.20	1.789	7.18	5.18	129.8	76.7	-0.2
1994	47	1	4	30	47	15	19	42	2	50.0	2.70	1.320	7.56	3.11	74.6	154.3	1.3
1995	48	5	3	29	48	14	17	41	4	51.7	2.44	1.258	7.14	3.47	86.0	165.7	1.4
1996	51	4	3	28	54	11	21	48	2	54.0	1.83	1.389	8.00	2.96	73.1	221.2	1.9
1997	59	5	3	36	49	17	20	53	3	60.0	2.55	1.150	7.95	3.01	73.9	159.6	1.6
1998	61	0	8	38	66	26	29	59	4	64.7	3.62	1.469	8.21	3.58	86.1	114.9	1.0
1999	46	0	2	19	40	13	19	41	1	40.7	2.88	1.451	9.07	2.93	66.8	152.4	1.1
2000	62	5	4	4	46	21	26	56	6	55.7	3.40	1.293	9.05	3.95	89.4	130.2	1.1
2001	58	6	2	2	55	24	19	50	8	53.3	4.05	1.388	8.44	4.26	102.6	102.6	0.6
2003	38	0	3	2	35	10	13	16	5	34.3	2.62	1.398	4.19	5.16	123.2	159.8	0.9
2004	52	2	7	0	46	27	24	36	6	46.0	5.28	1.522	7.04	4.72	110.9	80.5	-0.1
2005	31	0	1	0	23	12	9	16	0	15.0	7.20	2.133	9.60	2.86	67.7	58.6	-0.4

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

1,119

RBI

.0882

OBP

.0882

SLG

.0882

OPS

.1764

Pitching

G (P)

1,119

3rd-most career G (P)

424

7th-most career SV

SHO

1,246

SO (P)

975

BB allowed

495

ERA

2.890

141st-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.3334

K/9

7.04

205th-highest career K/9

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	RBI	TB
1985-06-13	CIN @ ATL Gameday	1	0	1	1	1
1985-08-21	CIN @ PIT Gameday	1	1	1	0	1
1989-09-23	CIN @ ATL Gameday	1	1	1	0	1
1984-04-24	CIN @ ATL Gameday	0	0	0	0	0
1984-04-28	SF @ CIN Gameday	0	0	0	0	0

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	BB	SO
1996-06-11	ATL @ NYM Gameday	2.0	1	2	5
1984-05-30	PIT @ CIN Gameday	4.0	3	0	4
1986-05-23	CIN @ PIT Gameday	3.0	1	2	4
1996-09-04	LAD @ NYM Gameday	2.1	2	0	4
1987-07-20	CIN @ PHI Gameday	2.0	0	1	4

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.

Honors

4× All-Star

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.