When the Cardinals jettisoned most of their veteran relievers last offseason, Franklin was one of only three who were invited back (Brad Thompson and Josh Kinney being the others). And for good reason: With Jason Isringhausen’s fade into the sunset, Franklin gained Tony La Russa’s trust as a closer, even if a 4.88 xFIP wasn’t exactly airtight relief. Free agent Brian Fuentes snubbed the Cardinals, leaving the door open for Franklin to close again. As John Mozeliak said, "It is no secret that when we entered spring training, the question of who would be our closer was unsettled." The Cardinals made Franklin, already under contract, their de facto closer, and few players on the team were as much a rhetorical lightning rod as he, whose 2.31 gap between his ERA and his xFIP was almost as wide gap between divergent opinions on the nature of his success: Was his low ERA illusory, based as it was on an improbable and largely uncontrollable 3.7% HR/FB rate and a walk rate out of line with his career numbers, or did it not matter as long as he was getting outs? Either way, his 0.79 ERA and 21 saves at the All-Star break were too good to overlook, and he was named to the NL All-Star Team. After the break, however, he regressed, allowing as many walks as he had strikeouts (17) and yielding a .380 OBP and 3.33 ERA … His contract extension calls for performance bonuses based on games finished … Second most-similar pitcher is former Cardinal Neil Allen … Is represented by brother Jay, a former minor leaguer and former recruiter for the Scott Boras Corporation.

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