Wander Franco obtained’t be with the Tampa Bay Rays for at least per week, and is beneath investigation by Main League Baseball.
Early Sunday afternoon, social media posts alleging that Franco, 22, had been involved with a 14-year-old girl in his native Dominican Republic, went viral. The nation’s licensed age of consent is eighteen.
Franco occurred to be out of the lineup on Sunday afternoon.
Earlier this season, Rays supervisor Kevin Money benched the shortstop for “not being one of the best teammate,” sidelining him for two video video games. However on Sunday morning, Money suggested reporters it was “only a time without work” for Franco, and caught to that story following his crew’s 9-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians.
“I’m conscious of the hypothesis,” Money talked about. “I’m not going to remark any additional on that, however the time without work was due to the time without work.”
Whereas the shortstop had carried out the ultimate 40 consecutive video video games, it was surprising that he’d get Sunday day off, when the Rays’ giveaway for followers aged 14 and beneath was a “Wander Franco Snapback Hat.”
Even so, Franco left the dugout about halfway by the use of the game, and wasn’t inside the clubhouse when it ended. In line with the Tampa Bay Occasions, a clubhouse attendant packed “baseball gear right into a workforce journey bag at (Franco’s) locker.”
On Sunday night, the Rays confirmed that MLB was attempting into the situation.
“Throughout right this moment’s sport, we have been made conscious of the social media posts which might be circulating concerning Wander Franco,” the crew’s assertion study. “We take the state of affairs significantly and are in shut contact with Main League Baseball because it conducts its due diligence.”
Franco didn’t journey to San Francisco with the crew. By early Monday afternoon, the Rays launched that he was occurring the restricted itemizing. Shortly sooner than 1 p.m., the crew’s public relations division’s X (beforehand Twitter) account launched a second assertion:
“The Tampa Bay Rays and Wander Franco have mutually agreed that he’ll go on the Restricted Checklist and take depart from the Membership at some stage in the present street journey.”
Lower than an hour later, their X account shared an extra change in response to the knowledge of MLB launching an official investigation:
“We assist any steps taken by the league to higher perceive the state of affairs. Out of respect for all events concerned, we have now no additional feedback at the moment.”
In a situation akin to this, it’s very important to note the excellence between administrative go away and the restricted itemizing. Each are strategy of eradicating a participant from the crew’s roster whereas nonetheless holding them beneath membership administration, nonetheless, on administrative go away, a participant continues to accrue service time and acquire their wage. The restricted itemizing has no such requirement, nevertheless ESPN research that the Rays are persevering with to pay Franco’s wage. He signed an 11-year, $182 million contract in 2021.