After practically two years, the Wander Franco saga seems to have reached an finish.
A minimum of the authorized course of has come to a detailed.
Franco was discovered responsible on Thursday by a three-person panel (Dominican courts don’t use a jury) on costs of sexual abuse in opposition to a minor. ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Juan Arturo Ricio report that Franco has been given a suspended sentence — he might want to preserve sure necessities set forth by the courtroom; in any other case, he’ll report back to jail to serve his full two-year time period.
Franco was within the midst of a breakout season with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2023. The 22-year-old had simply appeared in his first All-Star Sport and was batting .281/.344/.475 (125 OPS+). He already had 23 doubles, 17 dwelling runs and 30 stolen bases with six weeks left within the season. Franco was climbing to the highest of the baseball world.
Then all the things modified in July.
Allegations first surfaced through social media that Franco was concerned in a relationship with an underage woman in his native Dominican Republic. Issues rapidly escalated as soon as it turned obvious the woman was simply 14 years previous. A proper grievance was made to Dominican authorities and preliminary costs have been filed that included sexual abuse of a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor and human trafficking.
By mid-August, Main League Baseball positioned Franco on the restricted listing whereas it started its personal investigation underneath its home violence, sexual assault and baby abuse coverage.
At numerous instances all through the investigation, Franco didn’t adjust to the investigators. This included skipping a gathering with them in December 2023 that resulted in authorities looking out his dwelling.
A subsequent search of the house of the minor’s mom would uncover a big sum of cash that reportedly had been given to her by Franco in trade for her permitting the connection to proceed. Prosecutors charged the mom individually on allegations of intercourse trafficking and cash laundering.
Franco’s trial was initially scheduled to start in December 2024 however was delayed till June after a lot of the witnesses failed to seem in courtroom. Initially, it appeared as if he may very well be dealing with as much as 20 years in jail as a result of a number of costs being thought-about. Of their closing arguments, prosecutors requested that he be sentenced to 5 years in jail, based on a report from Martin Adames at the Associated Press.
Whereas Franco has been out on bail through the investigation, he has not been permitted to go away the Dominican Republic.
The Rays had given Franco an 11-year, $182M contract extension in 2021. He’s nonetheless owed roughly $174M, which he’ll now actually be required to forfeit.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal spoke with immigration and authorized consultants in January 2024, who stated that given the intense nature of the fees, a responsible verdict would doubtless lead to a everlasting ban from america.
Even with out a responsible verdict and a proper journey ban, Franco’s MLB profession was doubtless over. The league might nonetheless droop him and is probably going to take action shortly, now that the authorized course of has concluded.
The league has precedent in doing so.
Regardless of the absence of legal costs being filed, the league suspended right-hander Trevor Bauer in April 2022 for 2 full seasons following the conclusion of its investigation after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced. An unbiased arbitrator would later cut back the suspension to 194 video games in December 2022 (the longest in MLB historical past), however Bauer would by no means seem within the main leagues once more.
