Rays’ Wander Franco charged with sexual abuse of a minor: reports

According to several media outlets, prosecutors in the Dominican Republic have filed charges against Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco for sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl.

Prosecutors filed formal charges against Franco on Tuesday. The spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, Nairobi Viloria, confirmed the allegations to several media outlets.

Franco, 23, has not played since August 12, 2023, when allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a minor surfaced. According to prosecutors, statements from the girl and testimony from other members of her family, Franco paid the girl’s mother thousands of dollars in cash and other gifts in exchange for the mother’s consent to a sexual relationship with her daughter.

According to the Associated Press, the charges also include the minor’s mother.

Franco is on leave until July 14 as part of a joint agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association.

He spent the final weeks of the 2023 season on administrative leave, which the league uses while a player is investigated under MLB’s joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. He was reinstated to the 40-man roster after the season ended.

At the start of the 2024 season, MLB and the MLBPA agreed to place Franco back on administrative leave. The procedural move allowed the Rays to remove the shortstop, who signed a $182 million contract extension in 2021, from the 40-man roster.

Under MLB policy, Franco could still be suspended, but the outcome depends on separate investigations by the league and Dominican authorities.

The presiding judge in the case would next conduct a preliminary hearing, which in the Dominican Republic is an evidentiary hearing. A judge would evaluate the evidence and determine if the legal requirements for charges are met. The judge can accept, deny, or change the charges against Franco and the minor’s mother.

This would be the last step before starting a trial.

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(Photo: Douglas P. DeFelice / Getty)