MLB star Wander Franco “is charged with sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of a minor”

According to ESPN, Tampa Bay Rays superstar Wander Franco has been officially charged with sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of a minor.

Franco is still receiving his $2 million salary, even though he has not appeared in an MLB game since the allegations surfaced in the summer of 2023. His contract runs through 2032, and he is reportedly due $174 million.

He is said to have had a relationship with a 14-year-old girl and paid her mother thousands of dollars for her consent.

The Dominican Republic’s prosecutor had until July 14 to file formal charges against Franco. This process has now been completed, allowing the MLB star to stand trial in his home country.

Franco was initially suspended by the Rays, according to ESPN, before being placed on leave until June 1 under an agreement between MLB and the MLBPA.

The charges of money laundering and sexual exploitation were dropped earlier this year after Franco was released from prison. He had been detained for a week for failing to comply with a summons from prosecutors.

In April, a judge in the Dominican Republic rejected Franco’s request to stop his monthly checks with authorities and to refund his bail of around $35,000.

According to prosecutors and statements from the girl and other family members, Franco paid the 14-year-old girl’s mother thousands of dollars in cash and other gifts in exchange for the mother’s consent to have a sexual relationship with her daughter.

Prosecutors also accused him of “kidnapping the minor from her home in Puerto Plata in December 2022 and having a four-month relationship with her with the consent of the girl’s mother,” the Associated Press reported.

In the Dominican Republic, the Law for the Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents, Law 136-03, considers any relationship between a minor and a person five years older as sexual abuse. Franco began a relationship with the girl when she was 14 and he was 21.

Franco was named to the All-Star team for the first time last season and is considered one of the most exciting young players in Major League Baseball.

As DailyMail.com first revealed last summer, he is married to his childhood sweetheart Rachelly Paulino.

The couple owns a five-bedroom home in Tampa – purchased for $1.55 million in May 2023 – and two children together, born in 2018 and 2022.