After nearly two years, the Wander Franco saga appears to have reached an end.
At least the legal process has come to a close.
Franco was found guilty on Thursday by a three-person panel (Dominican courts do not use a jury) on charges of sexual abuse against a minor. ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Juan Arturo Ricio report that Franco has been given a suspended sentence — he will need to maintain certain requirements set forth by the court; otherwise, he will report to prison to serve his full two-year term.
Franco was in the midst of a breakout season with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2023. The 22-year-old had just appeared in his first All-Star Game and was batting .281/.344/.475 (125 OPS+). He already had 23 doubles, 17 home runs and 30 stolen bases with six weeks left in the season. Franco was climbing to the top of the baseball world.
Then everything changed in July.
Allegations first surfaced via social media that Franco was involved in a relationship with an underage girl in his native Dominican Republic. Things quickly escalated once it became apparent the girl was just 14 years old. A formal complaint was made to Dominican authorities and preliminary charges were filed that included sexual abuse of a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor and human trafficking.
By mid-August, Major League Baseball placed Franco on the restricted list while it began its own investigation under its domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy.
At various times throughout the investigation, Franco failed to comply with the investigators. This included skipping a meeting with them in December 2023 that resulted in authorities searching his home.
A subsequent search of the home of the minor’s mother would uncover a large sum of money that reportedly had been given to her by Franco in exchange for her allowing the relationship to continue. Prosecutors charged the mother separately on allegations of sex trafficking and money laundering.
Franco’s trial was initially scheduled to begin in December 2024 but was delayed until June after most of the witnesses failed to appear in court. Initially, it looked as though he could be facing up to 20 years in prison due to the multiple charges being considered. In their closing arguments, prosecutors requested that he be sentenced to five years in prison, according to a report from Martin Adames at the Associated Press.
While Franco has been out on bail during the investigation, he has not been permitted to leave the Dominican Republic.
The Rays had given Franco an 11-year, $182M contract extension in 2021. He is still owed roughly $174M, which he will now certainly be required to forfeit.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal spoke with immigration and legal experts in January 2024, who said that given the serious nature of the charges, a guilty verdict would likely result in a permanent ban from the United States.
Even without a guilty verdict and a formal travel ban, Franco’s MLB career was likely over. The league could still suspend him and is likely to do so shortly, now that the legal process has concluded.
The league has precedent in doing so.
Despite the absence of criminal charges being filed, the league suspended right-hander Trevor Bauer in April 2022 for two full seasons following the conclusion of its investigation after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced. An independent arbitrator would later reduce the suspension to 194 games in December 2022 (the longest in MLB history), but Bauer would never appear in the major leagues again.
