Everything we know about the Wander Franco investigation
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Jeff Passan, ESPN
Wander Franco, the 22-year-old All-Star shortstop for the Tampa Bay Rays, was placed on administrative leave Tuesday as MLB and law enforcement in his native Dominican Republic investigate allegations of relationships with underaged girls.
Franco had missed the past week of games after the Rays placed him on the restricted list on Aug. 14. He is being investigated by Dominican police as well as MLB’s department of investigations.
What does administrative leave mean? When could Franco return? And what do we know — and not know — about the investigations? We’re answering questions about Franco’s case so far.
What does administrative leave mean?
The designation of administrative leave is a significant but expected step by the league. Administrative leave removes a player from a team’s roster during an ongoing investigation into a potential violation of the sport’s domestic violence policy and can be extended indefinitely with the approval of the MLB Players Association.
Should Franco not challenge the leave, which is his right during the first seven days, the league could ask the MLBPA to consent to a seven-day extension of the initial designation. Following the first 14 days on administration leave, the MLBPA and MLB must come to an agreement on any further extension.
What do we know about Franco’s contact with the girls?
At least two girls have raised concerns — one publicly, one with law enforcement.
One of the girls, whose name and age have not been independently confirmed, alleged she was in a relationship with Franco and posted pictures with him on social media. Her Instagram account has since been deleted. Still, the allegations were enough for MLB to mobilize its department of investigations to look into the claims.
About a month earlier, a different girl contacted police to discuss Franco, according to Diario Libre, a Dominican newspaper. Prosecutors in Peravia, the Dominican province where Franco grew up, acknowledged that an investigation into him is open and being run by a unit that focuses on minors and gender violence. The lead prosecutor, Olga Dina Llaverias, is well-known in the country as a specialist in child abuse cases.
What is the status of the investigations?
The application of administrative leave implies that MLB believes it has enough evidence to withstand a potential challenge by Franco. When the league places a player on administrative leave, it takes a player off a team’s roster due to investigatory work remaining with regards to a potential violation of the joint domestic violence policy run by MLB and the MLB Players Association.
MLB has the unilateral ability to place a player on administrative leave. The player can challenge it, and within 24 hours, a neutral arbitrator will determine whether the league has presented “credible information” regarding the allegations or whether rejoining his team would cause “significant disruption.”
League investigators have attempted to gather information in the Dominican Republic, where the government’s investigation remains open. Another prosecutor, Angel Dario Tejeda Fabal, told the Associated Press that the case “is a very delicate topic because there is a minor involved” and suggested that this week they “might be able to give some of the necessary information without hurting the investigation.”
How do the laws in the Dominican Republic compare to the United States, and what could that mean for potential criminal action?
The age of consent for sexual activity in the D.R. is 18 years old. Unlike in the U.S., where age of consent varies by state and is further complicated by the so-called Romeo and Juliet laws that allow a close in age exception, the Dominican Republic’s law is firm. Any sexual contact by a person 18 or older with a person under 18 is illegal and can be prosecuted.
At the same time, in the D.R., criminal matters often are resolved more akin to civil cases, in which the person charged with the crime provides payment to the victim’s family, who then tells law enforcement they are satisfied with the outcome and would prefer not to further pursue criminal charges.
What MLB policies could be part of a potential punishment if the allegations are proven true?
The relevant joint policy defines three areas of violations: domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse. The latter two, in particular, are pertinent to any potential Franco discipline.
Sexual assault, according to the policy, is committed through a nonconsensual sexual contact. The definition of sexual assault concludes with a pertinent phrase: “legally incapable of consent.” If Franco is found to have had sexual contact with someone under 18 — who, definitionally, cannot give consent — he would likely be subject to a violation of the policy.
Child abuse, which was narrowly defined in the previous version of the policy, was updated in the new collective bargaining agreement a year ago. In addition to the past definition, which includes “emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation of a child who is under the age of 18,” the newer one expands to “production, distribution, receipt, or possession of ‘child pornography’ … including any photograph, film, video, picture … where the production of such visual depiction involves the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.”
To pursue a suspension in either area, MLB would need further evidence than what has been covered publicly.
What is the precedent for violations of the policy?
Since the adoption of the joint policy in August 2015, MLB has suspended 16 players. Punishments have ranged from 15 games to 324 games. That record suspension of 324 games, handed down to former Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer, was reduced on appeal to 194 games.
It’s far too early to know whether Franco’s case will mirror Bauer’s. But for a sense of the timeline and how long these sorts of cases can take, Bauer’s is instructive. He was placed on administrative leave in early July 2021. He remained on it through April 2022, when the league levied its suspension. Bauer missed the entire season, and in December, the arbitrator reduced the suspension by 130 games. Eventually, the Dodgers released Bauer, and he went unsigned in MLB, winding up with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in Japan.
Nearly every other case punished by MLB’s policy falls under the domestic violence classification. MLB did not punish the closest analog to the allegations against Franco, former Pittsburgh closer Felipe Vazquez, because he was sentenced to two to four years in state prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl he met on social media.
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Heather Dinich, Senior College Football Insider
ATLANTA — No major decisions were made regarding the future format of the 12-team College Football Playoff on Sunday, but “tweaks” to the 2025 season haven’t been ruled out, CFP executive director Rich Clark said.
Sunday’s annual meeting of the FBS commissioners and the presidents and chancellors who control the playoff wasn’t expected to produce any immediate course of action, but it was the first time that people with the power to change the playoff met in person to begin a review of the historic expanded bracket.
Clark said the group talked about “a lot of really important issues,” but the meeting at the Signia by Hilton set the stage for bigger decisions that need to be made “very soon.”
Commissioners would have to unanimously agree upon any changes to the 12-team format to implement them for the 2025 season.
“I would say it’s possible, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen or not,” Clark said on the eve of the College Football Playoff National Championship game between Ohio State and Notre Dame. “There’s probably some things that could happen in short order that might be tweaks to the 2025 season, but we haven’t determined that yet.”
A source with knowledge of the conversations said nobody at this time was pushing hard for a 14-team bracket, and there wasn’t an in-depth discussion of the seeding process, but talks were held about the value of having the four highest-ranked conference champions earn first-round byes.
Ultimately, the 11 presidents and chancellors who comprise the CFP’s board of managers will vote on any changes, and some university leaders said they liked rewarding those conference champions with byes because of the emphasis it placed on conference title games.
Mississippi State president Mark Keenum, the chair of the board of managers, said they didn’t talk about “what-ifs,” but they have tasked the commissioners to produce a plan for future governance and the format for 2026 and beyond.
Starting in 2026, any changes will no longer require unanimous approval, and the Big Ten and the SEC will have the bulk of control over the format — a power that was granted during the past CFP contract negotiation. The commissioners will again meet in person at their annual April meeting in Las Colinas, Texas, and the presidents and chancellors will have a videoconference or phone call on May 6.
“We’re extremely happy with where we are now,” Keenum said. “We’re looking towards the new contract, which is already in place with ESPN, our media provider, for the next six years through 2032. We’ve got to make that transition from the current structure that we’re in to the new structure we’ll have.”
Following Sunday’s meeting, sources continued to express skepticism that there will be unanimous agreement to make any significant changes for the 2025 season, but a more thorough review will continue in the following months.
“The commissioners and our athletic director from Notre Dame will look at everything across the board,” Clark said. “We’re going to tee them up so that they could really have a thorough look at the playoff looking back after this championship game is done … and then look back and figure out what is it that we need.”
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Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior Writer
ATLANTA — ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said Sunday that the league will have conversations among coaches and athletic directors about whether to make changes to its conference championship game format.
The conversations are a result of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, and ensuring conference champions and the teams that play in conference championship game remain important.
This past season, SMU entered the ACC championship game as the regular-season champion but lost to Clemson in the ACC title game and had to sweat it out before selection day before earning a spot in the 12-team field.
Phillips said the ACC could consider giving its regular-season champion a bye, and have the teams that finish second or third in the league standings play in the ACC championship game.
He said another possibility is having the top 4 teams play on the final weekend of the regular season: first place versus fourth place, and second place vs. third place, with the winners playing the following weekend in the ACC championship game.
Phillips said he will have conversations with league head coaches on a conference call next week to get their feedback on the plan — specifically pointing to comments SMU coach Rhett Lashlee made leading up to the game in which he indicated the Mustangs might be better off not playing to protect its spot in the field.
Phillips also said these conversations will continue at the league’s winter meetings next month in Charlotte, North Carolina, and he has mentioned this is a topic among league athletics directors.
“The conference championship games are important, as long as we make them important, right?” Phillips said. “Do you play two versus three? You go through the regular season and whoever wins the regular season, just park them to the side, and then you play the second-place team versus the third-place team in your championship game. So you have a regular-season champion, and then you have a conference tournament or postseason champion.
“That’s one of the options, depending on how you treat the conference champions, or that championship game, you may want to do it different.
“I have alluded to that in some of our every-other-week-AD calls, and these are some of the things moving forward. We want to have a recap of the regular season, postseason, and what do we think moving forward?”
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Dodgers have added left-hander Tanner Scott, arguably the best relief pitcher on the free agent market, agreeing to terms on a four-year, $72 million contract, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Sunday.
The addition of Scott likely puts the finishing touches on another busy offseason for the reigning World Series champions.
Before Scott, the Dodgers signed Blake Snell, one of the best starters on the market; brought back Teoscar Hernandez and signed Michael Conforto, solidifying the corner outfield; signed Korean second baseman Hyeseong Kim, freeing up a trade of Gavin Lux; extended Tommy Edman; and, in one of the winter’s biggest developments, lured phenom Roki Sasaki.
Now Scott, 30, will slot into the back end of a dominant bullpen alongside Michael Kopech, Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia and Ryan Brasier, among other high-leverage arms.
Originally a sixth-round pick in 2014, Scott has established himself as a dominant force over these past two years. With the Miami Marlins and San Diego Padres from 2023 to 2024, Scott posted a 2.04 ERA in 146 appearances, striking out 188 batters and issuing 60 walks in 150 innings.
With Scott, the Dodgers’ luxury tax payroll is estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $375 million, about $70 million more than that of the second-place Philadelphia Phillies.
The New York Yankees are the only other team with a competitive balance tax payroll projected to be over $300 million.
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