Wander Franco Has Been Placed On Administrative Leave Until Further Notice By Major League Baseball As Their Investigation Into His Relationships With At Least Two Underage Girls Continues

Denis Poroy. Getty Images.

The Wander Franco saga moves along as he's now been placed on administrative leave while MLB continues to investigate. From what I gather this is more of a procedural move since his time on the restricted list was ending. By placing him on the administrative leave they can continue to work through all the facts while keeping him sidelined. This keeps him away from the team and attempts to minimize the distraction he'd cause being around everyone. While he hasn't been proven guilty yet, there's just no way he can be around everyone right now without creating a massive distraction. 

One part of today's news that caught my eye was the mention of "girls" in the news. Plural. 

(Passan) 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.

Yeah, not great. 

MLB and MLBPA both agreed to keep Franco on this leave until further notice, rather than giving updates every seven days like they did with Trevor Bauer. Passan goes onto say in the article that the move to administrative leave implies that they already have enough gathered on him that if Franco challenged the decision he'd lose. 

Today was pretty much expected given the continuing of the investigation, but it certainly doesn't look good. They're clearly treating this extremely seriously which leads you to believe there's already been some definitive evidence uncovered. I had hoped this was just some bullshit rumor at the time, but the fact that there's multiple underage girls in the equation now is horrifying. The scenario where Wander Franco never plays baseball again seems very much on the table. 

P.S. Shout out to Nightengale for putting his own brain in a pretzel with the word "indefinite."