Hot Water For Wander

When Wander Franco got called up to the Tampa Bay Rays in June of 2021, there was a lot of hype around him. He was being billed as the next big thing to come up at shortstop and was look upon to be the next, or one of the next, faces of the Rays franchise. Now it looks like we could have seen the last of Wander Franco in a Rays uniform. Or any baseball uniform for that matter.

TMZ reported that "social media posts emerged over the weekend that allegedly showed [Franco] in an inappropriate relationship with a minor." (Bleacher Report with the info) Reports of this had been circulating around last weekend. Franco was pulled from a game last Sunday against Cleveland and did not make the current West Coast road trip that the Rays are currently on. There's no word yet on what his status is for when the Rays return home to Tampa this upcoming week.

This isn't the first time the Rays have not had Franco in the lineup. He was taken out earlier this year for not being the best teammate, but the two situations are not related.

Because of the nature of the current investigation with Franco, he has been pulled from advertising here in the Tampa area, which is never a good sign. Anytime something like this comes up its never a good sign. And according to some insiders on Twitter, it looks as if, based on the way the investigation is playing out, Franco may never see an MLB field again.

From a personal perspective, this is a black eye, so to speak, for Franco career and him as a person. I don't know what happened and I don't even want to speculate. Anytime a minor is involved in any time of relationship with an adult its not good. It's even worse when that adult is a high profile athlete. Again I have no idea of what actually happened and what is going on, but the fact he was even implicated in this isn't good. Combine this with the issues that were talked about earlier this year, its been a horrible year for the young shortstop. One in which it looks like it could be almost impossible to try and rebound from.

As for the Rays, its like the hits just keep on coming, no pun intended. Aside from this, Shane MccClanahan, it was revealed, is in for having Tommy John surgery and will be out for the next year if not more.  The Rays are getting delt one blow after another. They had a big lead in the AL East and it has now turned into chasing down Baltimore for first place, sitting two games back of this writing. Tampa should be in great shape still to make the playoffs, but with everything going on right now, who knows how the next month plus of the regular season will play out.