MLB star Wander Franco is convicted of abusing a minor but is spared jail time thanks to a judicial pardon

A court in the Dominican Republic again found baseball player Wander Franco guilty of sexual and psychological abuse against an underage girl. However, in a ruling that has ignited international debate, the magistrates determined to grant him a judicial pardon, meaning the 25-year-old athlete will not serve time in prison.

The ruling issued Monday constitutes the close of a new trial after both sides appealed an initial sentence handed down in June 2025, which called for two years of suspended jail time, according to reports carried by The Associated Press and MLB.com.

Although the court upheld the conviction of the Tampa Bay Rays shortstop's, the court's legal reasoning considered mitigating factors stemming from the conduct of the affected minor's family.

Although the court upheld the conviction of the Tampa Bay Rays shortstop, its legal reasoning cited mitigating factors stemming from the conduct of the victim’s family.

The background of the extortion and the mother's conviction

The judge in charge of releasing the grounds for the sentence, José Antonio Núñez, argued that the exemption of the sentence responds to a logical and legal weighting due to the nature of the facts.

The magistrate explained that, in the development of the events, the former Major League Baseball player also operated as a "material, but not legal victim," due to the financial blackmail maneuvers to which he was subjected by the minor's entourage.

"It seems contradictory to declare criminal responsibility and, at the same time, exempt him from punishment. The court has granted Wander Franco a judicial pardon due to the particular circumstances that made him a material victim," Judge Núñez detailed regarding the ruling.

The process evidenced that the sportsman had a four-month relationship with the young girl when she was 14 years old, having transferred substantial sums of money in cash to the mother to ensure her consent.

In contrast to the benefit granted to the baseball player, the court showed no fissures in judging the responsibility of the victim's mother.

The judges unanimously ratified the conviction for human trafficking against the mother, imposing a sentence of 10 years of imprisonment for the commercial exploitation of her own daughter, upholding the penalty handed down in the previous trial.

Uncertainty in the Major Leagues and immigration hurdles

Upon leaving the Santo Domingo courthouse, the former multimillionaire prospect, who in 2021 signed a contract extension for 11 years and $182 million, said he was relieved.

"Thank God for everything," Franco said before embracing his immediate family and telling reporters: "I feel calm. The defense lawyer, Teodosio Jáquez, said that the full reading of the formal sentence with all the technical details will take place on June 16.

Despite dodging a prison sentence, the player's future in U.S. baseball remains bleak.

The Major League Baseball (MLB) commissioner's office reacted immediately by issuing a brief official statement, "We are aware of today's verdict in the Wander Franco trial and will conclude our investigation at the appropriate time."

Franco remains sidelined on the league's restricted list, without pay or accrued service time, exposed to severe disciplinary suspensions under the Joint Policy on Domestic Violence and Child Abuse.

For its part, the Tampa Bay Rays management issued an institutional statement expressing its respect for Dominican due process, while reaffirming its commitment to cooperate with the sports authorities in the internal review of the facts.

Speculations about his future

Beyond the sanctions dictated by the MLB, the finding of criminal culpability for a crime classified as moral turpitude truncated practically any possibility of return for the Dominican to U.S. territory.

Immigration law specialists previously consulted by The Athletic agreed that the U.S. visa system is extremely strict for criminal records of this nature.

In the absence of a full exoneration of the abuse charges, the granting of a work visa to enter the country is unfeasible, which buries the athlete's return to Major League Baseball stadiums regardless of the prison benefit obtained in his country of origin.