{"id":69473,"date":"2024-03-28T11:02:44","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T15:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=69473"},"modified":"2024-03-28T11:02:44","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T15:02:44","slug":"rays-all-star-shortstop-placed-on-administrative-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/28\/rays-all-star-shortstop-placed-on-administrative-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays All-Star Shortstop Placed on Administrative Leave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/francwa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wander Franco<\/a> was put on administrative leave Thursday by Major League Baseball, per <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TBTimes_Rays\/status\/1773353878433452341\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marc Topkin<\/a> of the Tampa Bay Times. The placement removes Franco from the Tampa Bay Rays 40-man roster and is effective through June 1. The stay could end sooner than if there are any developments in Franco&#8217;s investigation. Or, it can be longer than that if there are none. Due to being on administrative leave and not the restricted list, Franco will be paid his $2 million salary.<\/p>\n<h2>Wander Franco Taken Off 40-Man Roster<\/h2>\n<p>The move is to make room for the Opening Day roster. Franco, 23, has been away from the team since mid-August when allegations first surfaced of an inappropriate relationship with a minor. Franco has not been formally charged as he remains under investigation in his native Dominican Republic. He is required to make monthly check-ins with court officials through June 30 unless his case is resolved prior. With an end date for June, the league and union established a two-month window for any developments in his case and status.<\/p>\n<h3>Rays Acquire Utilityman, Select Him to 40-Man Roster<\/h3>\n<p>Tampa Bay is in need of infield depth due to injuries and Franco&#8217;s absence. The Rays acquired utilityman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/goodrni01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Niko Goodrum<\/a> from the Minnesota Twins and will add him to the 40-man roster. Goodrum has a pair of minor league options remaining which doesn&#8217;t mean he&#8217;ll go onto the Rays major league roster. The switch-hitting veteran can play any position on the diamond. His acquisition comes after injuries to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wallsta01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Taylor Walls<\/a> (hip surgery) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/arandjo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonathan Aranda<\/a> (fractured finger). Goodrum has played parts in six big league seasons with the Twins, Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros. It seems like Goodrum will settle for a backup infielder role as the Rays have optional depth who can be controlled through the 2025 season via arbitration.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: \u00a9 David Reginek-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wander Franco was put on administrative leave Thursday by Major League Baseball, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The placement removes Franco from the Tampa Bay Rays 40-man roster and is effective through June 1. The stay could end sooner than if there are any developments in Franco&#8217;s investigation. Or, it can be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":69474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35,2,1071,6],"tags":[6248,5529,5648,2934],"class_list":["post-69473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-mlb","category-rays","tag-jonathan-aranda","tag-niko-goodrum","tag-taylor-walls","tag-wander-franco"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}