What happens to Wander Franco’s contract if he gets convicted?
If you follow baseball in any way you have surely heard about this Wander Franco situation. Hell, even if you don’t follow baseball, you’ve probably heard of it. Karl did a blog covering the basics of what happened and myself and Jiarmani briefly talked about it on the daily show today as well. So I won’t spend too much time going over it.
It’s potentially some pretty gruesome stuff, and I hope for everyone’s sake that it’s not true. What I want to focus on is what happens to that huge extension he just signed with the Rays back in 2021. It was an 11-year, $186 million deal and would have been the largest contract in franchise history.
But with what’s going on, it’s not impossible that Wander Franco ends up in prison and never plays baseball again. I also want to add that I do understand he is innocent until proven guilty and will truly hold that sentiment. But for the sake of this, we need to accept he could also end up in prison.
Usually, MLB and other major sports contracts are pretty Iron Clad. You sign the contract and you get your guaranteed money unless you decide to retire before the length of the contract is up.
There are usually clauses in these contracts that prohibit players from doing certain activities, like Skydiving or other extreme sports of that nature in an attempt to protect the players.
But what about a case like Wander Franco? Truth be told, it’s a little bit of uncharted waters, but there is some “history” that can maybe guide us a little.
Let’s look at the story of Felipe Vazquez, for example, who was sentenced to four years in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. Vazquez was under contract for the next four years while he was to be in prison similar to Franco.
Ultimately the MLB and the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team Vazquez was on at the time, decided to place him on the restricted list and have him tethered to the organization without pay. Thus, technically, he was a “part” of the organization, but the Pirates didn’t have to pay him.
So will the Rays have to pay Wander Franco?
This is what I think will be the case for Franco if he gets convicted. I just can’t imagine MLB letting that contract be honored if it’s true. The optics of it would just look too bad.
Now I’ve never actually looked at an MLB contract and can’t be certain about anything. But the Marquette School of Law put together a really good slideshow on the origins of morality clauses in sports contracts.
In layman’s terms, it basically protects the team from having to pay a player if they commit a serious crime. I can’t say for sure what was in the Rays’ contract, but there had to be something that allows them to get out of paying him in a case like this.
The Pirates didn’t have to pay Vazquez so I doubt the Rays will have to either. The two situations are pretty similar, so I see the outcomes being similar as a result.
Again, I don’t know for sure what is going to happen, but it’s interesting to me at least to speculate what could potentially happen with the money in the grand scheme of things. Time will tell, but if found guilty, I don’t see the rest of that contract being honored.
***
Subscribe to our Youtube!!
Check out our Merch!!
