Outside The Confines: No Rays of sunshine

Just a few months ago, the Tampa Bay Rays were the biggest story in the game for the best start to a season since the 1984 Tigers. Now, they’re the biggest story in the game for not-as-pleasant reasons.

The Tampa Bay Rays placed star shortstop Wander Franco on the restricted list. Franco reportedly agreed to the move. I’m not going to go into the reasons why because you almost certainly already know why and if you don’t, you can click on the link.

Evan Drellich and Brittany Ghiroli explain what the next steps are for the Rays, Franco and MLB. (The Athletic sub. req.)

John Romano has some background on Franco and the investigation.

Daniel Brown writes that the Rays are trying to focus on the…