Wander learns the hard way: Don't park in your boss' spot

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- As the Rays were stretching and warming up Friday morning on the main field at Charlotte Sports Park, a white Range Rover rolled in from beyond the center field fence and pulled to a stop in the outfield grass.

The SUV belonged to young star Wander Franco, but he was not behind the wheel. The 21-year-old shortstop, who was doing some sprint work in right field, seemed as surprised as anyone. Manager Kevin Cash stood nearby along the foul line as this was all unfolding, a big grin stretched across his face.

You see, Franco had made the mistake of backing into president of baseball operations Erik Neander’s parking spot Friday morning. When Neander arrived for work, he found his reserved -- and quite clearly marked -- space was already occupied.

Neander texted a photo of Franco’s car (along with the question, “Like my new whip?”) to senior director of team travel and logistics Chris Westmoreland, who showed the photo to Cash. Neander clearly had no issue with the future face of his franchise’s choice in parking spots and pulled into team president Matt Silverman’s spot instead. But Cash -- never one to pass on a good prank -- couldn’t let an opportunity like that go by.

Cash bolted out of the clubhouse and rushed to retrieve Neander, who was in the middle of a Bally Sports TV interview, telling him, “You might want to see this.” Neander asked if it could wait; Cash insisted it could not. So they hustled into the stadium to see Franco’s ride cruising onto the field with the horn honking, at which point Cash announced to the team he had to “find a new parking spot for Wander’s car.”

“It was all good fun,” Cash said. “He might park there tomorrow. And if he does, I don’t know if I can blame him.”

Apparently Franco is working his way up the baseball operations chain of command; on Thursday, he settled in the spot marked for general manager Peter Bendix. As catcher Mike Zunino jokingly suggested they should leave the 21-year-old’s Range Rover in center field for batting practice, Franco laughed and hugged Neander.

“I laughed and I said, ‘Hey, you do good on this extension, that spot is yours,’” Neander said. “He just laughed, ‘Sorry.’ He was so confused. I just wanted him to know, 'Hey, we’re good. We’re just having fun.'”

In the end, the Rays moved Franco’s car back to the parking lot -- in the space reserved for principal owner Stu Sternberg.