A bizarre story came out of the Dominican Republic yesterday, first reported by the Tribune, and supplemented by ESPN, among others.
You can read those accounts for the details, but the gist has some $3.6 million of Starlin Castro’s money being seized in the Dominican Republic after a baseball school in the DR sued Castro. The suit is tied to a purported promise Castro’s father made (when Castro was just 15) to pay the school 3% of his future baseball contract(s). Apparently Castro already made certain payments to the school, and he’s retained an attorney to countersue and clear things up.
I didn’t write about the suit yesterday because I wanted to give it a day to see if anything in my head settled, or if anything else was reported. As it stands, I got nothing, and there isn’t much else out there. It’s just bizarre. I don’t believe you can just sign away your kid’s future earnings like that – and if you can, the DR probably needs to fix that.
I suppose the only relevance here is the hope that, whatever the issue, it’s cleared up quickly and with as little unease as possible. It’s a big year ahead for Castro, and he doesn’t need any distractions.