Former Cuban major leaguer Rusney Castillo, a native of Ciego de Ávila, will have to pay around three million dollars to two of his representative agencies after a lawsuit that ended this week in a “friendly agreement,” as revealed by sports journalist Francys Romero in his newsletter. sports.
After leaving Cuba at the end of 2013 and settling in the Dominican Republic, Castillo hired two representation agencies: Go Sports Management and LLC (Leonardo Gutiérrez) and Int Sports Managing.
According to court documents to which Romero had access, the player from Avila promised to pay 20% of his income and bonuses from his first contract with a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise.
On August 23, 2014, Castillo signed a historic contract of 72.5 million with the Boston Red Sox, the highest up to that time for a player born in Cuba.
Castillo made an agreement with these two companies to represent him, but then defaulted on his payments, according to public court records in Broward County, Florida.
The lawsuit was initiated in September 2018 for an amount of more than 5 million, which covered legal costs, attorneys’ fees and 10% of the contract that Castillo owed, according to the aforementioned documents. The legal process stretched for five years due to rejected motions, adjournments, subpoenas, depositions and evidence. Other companies also got involved and claimed their rights to the profits.
On April 26, 2023, Castillo and his lawyers presented a pre-trial stipulation. The defense highlighted that Castillo had been a victim of human trafficking on his trip to Haiti and the Dominican Republic and that Go Sports and Int. Sports Managing agreed with the traffickers for 250 thousand dollars in exchange for Castillo’s rights.
“In my opinion, this subterfuge by the defense and the player is not enough for the court as there is evidence of signing documents and agreements between the player and the companies that represented him since his departure from Cuba,” Romero said.
Finally, on September 5, 2023, the court announced the extrajudicial agreement in the litigation between the parties involved.
Castillo is a native of Ciego de Ávila, he is 36 years old, he throws and bats right-handed and made his debut in the Majors with the red-legged team on September 17, 2014. Currently, he is out of MLB and moves through some winter leagues in the Caribbean .
2023-09-20 12:01:46
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