Houston Astros: The hidden truth in the lawsuit against Yordan Alvarez

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Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez was sued in the middle of the 2019 season. This article proved what happened in the case against a Dominican investor.

When the rumors of a lawsuit against Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez in a Dominican court came to fruition, I attempted to find documentation on this happening.

It seemed that once again a Cuban ballplayer had failed to meet his contractual obligations with a Dominican investor ala Yoenis Céspedes and a few others.

But I found it rather strange that Alvarez, after signing with the Dodgers, would damage his reputation by getting caught up in a lawsuit.

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Doesn’t it seem strange that a court case arises out of the blue three years after Álvarez signs an MLB contract and in the same year that he was finally the unanimous Rookie of the Year in the American League?

This seemed a little too convenient for me.

I was able to get the actual contact via Juan De Lemos’s lawyer about the so-called breach. De Lemos clarified to me that actual litigation does exist against Alvarez in the form of Manuel Azcona, a Dominican investor.

De Lemos and Azcona are friends and business associates for a long time, so this smelled a little fishy to me.

Azcona is also a well-known investor in the Dominican Republic and his main method of revenue comes via his investments in young up and coming baseball talents.

This business involves the practice of taking a percentage in a player’s contracts in exchange for large cash advances among other things.

The 55-year-old Azcona, who was the representation for Yordan Alvarez and Eddy Julio Martínez since April of 2015, when the two natives of Las Tunas, Cuba, decided to leave the island in search of the dream of becoming Big League´s players.

The 64-year-old De Lemos who is also a Dominican national widely assured me that it was public knowledge that there was a judgment against Alvarez for breach of contract in a Dominican court and they were just waiting for an American court to commute the ruling against the Cuban star.

“We are going to pursue a lawsuit against a player who breached a contract”, said De Lemos in reference to Álvarez.

De Lemos has a long history of importing Cuban players to the Dominican Republic in search of Major League contracts.

People like De Lemos and Azcona present themselves as agents or investors when they are really “buscones.” These types of individuals sponsor unsuspecting players and then sign them to unscrupulous contracts that can in many cases rob them of up to 50% of their first signed contracts.

In concurrence with the few players I interviewed two years ago, between 2008-2009, De Lemos invested in numerous Cuban baseball players with another Dominican national named Tomas Collado.

These two gentlemen invested in various players, William Arcaya, Juan Carlos Moreno and Félix Pérez being a prime example of their investments.

How did Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez breach his contract, was my first question to De Lemos?

He replied: “The contract has various clauses that Mr. Álvarez did not adhere to, therefore causing a breach of contract. He never paid Mr. Azcona one red cent.”

This is all De Lemos had to say about this topic. When I tried to contact De Lemos to ask him the last questions about the case, he declined to comment.

Houston Astros: The hidden truth in the lawsuit against Yordan Alvarez

Avoiding distractions on the field

On July 1, 2019, Manuel Azcona filed suit in a Dominican tribunal, I was able to obtain documents saying that indeed a lean was in process of being filed against Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez. The suit alleges that Álvarez owes a multimillion-dollar sum to Azcona.

The Cuban slugger, of which there is already analogy as a kind of Cuban “Big Papi”, hit a no-doubter against Dylan Bundy in his major league debut. The entrance of Alvarez to MLB was more than unthinkable something surreal.

In the span of a month “Air Yordan” was born and the Josh Fields trade made the Astros front office look like geniuses. As per Elias Sports Bureau, Álvarez is the fourth player in the Modern Era to hit six long balls in his first 11 big league games.

As of the 10th of August, this year the young Cuban was the first Houston Astros rookie to hit three homers in a game and the second player in the last 100 years with 50 RBI in his first 45 games, the last one being Joe DiMaggio.

As the process for a possible lean against Alvarez ran its course the player was named Rookie of the Month in back to back months (July, August).

Alvarez was becoming a star and the possible front runner for the Rookie of the Year in the junior circuit. However, it was impossible to understand that the hulking Cuban would have any negative moments in 2019.

As the legal process continued it didn’t affect Yordan Alverz’s production on the field at all in June he hit .317, 7 HR, 21 RBI and the following months July (.333, 5HR, 15 RBI), August (.309, 9 HR, 26 RBI), September (.288, 5 HR, 16RBI) he was a steady hitter.

“I haven’t filed any type of suit against Yordan because I’m trying to resolve things harmoniously,” said Azcona via WhatsApp with one mediator in a phone conversation we had a few days back.

Although those were his claims, I uncovered documents that say otherwise. Docket number 05-14-2019-ECIV-0037 clearly states that on July 9, 2019, Azcona asked a Dominican court to put a lean on any and properties belonging to Yordan Alvarez in the Dominican Republic.

A lean was put on a bank account and $480,000 belonging to was frozen in the Dominican Republic, however, Alvarez was able to present evidence that he indeed paid Azcona the sum agreed upon and that payment was made to a partial assignee.

In the blind and corrupt courts of the Dominican Republic where many judges can be partial to such investors as Azcona, the Houston Astros slugger was able to provide proof that all debts had been settled and his account was unfrozen.

In the current day, the player is represented by Magnus Sports an agency lead by singer and actor Marc Anthony, that has recruited several players such as Gurriel and Mesa brothers and Aroldis Chapman to name a few.

“They wanted to make a false claim and try to pressure Yordan into paying a sum of money,” said Alvarez’s lawyer in the Dominican Republic, Oscar Batista.

Batista’s defense was able to get the Santiago District Court to annul every and all claims against the ballplayer. According to the proof presented by Batista in court proceedings all payments to Azcona were made through BHD Leon, a Dominican bank, which ironically had a banner behind home plate during the last World Series between Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros.

Houston Astros: The hidden truth in the lawsuit against Yordan Alvarez

A brief history of Yordan Alvarez

When the Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alveraz abandoned the island in 2015, his parents accompanied him in his journey to the Dominican Republic. At the time the prospect was 17 years old.

He was coming off a year when he debuted in the Cuban National League at the tender age of 16. Very few have been able to do such a thing especially at that age, Omar Linares, José Abreu, Dayan Viciedo, and Adrian Morejon were some of those others that have accomplished such a feat, all of them, with the exception of the first (Omar Linares) have reached the Big Leagues.

At the beginning, Álvarez wasn’t desired by many scouts. Outfielder Eddy Martinez filled in more the idea of “multi-tools prospect”. At that time the prime investor for this undesired prospect was Manuel Azcona, in a contract signed by Álvarez on the 17th of April 2016, the young Cuban agreed to pay 30% of his first contract to two investors, 24% to Azcona and 6% to Aldo Marrero, Álvarez’s trainer.

Marrero had no comment about the situation, the Dominican native runs an academy in the Santiago where scouts evaluate prospects of diverse nationalities. Alvarez was complemented by the fellow native of Las Tunas, Eddy Julio Martínez. Martínez and Álvarez are friends since the age of 12 when they were both training at EIDE (Sports Initiation School) on the island.

Martínez who was also sponsored by Azcona and had the same contract arrangement as Alvarez with Azcona and Marrero.

“We lived relatively close to close to each other in Cuba”, said Martinez who signed for $3M bonus with the Cubs in 2016. We were treated very well in the Dominican Republic, especially by Marrero, he treated us like family.”

Twelve months after Martinez received his bonus from Chicago, he paid Marrero and Azcona. The 24-year-old outfielder was ranked as the 97th best prospect in the MLB talent system by Baseball Prospectus in 2019.

Perhaps the day Martínez becomes a Major League star he will encounter the same problem that his friend Alvarez faced with Azcona.

“In this business, there are people that want to take advantage of you and will do it by any means necessary. I sincerely hope this incident doesn’t affect Yordan’s career. I have a copy of my contract in case a situation like this develops when I reach the Majors,” said Martínez.

When Álvarez signed in 2016 with the Dodgers, Azcona was in a financial crisis and the young slugger lent him 100 grand to help out on the premise that all debts would be settled, but that wasn’t the case Azcona denies this payment was ever made and decided to go after Álvarez civilly.

“Yordan decided to pay the 100 thousand because he didn’t have time to show up in a Dominican court because he needed to report in Astros Minor League team”, said Batista.

“That so-called loan was actually extorted from my client. Alvarez assured he didn’t have time to make an appearance in front of a tribunal due to the fact that he had to be in the United States the next day. At the same time, he made the payment and an additional $480,000 was made to Azcona’s creditors. Due to the fact we made these payments, Mr. Azcona’s case was thrown out of court,” assured Batista.

On the other side, Azcona countered: “I never received that 100 thousand. Check my accounts, it should be in the bank, right? (ask ironically)”.

Azcona explained that his contract with Yordan clearly states that the young Cuban could not sign with any organization without his knowledge, in a kind of enslavement of the player to his strict rights.

“He also has to disclose everything done during his contractual process to me and he never did that”, says Azcona.

Azcona also conveyed to me that he hopes Yordan signs an extension with Houston, so he and the player can sit down harmoniously and discuss future compensation.

“If he doesn’t hand over, I will act, because I’m in the right”, reiterated Azcona.

Houston Astros: The hidden truth in the lawsuit against Yordan Alvarez

Getting to know Manuel Azcona

According to Baseball-Reference, Manuel Azcona was a Minor League pitcher in the Montreal Expos and Pittsburgh Pirates organization who never made it past the Class-A level. In 1983, according to Winterballdata.com, the left-hander threw one inning with Aguilas Cibaeñas in the Dominican Winter League. In his only Winter League action, he gave up a hit and no runs. He became a poor baseball career into that of a street agent and investor since 2000, Azcona has generated an abundant amount of funds in baseball contracts during his ride.

He is a very known investor in the baseball circles in the Dominican Republic. He has been able to place many players in various organizations, one of his biggest signings was that of Juan Miranda who inked a 2-million-dollar contract in 2006 with New York Yankees.

But all hasn’t been peachy, Azcona did a 10-month stint in a Cuban jail due to his illicit business at the beginning of the 2000s.

In the book: “Baseball Cop: The Dark Side of America’s National Pastime”, written by former MLB investigator Eddie Domínguez, Azcona is named as a “known human trafficker of baseball players”. Domínguez described Azcona as a snake in the grass.

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His mismanagement of finances has guided to near bankruptcy, many sources have confirmed that Azcona has gone through plenty of financial crises, his love of outstanding automobiles has been one of the vices that have led to these crises.

“He lives outside of his means”, said Juan Carlos Moreno, an ex-member of the Cuban National team who was smuggled out of Cuba by Azcona in July of 2008.

“He likes luxurious apartments, luxury cars, and luxury clubs”, told Moreno.

Azcona sold percentages of future contracts to obtain these things.

Moreno was 32 years old when he escaped to Mexico in 2008. As soon as the Cuban was on Dominican soil Azcona sold percentages of his contract to Juan de Lemos and Tomas Collado.

These two gentlemen altered the ages of nine players including Moreno, who warned them his official age was in the archives of the I World Baseball Classic (2006), due to the fact that he was on Cuba’s official roster and that this would come to light.

Moreno’s age was eventually discovered, and his impending free agency was put on hold by MLB and he’s been in limbo ever since.

In the current day, Moreno trains youths in the Dominican Republic and hasn’t seen his family in 11 years.

“A few years ago, I encountered Azcona and he wanted to hire me to train players that he brought over from Cuba, but I respectfully declined’, said Moreno.

When I asked him why he declined, he responded, “I don’t want anything to do with him and because I have known that he doesn’t pay his workers very well, also any involvement with him would impede my entrance to Cuba”.

Houston Astros: The hidden truth in the lawsuit against Yordan Alvarez

A flawed, man-created system

It is a common practice and in which he plays magician traits for Manuel Azcona to sell off percentages of his players to other investors for cash advances. This is exactly what happened in Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez’s case according to my sources.

Before receiving any royalties from the Alvarez signing Azcona had received an advance from another Dominican investor.

Azcona continued to deny that he had received a payment from Álvarez to date.