Dodgers Star Yasiel Puig Sued by Cuban Prisoner Who Says He Ratted Him Out To Castro Regime

Ever since the Los Angeles Dodgers called him up to the big leagues in June, rookie outfielder Yasiel Puig has been absolutely destroying pitchers. The Cuban defector has already swatted eight home runs and nearly made the All-Star team as a write-in candidate.

But a Cuban man now says Puig’s escape to the United States came at a hefty price. In a lawsuit filed in Miami, the man’s attorneys claim Puig falsely ratted him out to the Castro regime as a human trafficker to avoid his own punishment after the authorities got word he was planning to defect.

Puig declined to talk about the suit when the Los Angeles Times reached him this weekend, but his attorney promised they’d file an “aggressive” response to the claims.

The lawsuit comes on behalf of a Cuban man named Miguel Angel Corbacho Daudinot, who sued Puig under the Tortue Victims Protection Act of 1991.

Daudinot says that in 2010, Puig and his mother acted as “informants” for the Castro regime by testifying he’d plotted an escape for the baseball star. Puig, at the time, had been demoted from Cuba’s developmental squad over fears he planned to defect and was looking to get back in the government’s good graces, Daudinot claims.

He eventually served three and a half years on the charges in “inhumane” conditions, the L.A. Times reports, and remains on “provisional” release in Cuba.

Puig, who is 22 years old, escaped the island last year and was rewarded with a seven-year, $42-million contract with the Dodgers.

Daudinot’s attorneys — Kenia Bravo and Avelino Gonzalez — have another open civil case in Miami, with a similar claim against Cincinnati Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman.

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