St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Carlos Martinez suffered his first loss of the MLB season in Sunday’s game against the Washington Nationals, but the young MLB phenom has more pressing things to worry about right now than a loss that brings his record to 4-1 on the season. Namely, he is currently locked in a legal battle with a Florida woman who claims Martinez knowingly gave her multiple STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) during the MLB offseason.
The suit was filed against the 24-year-old MLB player last week by a woman from Palm Beach, Florida, who claims to have had a relationship with Martinez in the past , reports St. Louis Today . Of course, she said, the relationship involved sex, and she claims she had asked the MLB prodigy about his sexual health before doing the deed.
He “swore to God that he was not infected with any sexually transmitted disease,” the woman told the courts.
Several days after the woman had sex with the MLB star, the woman alleged, she began to feel ill. She soon found out she was suffering from several STDs, and Martinez skipped town to wait for the next MLB season to begin. At least, that’s her story.
And she is now asking for $1.5 million.
Martinez’s lawyer told TMZ, however, that the woman’s story is a total fabrication meant to bring down one of the MLB’s biggest up-and-comers.
We’ve got an ELITE showdown in today’s Cards-Nats game! It’s red-hot Carlos Martinez vs ace Max Scherzer! #STLCards pic.twitter.com/OIAQyyy2MA
— STLCards SPORTalk (@SPORTalkCards) May 1, 2016
“I can assure you the allegations are 100 percent false,” Carlos’s lawyers said.
The MLB itself is not helping the woman’s case, either, as the MLB says it will not investigate Martinez’s case under the MLB’s domestic violence policy.
The policy, which was established in August 2015, basically allows the MLB to investigate players and suspend them without pay if the MLB deems them guilty, regardless of whatever the court’s ruling may be.
Not only does the MLB have more access to their players’ lives than law enforcement does, and therefore a better chance of conducting a fruitful investigation, but they also have the power to suspend the player’s income. For those reasons, MLB’s consent to investigate Martinez would greatly aid the woman’s cause.
The MLB refuses to investigate , reports ESPN , because Martinez’s case arose in a civil suit – in which two people go to court because they want a judge to oversee their argument and issue a verdict – as opposed to a criminal suit, wherein one of the parties is actually on trial for a legitimate crime.
The three MLB players investigated under the MLB’s domestic violence policy thus far — the New York Yankees’ Aroldis Chapman, the Colorado Rockies’ Jose Reyes and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig — all were accused of domestic crimes that resulted in a police report being filed and a criminal suit being raised, neither of which has happened in Martinez’s case. That’s another reason the MLB gives for not wanting to look into the incident.
As for Martinez himself, he feels great about his MLB career, even though one might think the ugly lawsuit he is going through might distract him.
“I’m pretty sure that I’m healthy,” Martinez told the MLB through an interpreter when asked if he was feeling okay to play in MLB games during the suit.
“I’m pretty sure that I’m feeling good. I’m pretty sure I know who I am. But, at the same time, that’s not part of my job. That’s my lawyer and my agent. They’re going to take care of that.”
It sounds like Martinez and the MLB are not yet panicking about the situation. Only time will tell if Martinez will be required to pay up or whether his remarkable MLB career will continue unfettered.
[Photo by Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images]