Lazarito and family deny being in danger as former agent claimed

(Culture 39) The story of Lazaro “Lazarito” Armenteros, the 16-year-old phenom from Cuba who was dropped by his American agent this week over safety concerns, has taken another twist.

According to Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, an exclusive conference call was set up with Lazarito, his family and his new agents at Octagon on Wednesday, during which the claims of former agent Charles Hairston were dismissed.

Most importantly, his family wanted to establish that they were not in any danger, and that they were in “absolute control” of their travel documents, meaning they can travel freely.

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Hairston, a representative of the Culture39 agency who served as Lazarito’s agent until Tuesday, claimed that he had received death threats from the Latin American trainer/agent or “buscon,” as they’re known in international circles, who was helping Lazarito prepare for a career in MLB. Hairston said he believed his life was in danger, as was that of Lazarito’s family.

Hairston also said he’d secured an invitation for Lazarito to attend a team’s spring-training camp and meet with its general manager and ownership, but that the buscon withheld the travel documents for both the player and his parents, making such a visit impossible.

Lazarito’s family confirmed that a meeting had been set up with the Atlanta Braves, but diisputed the rest of the story. They backed that up with their own version of the events and their reason why Lazarito did not attend that scheduled meeting.

Lazarito, an infielder/outfielder, declined an invitation to visit the Altanta Braves in the U.S. not because of an inability to travel freely, but because the Braves invited only the player and not his parents, Lazaro Sr. said.

The Braves indeed structured the invitation that way, according to a major-league source, believing it was common for the agent to serve as a guardian for such a workout.

The family also reportedly had issues with Hairston’s priorities, specifically mentioning his desire to line up multiple sponsorship and endorsement deals before a baseball contract was complete.

Ulises Cabrera, one of Lazarito’s new agents, said that the player’s focus needs to be on baseball. Hairston had said that he had sponsorship and endorsement deals lined up for Lazarito, even his own clothing line.

“Most people in the industry would say that Lazarito has not developed to the extent people expected him to when he was in Cuba. The adjustment is to be with people who will be trustworthy and get him back on track on the field,” Cabrera said.

“Instead of focusing on building this guy’s brand into Michael Jordan Inc. and talking about clothing lines and all that stuff … this kid is a 16-year-old baseball player. Let’s focus on baseball. Let’s not focus on making this guy the next LeBron James.”

This paints the picture of philosophical differences with Hairston, which is a long, long way away from what Hairston was saying.

In a direct rebuttal to the FOX story, Hairston stood by his words though, stating that it would make no sense to step away from an elite prospect without a legitimate reason. Protecting himself and his own is the reason he’s giving, so it’s going to end up being his word against theirs until we learn the truth.

And the scary thing is, one of these stories almost has to be true. Either Lazarito and his family are hiding something to protect themselves, or Hairston is painting a scarier picture than necessary to possibly protect a relationship gone south. Worse yet, it’s possible there’s a little bit of truth to everything said here, which only adds to the discomfort of this entire process.

Here’s hoping for a resolution soon, and here’s hoping that baseball will soon be the entire focus of Lazarito’s story.

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