Audio By Carbonatix
The saga of Renyel Pinto, fugitive Marlins reliever, continues. In November, Riptide reported that the rotund Venezuelan pitcher had skipped court dates in both Miami-Dade and Broward counties and was being chased by an arrest warrant and a $6,000 summary judgment as a result.
Worse yet, in our mind, Pinto’s Facebook page revealed that (a) he wears so many ornate T-shirts featuring skulls and hearts that even Don Ed Hardy might consider warning him: “Dude, you look like a douche,” and (b) he loves flipping off the camera, even when relaxing in a hammock.
Which begs the question: When you’re getting paid a president’s salary to play mediocre baseball six months a year, what’s there to be angsty about?
It was a good offseason for Pinto, who negotiated a raise in salary to $1.075 million. But he’s once again gone AWOL, this time skipping a contractually obliged meet-and-greet with fans to kick off spring training — and now the team is hoping to send him and his fingers packing. From the Herald:
The Marlins are irritated with Renyel Pinto, who will be disciplined for missing FanFest, but haven’t found value for him in a trade.
At this point, Pinto might want to get the hell out of Florida himself. On December 2, he was arrested in Broward County for a warrant stemming from skipping a court date for driving without a valid license. He’s since pleaded not guilty to the offense. And his former management company, Coral Springs-based Pro-Management Resources, is attempting to garnish his MLB wages to pay back money owed for last year’s contract — which could be a lot harder to do if Pinto played for a team outside of this state.
With a trip to his Facebook page, Riptide solved the mystery of what Pinto’s been up to. Apparently, baseball is only a secondary passion:
