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Edwin Encarnacion's agent calls STD lawsuit 'meritless'

TORONTO, CANADA - AUGUST 8: Edwin Encarnacion #10 of the Toronto Blue Jays hits a solo home run in the first inning during MLB game action against the Tampa Bay Rays on August 8, 2016 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
Edwin Encarnacion (Getty Images)

Toronto Blue Jays first basemen Edwin Encarnacion is embroiled in a stunning lawsuit that alleges, among other things, that he knowingly gave a woman two STDs. Encarnacion himself won’t be commenting on the suit, but he issued a strong denial of the all the accusations through his agent on Tuesday. TMZ broke the news of the lawsuit on Monday, which has been filed by a 24-year-old woman who, according to the suit, is a family friend of Encarnacion’s. She’s suing him for battery and misrepresentation of the facts, among other things (though TMZ didn’t elaborate).

The suit lays a number of claims at Encarnacion’s feet. The woman, whose name hasn’t been released, says she was involved with Encarnacion in February 2016 after receiving clean STD tests from Planned Parenthood just two months earlier. After their encounters, she began to feel pain and was worried it was the Zika virus. When she went to the doctor, however, she learned that she had two STDs. Here’s the rest of the story, from TMZ:

The woman claims she contacted Edwin — but he insisted he was clean and “suggested she may have picked up [the STDs] when they went 4-wheeling and she swam in the river.”

The woman says Edwin later backed off his claims about being STD-free — and then stopped contacting her altogether. The woman claims she now believes he knew he was carrying STDs all along.

Paul Kinzer, Encarnacion’s agent, released a statement on Tuesday that started by calling the lawsuit “completely inappropriate and meritless” and went on from there. From Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal:

“He will take every legal measure to defend himself against this frivolous claim and will bring appropriate claims in the appropriate forums against all of the individuals seeking to exploit his financial position,” Kinzer said.

“This is an unacceptable attack on his exceptional character and stellar reputation within the baseball community as a man who carries himself with the highest level of integrity.

“Mr. Encarnacion will not be commenting on this matter. He will not allow this to distract from his continued focus of contributing to his team’s success. We kindly ask that his privacy be requested.”

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Encarnacion is being sued for more than $11.5 million in damages, which isn’t an insignificant number. He’s making $10 million this year, his final contracted year with the Blue Jays. With his homer hitting ways (he’s smashed 35 in 2015 and 232 since he was traded to the Blue Jays in 2009) he’ll most likely be one of the top free agents on the market this offseason.

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher