Former Pitcher Esteban Loaiza Arrested With 44 Pounds of Drugs

Ex-MLB pitcher Esteban Loaiza arrested with more than 44 pounds of cocaine, heroin. He remains in jail in San Diego. https://t.co/eTe8pv2nM6 via @USATODAY

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) February 12, 2018

“Former MLB pitcher Esteban Loaiza was arrested in San Diego on Friday on three drug-related felony charges, including possession of roughly 44 pounds of suspected cocaine.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said in a press release Monday morning that Loaiza was arrested as part of an ongoing narcotics investigation. He was driving a vehicle that police believed was being used to smuggle drugs and was pulled over for a minor traffic infraction, according to the release.” –USA Today

Insane stuff right here. Esteban Loaiza, former Major League Baseball pitcher, was in possession of about 44 pounds of drugs, including cocaine and heroin. According to SparkPeople.com, this is close to having two karaoke machines and a Mr. Coffee 12 cup maker coffee machine of drugs. Yeah, that second option is much easier to comprehend.

The estimated amount of these drugs are believed to be $500,000. Loaiza made about $43.7 million throughout his career, which makes me think that this little bundle he had in his home is just the tip of the iceberg. This guy might be the modern day Pablo Escobar or a baseball-playing Walter White.

His teammates had to know that Esteban was no joke during his career, right? I have had teammates on my teams in the past that would show up and not seem right because they were just cheating on their girlfriend or they just came from being associated with a hit-and-run. Not imagine how Esteban seemed after he woke up early, pushed a half-mil and then drove to the ballpark to go 6 innings, striking out 7 and only giving up 1 run. What a day that must be.

Compared to the life of a drug lord, Loaiza had to have approached obstacles in his baseball career with a chuckle. Oh, you think I’m upset because I just gave up 6 ER in 3 innings? No. I’m a little off today because I just saw my boss rip a man’s fingernails out and feed them to his daughter this morning.

All that being said, Loaiza’s career was very up and down, including coming in second in AL Cy Young voting in 2003. He was a stud that year and lost to Ray Halladay, but finished ahead of Pedro and Tim Hudson in voting.

There will be more to this story coming out and I am very excited to hear more and more details and even see the movie based on all of this in the coming years.