Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Mondesi: Fears for family and property create too big a distraction to keep playing. Click photo for larger image.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Former All-Star outfielder Raul Mondesi said yesterday he will probably remain at his home here for the rest of the year, but did not rule out returning to the Pirates at some point this season.

"Maybe I'll come back. Maybe I'll stay here," Mondesi said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and two Dominican journalists.

For the time being, Mondesi said, he cannot tear himself away from his wife and children in his hometown of San Cristobal until a bitter legal dispute with former major leaguer Mario Guerrero runs its course in the Caribbean country's courts.

Mondesi also acknowledged that he was unhappy with his current contract with the Pirates, but said his primary concern was the legal dispute with Guerrero.

"To play better, your mind has to be clear," he said, sitting behind the desk of Manuel Valdez Paulino, one of his attorneys.

Mondesi abruptly left the Pirates last Friday after a week of fielding phone calls from anxious friends and relatives, who grew worried after an attorney for Guerrero petitioned Dominican authorities on April 27 to seize vehicles and furniture from the outfielder's palatial estate in San Cristobal.

The sheriff's office in San Cristobal rejected the petition on May 6, but Guerrero's attorney has put a lien on Mondesi's home.

Since retiring as a player, Guerrero has worked as an instructor and agent for Dominican baseball prospects.

Late last year, Guerrero won a $1 million judgment against Mondesi. A lower-court judge ruled that Mondesi must give 1 percent of his career earnings to Guerrero as payment for past baseball instruction.

The judgment led the Pirates to temporarily put Mondesi's paychecks in an escrow account.

Mondesi played well at the start of the season, batting .338 through April.

But he lost his focus after family members back home conveyed their concerns about the April 27 petition.

	Pittsburgh Pirates Raul Mondesi in his offical 2004 spring training photo. Click photo for larger image.

He said he barely slept during his last five nights with the Pirates, plunging into an 0-for-13 slump at the plate. His batting average in May was .053, dropping his overall average to .283.

"At that point, I didn't feel I was doing anything for the team," Mondesi said.

Shortly before he left, representatives of Guerrero showed up outside his family's home, warning that authorities would show up the next day to haul away the furniture, according to Wilson Tolentino Silverio, another of Mondesi's attorneys.

The warning turned out to be an empty threat but the encounter left Mondesi concerned for his family's security.

"When someone wants money from you, they'll do anything," he said.

The dispute with Guerrero, the subject of extensive news coverage in Dominican newspapers, likely will linger until at least June 16, when a hearing on Mondesi's appeal of the lower-court judgment is scheduled to be heard.

In the meantime, Mondesi said he does not foresee leaving the Dominican Republic.

"I don't know how long it's going to take," he said about the conflict with Guerrero. "I don't want to go back [to the Pirates] and then something happens here."

He said he was giving at least a little thought to moving his family to Pittsburgh, but emphasized that he was reluctant to interrupt the schooling of his four children.

Mondesi yesterday added that his dissatisfaction with the one-year, $1.15 million free-agent contract he signed with the Pirates also was affecting his thinking.

"If I don't feel comfortable, either with the Guerrero thing or my contract, it's better for me to stay here," he said.

He stopped short, though, of demanding a renegotiated contract. And he had nothing but positive things to say about Pirates Manager Lloyd McClendon, General Manager Dave Littlefield and the teammates he abandoned.

"I like the team. I like the players. I want to play for them," he said.

The Pirates on Tuesday placed Mondesi on the inactive list, which means he will not be paid until he returns to the team.

He said he received a message that McClendon called him yesterday and said he intends to return the call.

While he might sit out the rest of this season, he is not retiring from baseball, the 33-year-old said.

"I feel like I can play another five or six years," he said.

The resurfacing of his 6-year-old legal dispute with Guerrero has come as a surprise to Mondesi and his legal team.

The Dominican Supreme Court ruled in Mondesi's favor in 2002.

Mondesi's attorney said yesterday "there was no legal basis" for the lower-court ruling last year.

Guerrero, in several court filings, claims that he entered into an oral contract with Mondesi in 1986 and 1987, shortly before the player signed his first professional contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1988.

Mondesi, for his part, contends that he didn't meet Guerrero until the winter of 1992-93 and that the two never had any kind of business relationship. By then, Mondesi was months away from making his Major League debut.

An attorney for Guerrero told the Dominican newspaper El Nacional this week that his client would like to negotiate a settlement with Mondesi.

But Mondesi said he fears unscrupulous opportunists would make similar claims on his wealth if he were to give Guerrero even one dime.