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Report: Royals could be reimbursed for Ventura's contract after toxicology report

Hunter Martin / Getty Images Sport / Getty

In the midst of their grief for Yordano Ventura, the Kansas City Royals are being forced to take care of some financial business surrounding his contract.

Ventura - who died in a car accident in the Dominican Republic on Sunday - was under contract to the Royals for another three years and $19.75 million (plus a $1 million buyout for two option years) at the time of his death. That money will reportedly still be paid out by the Royals, and it will all go directly to Ventura's estate - but the Royals will only be reimbursed if the cause of the crash is ruled to be accidental, sources told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.

According to Rosenthal, Ventura's deal included a clause "nullify(ing) payment for failure to perform due to injury or death resulting from driving a motorized vehicle while intoxicated." No alcohol was found at the site of the accident, and Royals general manager Dayton Moore noted that toxicology results won't be available for at least three weeks.

Related: Dominican officials say no alcohol found at scene of Ventura's fatal crash

The Royals have reportedly already begun discussing the details of the contract with Major League Baseball, per Rosenthal.

While it remains unclear if Ventura was under the influence of alcohol, details of his final hours before the accident are beginning to emerge. Ventura was apparently photographed attending the "Patronales 2017" festival, a large party that honors the Dominican Republic's patron saint Ochoa, according to Rustin Dodd and Maria Torres of the Kansas City Star.

His agent, Jose Luis Rojas, told a Dominican television station that Ventura was driving to the town of Cibao - an 80-mile journey from his starting point - per the Star.

Ventura's car was found several feet off the road, and a guard rail was ripped from its moorings as a result of the impact. It's known that Ventura was driving in foggy conditions, and at least one official who investigated the crash site believes that speed - the stretch of road he was driving on has a speed limit of 15 mph - may have been a factor.

"It's an open road," Jacobo Mateo Moquete, a public information officer with the Dominican Republic's Commission on Military and Police for the Department of Public Works, told Dodd and Torres. "It's in excellent shape. But it does take you through a mountainous area, so you have to drive with caution.

"It has to be an issue of speed. It has all the characteristics of that. There's nothing obstructing the view."

Ventura, who will be laid to rest in a funeral service on Tuesday, was 25 years old.

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