VIDEO Lenny Dykstra Release From Jail: Why The Mets, Phillies Star Was In Prison

Embattled former Major League Baseball outfielder Lenny Dykstra will reportedly be released from prison after serving 15 months of a three-year sentence. Citing unnamed sources, the Philadelphia Inquirer said the 50-year-old has been serving his sentence at a California prison and will be out Sunday.

Dykstra faced charges of grand theft auto and filing a false financial report in October 2011, and plead no contest. He entered a drug rehabilitation center, and was later sentenced in March 2012, according to the Inquirer.

Other charges for bankruptcy, concealment of assets, and money laundering followed in December 2012, but Dykstra managed to avoid a 20-year sentence as prosecutors suggested a lesser two-and-a half years.

Author and financial journalist Christopher Frankie detailed Dykstra’s rapid decline and crimes in “Nailed!: The Improbable Rise and Spectacular Fall of Lenny Dykstra,” and was editor of the slugger’s finance magazine called “The Player’s Club.”

"I was surprised they let him out before the three years, to be quite frank with you," Frankie said to the Inquirer. "Because he blatantly disobeyed the court, and a lot of the stuff was very brazen. He was doing it in the full view of law enforcement."

Beginning his 12-year career with the New York Mets in 1985, the centerfielder was a three-time all-star who finished second in the National League MVP voting in 1993. That same year he guided the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series.

Nicknamed “Nails,” he was a key member of the Mets 1986 World Series campaign, tallying 77 runs, 127 hits, and 31 stolen bases along with a .295 average. During the Series, he also hit .295 with two home runs.

Dykstra retired at age 33 with a career .285 average, 1,298 hits, and 285 stolen bases.

After baseball, Dykstra was at one point regarded as a savvy business man and even a financial wizard.

The video below is a trailer for a documentary series, and shows how high Dykstra’s star rose before the fall.