Skip to main content

16 replies

Advisors/agents earn their $(eventually)

O OnePlayer'sPop500+ posts
For those of you who have advisors/agents or hope to one day be in that situation, I offer the following:

My son graduated from HS in 2001..he had an "advisor/agent" his senior year of HS. Technically, your "advisor/agent" cannot "earn" any part of your signing bonus(in most cases)because until you actually sign a pro contract(by-passing college or from college) you do not have a legal representative, merely an "advisor" with no signed contract as an agent.

Once you sign(out of HS or College) your "advisor" is now an AGENT and from that point forward there are various scenarios where the AGENT earns a %. i.e. the agent negotiates a contract(and you get paid the $) above the MLBleague minimum..he gets a percentage of the amount above the league minimum, if you earn the league minimum, the agent is working for you for free. Or..the agent arranges various "endorsements", usually the agent does not begin to earn any portion of the "endorsement" until he has secured you a SET AMOUNT of $ in "endorsements", in my son's case, he had to have over $20,000 in "endorsement" contracts before the agent "earned a % of the amount over that. For most players(unless you are one of the "superstars") you are not going to get all that much in endorsements during your first 3 years of MLB time.

So...Finally(if your player is lucky enough) the agent gets an opportunity to EARN his % when/if a player makes it to their arbitration year(and beyond, hopefully)!

By midnight on Friday the 12th of December 2008, my son will be offered arbitration(or not)...at that point, nearly 8 years after signing as a professional ball player out of HS, my son's agent will finally get an opportunity to EARN some $ for himself and his agency!

Baseball is a tough game for those that play but it is also a tough game for those that aspire to represent players as their AGENT. My son has been very fortunate to have a really great agent with a very good organization...they have kept their faith in him through some less than encouraging times.

Hope that anyone else that is fortunate enough to choose to play professional baseball is also lucky enough to have as good an agent as my son has had!

Just an FYI from my perspective(and a limited one at that)!
OPP Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

TPMTPMHSBaseballweb Member since 2003
Originally posted by OnePlayer'sPop:

Baseball is a tough game for those that play but it is also a tough game for those that aspire to represent players as their AGENT. My son has been very fortunate to have a really great agent with a very good organization...they have kept their faith in him through some less than encouraging times.


OPP,
I think that what you have posted above is the most important for choosing an advisor who will someday be a player's agent.

There are many out there who may want to represent you, especially if you are a young pitcher having early success.

But there are not too many who will stand by a player when the going gets rough. And there are not too many players who will remain loyal to their agents.

Good luck to Zach in the arbitration process. I am slightly familar with his agent and his organization Big Grin and I know those guys will go to war for him.
Last edited by TPM
F FormerObserver1,000+ posts
quote:
By midnight on Friday the 12th of December 2008, my son will be offered arbitration(or not)...at that point, nearly 8 years after signing as a professional ball player out of HS, my son's agent will finally get an opportunity to EARN some $ for himself and his agency!


Looks like the 13 year olds in that other thread are well prepared.

One of the most valuable pieces of information I ever learned here, from the man himself.
Last edited by FormerObserver
O OnePlayer'sPop500+ posts
YoungGunDad,

Son was offered arbitration and agent and club representative have had an initial discussion. That is all for now.

Next step is sometime in January when son's agent submits their arbitration amount and then finds out what amount the club submitted to MLB...of course, there are negotiations going on during all of this(possibly) that could end in a negotiated contract prior to actually meeting with an arbitor.

Arbitration hearings(if needed) are held during February.
FrankFFrankF1,000+ posts
Major kudo's to Zach!!!

Saw it last night on the crawl during the Hot Stove talk on MLB channel!

And to think I had dinner with him back when he was at spring training and in A ball. The wife and I couldn't be happier for him than if he was our own son. Senior OPP and mom raised a great young man. Kudo's to them also.

As Bob would say, "Whoooooooo Hooooooooo"!!
Last edited by FrankF
infielddadinfielddad10,000+ posts
OPP, that is great news. It also must be a huge relief to Zach and to your family.
I think it is great that Zach's agent did the job and did it well.

It cannot be repeated enough on this site that while we view this as a game, MLB views it as a business.
Being represented, knowing your rights, knowing the process and not relying on what MLB tells you does not make MLB jump with joy. It can, however, make a major difference in the outcome for the player as he tries to play a game that is run as a very, very "demanding" business.

Add Reply

Post
.

Membership Required

We're sorry. You must be signed in to continue. Sign In or Register
×
Are you sure you want to remove from your Block List?
×
Loading...
×
When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.
Note: if you proceed, you will no longer be following .
×
Advanced Search
Advanced Search
Link copied to your clipboard.
×