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On To The Next One: Fernando Rodney

A number of baseball players have left baseball agency ACES in the past few months.  As documented in the article, “How The Melky Cabrera Chaos Is Affecting ACES Baseball Agency,” the company owned and managed by brothers Sam and Seth Levinson lost clients Nyjer Morgan and Shane Victorino in the wake of MLB and MLB Players Association investigations concerning the involvement of a person associated with the agency in covering-up Melky Cabrera’s drug use.  Jonny Gomes also departed from ACES in the recent past.  And as reported by ESPN.com writer Jerry Crasnick, yet another player has made a switch.  Fernando Rodney is now represented by Dan Lozano.

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It is impossible to know whether or not all of these players have left ACES due to the negative press concerning the company’s relationship with Cabrera (unless any players publicly announce why they chose to find new representation).  However, even in an industry flooded by players constantly switching agents, the number of high profile players to leave ACES in such a short amount of time must be particularly troubling for the agency.

The loss of Rodney is tough, especially after he had a stellar 2012, keeping his ERA below 2.00.  On Halloween, the Tampa Bay Rays picked up their 2013 option on Rodney, which will cost them $2.5 million.  In 2014, he becomes a free agent.

By Darren Heitner

Darren Heitner created Sports Agent Blog as a New Year's Resolution on December 31, 2005. Originally titled, "I Want To Be A Sports Agent," the website was founded with the intention of causing Heitner to learn more about the profession that he wanted to join, meet reputable individuals in the space and force himself to stay on top of the latest news and trends.

Heitner now runs Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., which is a law firm with many practice areas, including sports law and contract law. Heitner has represented numerous athletes and sports agents as legal counsel. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington from 2011-2014, where he created and taught a course titled, Sport Agency Management, which included subjects ranging from NCAA regulations to athlete agent certification and the rules governing the profession. Heitner serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he teaches a Sports Law class that includes case law surrounding athlete agents and the NCAA rules.