Categories
Arbitration Headline MLB Players Sports Agents

Baseball Agent Jamie Murphy Opened Up To Buster Olney About His Practice

Apr. 12, 2013; Bronx, NY, USA; Baltimore Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis (21) singles to left against the New York Yankees during the eighth inning at Yankee Stadium. Yankees won 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports
According to baseball agent Jamie Murphy, Baltimore Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis was approached by the Orioles about a year before his current deal was reached. Photo Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

ESPN’s Buster Olney recently chatted with baseball agent Jamie Murphy of TWC Sports on his Baseball Tonight podcast.

Notes from the podcast:

  • Murphy represents Nick Markakis, Mark Ellis, David Aardsma and others.
  • Murphy currently lives in Vermont.
  • Murphy is the father of two little boys.
  • About living in Vermont, Murphy said, “this day and age, you can work from anywhere, so we’re trying.”
  • How did Murphy get into the agent business?  He went to law school at Boston College and represented a few players in the Canadian Football League to get some experience.  He managed to turn that into an internship at an agency.  He says it did take him a while to get his career going.  “I didn’t want to be a lawyer, I wanted to be a sports agent.”
  • Murphy said that in any sport, a young agent should lean on the players’ association for assistance.
  • The type of assistance from a players’ association varies.  Murphy says that in a straight arbitration case, the players’ association is going to help, wants to be involved and needs to be involved.
  • He said, “As an agent, you have a lot of information that you have to sort through.”
  • Murphy says he typically waits for General Managers to reach out to him to talk about long term deals for clients.
  • He describes himself as a very easygoing guy.
  • The longest negotiation he had was for Nick Markakis.  The Orioles approached him about a year before a deal was reached.
  • All of Murphy’s clients want to be educated on their negotiations.  They sometimes want updates two-to-three times per day.
  • Murphy says he works more off of referrals at this point of his career, but admits that he used to be a fairly aggressive recruiter.  For him, aggressive meant a handful of guys per year.  Now he does not reach out to more than two-to-three guys per year.
  • Murphy says there seems to be a lot more players changing agents and client stealing in basketball and football.  He believes it is not nearly as big of a problem in baseball and thinks that oftentimes players leave inexperienced agents for more experienced ones.

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.