
The regular day-to-day shortstop for the Detroit Tigers is suspended. Jhonny Peralta was given a 50-game ban due to his purported involvement with the Miami-based Biogenesis clinic. But the Tigers are not in terrible shape. That is because the team was able to pull off a trade that brought Cuban-born shortstop José Iglesias on board. Now Iglesias is the everyday shortstop in Detroit.
And Iglesias is not only on to a new city (formerly being with the Boston Red Sox); he is also on to a new agent. The shortstop praised for his defense is now represented by Scott Boras. He was formerly represented by SFX Baseball, a division of Relativity Sports.
Iglesias’ move is an example of a player going from one high-profile agency to another. It is less common than a player gaining influence and switching from a boutique agency to a major firm. However, these types of moves often occur in close proximity to a change in a player’s disposition — typically close to free agency. Here we have a player traded to a new team, become an instant starter and seek a new agent.