Per an article by Liz Mullen, baseball representation firm Sosnick Cobbe & Karon has hired former The Topps Co. Executive Jonathan Einalhori as the agency’s new vice president of marketing. He will work on off-the-field deals for more than 30 MLB clients, including Mets slugger Jay Bruce.
Einalhori was formerly director of player and talent licensing at Topps, where he handled negotiations with agents in multiple sports on trading card and autograph and memorabilia deals. Einalhori started his new job May 8 and is working out of New York. He will report to agency partners Matt Sosnick, Paul Cobbe and Adam Karon.
“We have had people in marketing roles, but we have never had anyone with the pedigree of a Jon Einalhori,” said Sosnick, who started the firm 20 years ago, in 1997. “Each year our business has grown and the industry is putting more of an emphasis on the marketing side and we didn’t want to feel we were piecemealing it together,” he said.
In the 2016 MLB Draft, SCK represented five first-round and four second-round selections. The agency also represents players in Japan and South Korea. SKC roster also includes Giants pitcher Matt Moore, Angels pitcher Ricky Nolasco, Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Blake Snell, Colorado Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis and Brewers first baseman Eric Thames, who made headlines last month by leading the league in home runs after playing baseball the last three years in the Korea Baseball Organization.
Sosnick said the firm went through a thorough search process before hiring Einalhori. “We literally went out and identified three or four guys at major, major companies,” he said. “These are guys we know and felt like they could take a marketing department and whatever their vision was and have the financial and physical resources to do what they felt they needed to do.”
Einalhorni said he got to work with and to like and respect all three partners at SCK at his job at Topps. He has been impressed with their professionalism and ability to recruit top talent.
“Topps is doing really very well and I really, truly didn’t want to leave,” Einalhori said. “But [Sosnick, Cobbe and Karon] are really good agents and there is a need in their business to grow the off-the-field piece, so I relish the opportunity to build something.”