Slimy Agents?

Image courtesy of the BBC.

A controversy reached boiling point this week when the agents for Los Angeles Dodger shortstop Rafael Furcal, shown above, were presented with a contract offer by the Atlanta Braves for Furcal, but he resigned with the Dodgers a day later at terms nearly identical to the Braves' offer. The Braves front office is furious about it and making their displeasure known in the press. They have advised Arn Tellem and Paul Kinzer, the agents involved, to remove the Braves from their clients' wish list of teams, effectively ending any business dealings between Tellem, Kinzer, and the Braves.


Image courtesy of daylife.com/The Associated Press/Lenny Ignelzi.

Supposedly, the Braves agreed to a contract offer with Furcal via Kinzer, shown above, and Tellem for a three-year deal and an option for a fourth. The Braves were told Furcal would sleep on it, but Kinzer reportedly took the offer to the Dodgers and negotiated a similar deal. The Braves contend that they had a deal and that once Furcal would sleep on it, he'd sign with Atlanta (he played there from 2000-2005.) The agents argue that a deal was never in place and that what they did was above board. If Atlanta follows through on their threat to not sign any players from Tellem and Kinzer's agency, there could be potential problems regarding baseball's collective bargaining agreement (or CBA).


Image courtesy of New York Magazine/Getty Images.

Kinzer and Tellem aren't the first agents to anger baseball teams. Scott Boras, shown above, is the biggest agent in baseball and has a colorful reputation in the sport. Some have called him a variety of names including "The Prince of Darkness" and he is known for getting his players top dollar, even if they aren't worth the amount. For example, when Johnny Damon went from the Boston Red Sox to their archrival New York Yankees a few years ago, he received a contract in the $50 million range, which most observers at the time said Damon was being overvalued. In other words, it's believed by most baseball observers that whoever offers the most money to a Boras client automatically wins the bidding. And while Boras has gotten teams into bidding wars, he's never done anything quite like what Kinzer and Tellem have done to Atlanta. The fact that Boras gets his players top dollar is good for him, that's what he's hired to do. What Kinzer and Tellem did only reinforces the stereotype that agents can be schmucks (if you haven't seen the animated film Bolt, the stereotypical agent makes multiple appearances, each time getting worse) only interested in money, book deals, etc. that the get a cut in.