Jonny Gomes is leaving ACES and will now be represented by Dan Lozano's MVP Sports Group, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (on Twitter).
Gomes isn't the first player to depart from ACES in recent months. The agency, headed by brothers Sam and Seth Levinson, has come under scrutiny following an alleged cover-up Melky Cabrera's web site scandal. Shane Victorino, Nyjer Morgan and Everth Cabrera have all left ACES this month, and many around baseball have wondered if others will follow.
The 32-year-old Gomes had arguably the best season of his career with the A's in 2012, batting .262/.377/.491 with 18 homers in 99 games (333 plate appearances). Of those 99 games, 53 came as the team's DH. As is usually the case, Gomes absolutely clobbered left-handed pitching (.299/.413/.561) and floundered against right-handers (.209/.324/.391).
A free agent this winter, Gomes' big numbers should make it easy for his new representatives to secure a deal considerably larger than the one-year, $1MM he signed with Oakland last offseason. Presumably, he met the requirements to trigger some or all of his $200K worth of incentives, though the terms of those incentives were never disclosed.
I absolutely love watching this guy.. he has the worst swing known to MLB, other than Danial Cabrera and Cabrera had an excuse.. He was a pitcher.
Remember he once struck out 17-20PA with the Rays once.. One strikeout machine with a cast iron glove to boot.. How do teams keep him around, yet guys like Mike Jacobs, who could play “some” defense and had power get released?
There is this thing in the AL called a DH. The cool thing about the DH is that you don’t use your glove.
How does that help if the dude can’t hit.. period?
He hit .262 with 18 homeruns in 274 at bats. How is that not hitting?
He proved a lot of people wrong by turning it around in Oakland. Good for him.
Johnny Gomes is a great guy, and he was worth every penny they paid him this season. If every season of his was like 2005, 2009, and 2012, he’d have no trouble getting a 2-3 year deal from someone.
If your team has room for a RH DH platoon man, Gomes could be a solid pickup. A’s used his abilities very well last season.