Babe Ruth pioneered many things in baseball, of course, and one lesser-known among them came in the insurance arena, as Richard Sandomir writes for the New York Times. Before the 1920 campaign, Ruth took out a disability policy of the kind that is now standard for players looking to protect themselves from injury or illness.
Here are some more stray notes from around the game:
- 31-year-old righty Kevin Slowey has joined the MLBPA as a special assistant, per a press release. He’ll assist in the union’s preparations for the coming collective bargaining negotiations. Slowey, who spent the spring in Phillies camp, has appeared in the big leagues with the Twins and Marlins. All said, he compiled 662 innings of 4.62 ERA pitching, striking out 6.7 and walking 1.5 batters per nine along the way.
- Bob Nightengale of USA Today spoke with Jacob Nix, the righty who saw his deal with the Astros fall through last year as part of the Brady Aiken fallout. Nix explains that he has tried to stay positive, but did not sugarcoat the difficulties he faced. “Last year pretty much sucked,” said Nix. “I was literally in the wrong place and the wrong time. It was a bad situation. The whole year was pretty difficult for myself and for my family.” Houston ultimately offered Nix a $620K bonus after pulling back the $1.5MM deal that had been struck, says Nightengale, but he declined. Nix was set to attend UCLA — even driving out to the campus — but ultimately ended up at the IMG Academy as eligibility issues loomed due to the NCAA’s rules (which are, in my view, remarkably unfair). While winning a grievance against the Astros that “paid him a fraction of his original signing bonus,” Nix says he also pushed his development on the mound and is now a much more complete pitcher entering this year’s draft. The whole piece is well worth a read and comes highly recommended.
- Exhibition baseball is likely heading to Cuba next year, as commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters yesterday, including Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). The expectation is that clubs chosen by the league will head to the neighboring island during Spring Training.
Could be kind of awkward if the Dodgers head to Cuba.
“The expectation is that clubs chosen by the league will head to the neighboring island during Spring Training.”
They should wait and see if any teams want to go there 1st, unless this is the league’s way of showing nobody does and forcing the issue.
They can send the Cards and the Nats. They don’t have any Cuban defectors.
Yunel Escobar defected in 2004.
I really doubt this would happen next year. But you are right, things could get interesting for the teams that have Cuban start players
I hope Nix’s settlement was equal to a four year UCLA scholarship. About the only thing that would come close to fair in those unfortunate circumstances. Unfortunately still wouldn’t of been able to play baseball. I’m sure he’ll be a first round pick and get that bonus this year.
None of the mock drafts even mention Nix as a possibility for the first round. He is ranked 37th by Baseball America’s Top 500 ranking, so he’s looking more like a supplemental first rounder and probably more likely, a second rounder, unless there is a team who really likes him, and pick him sooner.
he was offered $600k to sign. the problem is that he has the same representation as Aiken and they were pissed about the astros medical find (which turns out to be correct). Sorry for the kid for letting someone turn him away from $600k and a shot at playing pro ball.
It also states in Nightengale’s article that Aiken had a small tear in his UCL from his physical, last year it was reported that it was just abnormally small and smaller success rate should it need repair vs. larger UCL’s and that was the reason for the drop in bonus. If it had a tear then, makes a lot more sense why the bonus was pulled vs an “abnormality”
Either was Nix really got shafted by the Astros and the NCAA.
Hope that settlement was worth a 4 year UCLA ride.
Nix will land a larger multimillion dollar bonus in a week….he can pull up to UCLA in a Lamborghini if he wants to
…and the Astros really got shafted by the new draft salary cap rules that never should have been put in place.
No, Nix got shafted by his agent and the collective bargaining rules.
I agree… can we stop treating school athletes as “students first”. The fact that Nyx burned out his eligibility due to a circumstance he had no control over is bad not only for him but for the NCAA, UCLA, and baseball in general
Astros should be held accountable… What young person would go to Houston for a signing without professional council. Come on….that screams exception.
Really? The Astros have one of the best farm systems in baseball, and one of the best teams, period. Who cares if Aiken and Nix never pitched for them? I don’t.
The Astros have admitted it was ill advised to bring Nix to Houston to sign his contract before having the Aiken’s health report cleared. Nix put himself at risk with the NCAA by attending with an agent. He had a verbal agreement with Houston. Its has ZERO to do with Houston’s system… They admitted this error, and the NCAA should have acknowledged the rarity of the circumstances and allowed Nix to play at UCLA.
Houston was forced to settle out of court, and Nix could have made a case with the NCAA if it would have been in his interest. I only mention Houston because they are the organization in question. It has nothing to do with their status….it would have been the same with any other organization. Turns out they were right on Aiken’s, but they botched Nix at their own admission. Ultimately it was the pool money that got them….but they prematurely brought Nix in which triggered his professional representation..thus taking away his NCAA eligibility. Big whoops!
I think there are many parties to be held accountable, including MLB itself – why would you not require a through examination by team doctors PRIOR to the draft. Aiken’s bad elbow screwed up a bunch of things, and cost the Astros three draft picks last year – Aiken, Nix and Marshall. To say the Astros were at fault is simply crazy when they put out great offers to all three until Aiken showed up with a bum elbow, and MLB’s rules did not allow them to sustain their offers to Nix and Marshall. I agree with your reply but your initial response is what I was not in agreement with.
I just thought you’d confused my initial response with being a knock on the Astros from a competitive standpoint. For sure they were nailed by MLB’s system, but their error was a young front office that jumped the gun on offers. I know its easy to say that Houston still made good offers…and its seems ridiculous to a person of my means to turn down $600k+ for almost anything, but that’s really beside the point. Most hs players will have a dollar point that they will go professional at. With Nix, he might have felt the 1.5 was enough for him to bypass UCLA…but a lesser offer and he’d have gone to college.
The issue of the medicals really does need to be dealt with. Its not a major issue down the board when we’re talking 4-5 figure bonuses, but it’s essential up top. But who does the medical evaluation? Good luck trying to get the MLBPA and MLB to agree on that. Two sets of Dr will look at the same images and conclude different things.
that is on his agent- who should have known and advised him accordingly.
Its a mess. Kind of…but he had gone to Houston to SIGN the contract that had been offered by the Astros….Astros were in breach of a verbal agreement. Ultimately, the mlb regulations toward the pool slotting should have had a clause in this event…it was inevitable
Technically he could not have an agent and maintain his amatuer status. Something similar happened with R.A. Dickey and the Rangers, but Dickey had exhausted his college eligibility. One thing led to another in this case…it ended up being a series of unfortunate events. Astros can’t be cleared, they admitted their error….it was a new and inexperienced front office jumping the gun.
Very similar to if a person was offered another job at a certain pay, and they were going to accept the new job because of the pay….and they notify their current employer and then the new employer backs off for another reason. The person basically is out of a job.
Lesson learned, until mlb does something about medical screening don’t make or accept promises.
who was the agent he brought? Aikens. Any agent worth his salt would have known about the NCAA problem and advised him to take less money- but still $600k.
NCAA got involved when Nix brought in the MLBPA to help settle his lawsuit. It was just worst case scenario happening. In the end its the mlb slotting system that failed. There’s no reason that Nix should not have been able to be paid his bonus that the Astros offered. And no… I don’t think his agent would have told him to sign the contract… It was what Houston was ultimately allowed, but under his value.
MLB, in the light of the facts, should have made an exemption for Nix and the Astros and allowed them the additional money to sign him for what their mutual agreement was for. Aikens shouldn’t have effected that
The real issue is that the vast majority of NCAA athletes ARE student athletes in the traditional sense….even in major sports like football or basketball.
I agree but the whole “no advisor, can’t get paid BS” is getting old. I understand that if you have played pro-ball you cannot go back and play in school, which is what the rules were intended to do. But technicalities like these do not make sense for either party
These players have had agent advisors for decades. I would answer calls from agents at the actual college baseball facility. There’s just no way around that…its a matter of ethics. I mean…even high profile 12 year olds draw agent interest. The issue is we have the elite minority of amateurs….and then everyone else.
It just seems like the Houston situation with Aikens and Nix could have been easily resolved from an NCAA standpoint. But, in the end…neither might have wanted to go there in order to reenter the draft sooner. This whole case was over the top and public…unfortunate and the NCAA should have declared them eligible. I suppose Nix got into trouble by enlisting the MLBPA… But he wanted to work a deal out.
I suppose worse case scenario is you have a team draft a player and bring up a medical concern as a negotiating tool to drive down the bonus.
These medicals need to be addressed. Players, especially high round projections, need to undergo an independent physical process…and these need to be given to all 30 teams. Issue though is when to do them. Most of these players are in active season. Its not like the other leagues that draft off season
MLB should do a thousand different things…lift the blackout policy..etc. But they won’t or can’t do them. The union will need to be in on the medical issue. Big problem though is the draft happens in season. When do you do the medicals on these college players who’s teams are often playing super regionals or in the college world series.
The NCAA rules are unfair, and almost certainly can be seen as working in concert with MLB to depress salaries and the movement of talent. Why shouldn’t a high school athlete have the opportunity to choose, without coercion, either a college education or a pro contract? High school artistic talent can choose college/conservatory or a professional career, if offered. So can any other high school senior choose to go to college, defer for a year and work, or work, without a penalty. I’d love to see a well-funded legal challenge to the cartel that is the NCAA. I’ll leave it to the MLBPA to negotiate better for younger talent, for now, unless is can be demonstrated that the two industries were communicating with each other overtly.
I completely agree, but the issue here with Nix is that he sought MLBPA intervention in a legal settlement in which he would ultimately accept payment from a professional team. I don’t like the arrangement…. But the ramifications going the other way might lead to NCAA baseball being treated much the way NCAA basketball is…More toward the one and done that has really devastated the quality of basketball.
I’m not sure MLB and NCAA baseball are colluding. Its in MLBs interest to to draft and sign out of high school since the end of “draft and follow”. Guys taken down the board just are not going to get the figures to forgo college. Maybe bigger issue to first take on is the minor league pay scale.
I think that’s a legitimate point. Maybe the answer is a hybrid. You get your shot to make your best deal coming out of HS, with no penalty, but if you enter the draft after Freshman year, you lose a year of athletic eligibility if you don’t like the offer. In any event, I agree with your comment below as well. These kids have every right to have agents.
They are calling these agents “consultants”… These amateurs could receive payment from an actual agent that might conflict with their eligibility. I have extensive background with a major D1 baseball program. As an incoming freshman I was not even allowed to attend a collegiate basketball game with my insurance agent simply because he was a school alumni.
Word case scenario we have agents and major colleges colluding and stacking programs…we end up with where Kentucky is in basketball.
I’ll be quite honest and say that I don’t feel the vast majority of players drafted out of high school should sign because the collegiate experience is beneficial as a player and a person. But it also needs.to be considered that some people aren’t meant for college, or eligible.
Anymore, though, a college degree is what a high school diploma was in generations before
As is often the case, the rules have the unfortunate tendency to penalize people who obey them while not fully discouraging those who would have a tendency to break them. I have zero illusions about certain agents being feeders, agents giving stipends, agents paying for tickets, etc. I think the problem lies, in part, because while college football is largely a subsidized minor leagues for the NFL, with the players getting scholarships, better facilities, and preferential treatment in return for the delay in signing, baseball offers a clear choice. You can go to the minors, or you can go to college. But the HS player should be given the choice–go to college (for free), learn, if you want to, other skills, and take your shot as a pro later, or sign now. And they should be able to make a clear economic evaluation, without being penalized. The possibility of corruption is always going to be there, but the great economic powers (MLB and NCAA) use that possibility as a justification for extending their own disproportionate power.
Baseball and especially basketball have tenuous legal standing in controlling the employment opportunities of legal adults. No other college student would be banned from leaving school to obtain a job. I’m not saying I agree at all with this college as minor league system profile….but if the NBA and other leagues are pressed legally they are in trouble
Nix only has the MLB union to blame… They agreed to the set-up which benefits a few greatly and screws many more
Sounds like an Astros FO party line.