6:48pm: Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston reports that Benintendi is not involved in the allegations against Wood. To this point, law enforcement is not involved in the matter, either. Drellich notes that a source “confirmed the nature of the allegation” to him.
6:12pm: Wood reached out to Passan to issue a staunch denial of the reported allegations against him (Twitter link):
“The allegations that have surfaced today are absurd and untrue. Over the past 13 years I have worked tirelessly to build a successful agency through integrity and hard work. I am disappointed that there are those who have chosen to spread such irresponsible and harmful rumors.”
3:27pm: Certified player agent Jason Wood has been fired from his post as head of the baseball division of the Career Sports Entertainment agency and suspended by the MLB Player’s Association, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reports on Twitter. As Passan notes, and Robert Murray of Fan Rag Sports reports in more detail, Wood stands accused of using a hidden camera on his own clients.
Clearly, it’s premature to jump to any conclusions in this odd and troublesome story. Murray, though, says that seven sources tell him that Wood is under investigation by the union for “allegedly filming numerous clients while they were using his shower” — including one that found a camera and confronted the alleged perpetrator.
CSE has issued a statement from president Danny Martoe, which Passan conveyed on Twitter. It reads as follows:
“For over 32 years, CSE Talent has prided itself on our moral and ethical standards and have built a solid reputation within the industry. We take pride in working with people who represent these values. It’s unfortunate that CSE Talent aligned itself with someone who didn’t uphold these same standards and therefore we chose to terminate with cause Wood’s employment.”
Identities of the apparent victims of Wood are not known at this time. It’s also not clear whether there is any criminal investigation, though the situation certainly could warrant such treatment.
MLBTR’s agency database shows many of Wood’s client relationships. He had operated an entity known as Arland Sports, which is still reflected in the database but has since been purchased by the CSE agency. Just which of those players was still represented by Wood at the time the allegations arose is not known (agency switches often go unreported), though Andrew Benintendi was a known client, and Wood has also repped other notable MLB players such as Jake Odorizzi and David Phelps, as well as prospects Riley Pint, Joey Wentz, and Mitch Keller, among others.
Many of the players that had been represented by Wood are now said to be seeking alternative agencies. Keller has already terminated his relationship with CSE and hired Excel Sports Management, Murray tweets.
What were they doing showering at another man’s house? Not a homeboy or friend from college but an agent?!?!? Man this stuff is suspect! LMAO
Agents have a very close relationship with clients. And with a lot of young athletes, it is VERY much a “homeboy” type relationship. That’s what they want in their agent and is a mechanism of trust. Its not as odd as you seem to think, guys are in from out of town, staying at his place (like a homeboy), eating, showering and hanging out.
If you say so bruh. I’m not an athlete, but I don’t shower near or trust any man I pay money for services – lawyer, doctor, accountant, etc,
Yeah some guys even come other countries and often the Agent is the only person they really know and have any kind of relationship with, but it has nothing to do with who you will shower around, which no one cares. Like you said you’re NOT an athlete.
I’m concerned if you don’t trust your lawyer,doctor, or accountant
They can’t do their job right if there is no trust
I always feel uncomfortable undressing in front of my doctor. He’s a great eye doctor though.
Lol this was funny
Yeah , i can relate, i have fallen victim to that dentist who takes your pants off while your asleep…
Casor you need to start watching Ballers that is what real life is like for agents and athletes. Come on man you need to catch up with the times. Those guys are doing a lot more than showering in front of their agent.
Then they watch too much Jerry Maguire. If a player is using a “homeboy” as an agent, he’s extremely naive.
You’re conflating two different things. Professional agents have to foster relationships with clients, who many are young athletes, with no business acumen. Its very very common for these relationships to cross normal business lines. They ain’t making deals for which internet service to use, its about trusting someone to get you the best deal for your talent. Has nothing to do with your taste in movies.
Supporting your “foster relationships with clients” and article by Tim where he interviews Odorizzi. Jake explains why he chose Wood.
mlbtraderumors.com/2013/03/why-i-chose-my-agency-j…
Ha! Who are you to determine what kind of relationship a player and an agent should and shouldn’t have? Oftentimes they serve as a players’ closest friends and confidants due to them knowing and taking care of nearly every aspect of their on & off the field lives.
Who knows how it actually went down? The perv could’ve had a home gym and/or batting cage at his home, where his clients could put in some work, shower up, and then head out for a night on the town.. That doesn’t seem like a very far-fetched scenario and wouldn’t be all that out of the ordinary. For you to fly off-the-cuff and say anything to the contrary is both extremely naive and ridiculous to say the very least.
You actually have the nerve to use the words “far-fetched” and ” fly off-the-cuff”
and yet you call the guy a “perv” without knowing all the facts in the case. You are already passing judgement
and making him guilty! That’s very naive
and ridiculous!
Does he have a full gym and a personal trainer? Clients could have been using such a gym in the agents home with a personal trainer. Such a gym probably has a shower area along with the gym.
That said….all I can still say is Wood is a moron!! If it was full gym in the house, Wood will be losing that prime real estate real soon to pay the civil judgments that his now former clients will win against him …..Ick !!!!
They trust these guys with 100 million dollar contracts and endorsements. They stay at their houses for a couple days when the contact is getting ironed out. So yes this is why they end up showering.
Usually the Agents live in states ie, FL,AZ, CA for the most part, where players come to train in the offseason and the y usually crash with agents, who usually have NICE accommodations. It’s not anything out of the ordinary for players to stay with agents. I thought people would know this
That was my first thought. 2nd was oops….sorry, I spilled coffee all over you. I guess you can use my shower.
When Mark Texeria was traded to the Angels he lived with Scott Boras. Was probably a guest house but just for an example.
Boras better do all that, and then some when Teixeira rejected that eight-year $140MM extension from the Texas Rangers, July 2007.
Fun fact: It’s the reason, Teixeira was traded 2 weeks later for Saltalamacchia, and four prospects: Elvis Andrus, Matt Harrison, Neftali Felix, Beau Jones to Atlanta Braves.
In July 2008, he was traded to the Angels, and hit .358 with 13 home runs, and 43 RBI after the trade, to help the Angels, win their first 100-win season. Big Teix fan!
Let’s at least wait to hear his explanation right? I believe we are still innocent until proven guilty in this country.
you act like he was taking a shower with them. if the player was out of town and they were going to go to dinner to discuss stuff or whatever, then why not? who thinks theres gunna be a dood filming them shower?!
Well, didn’t think I would see something like this today
That was what the client who found the camera said too
Touche
nice
Mother of God..
Creepy.
He just wanted to see how big his players barrels were…
Great for negotiations.
Well ain’t that creepy
Well, this is one of the strangest stories I can remember reading in awhile.
If the allegations are true, I hope there’s a lengthy prison sentence ahead for him.
Yeah, then he gets to see lots of guys in the shower. ew
I feel like he won’t last long trying to sneak peaks in the prison shower…
Only if he repents and turns the other cheek…so to speak.
So you didn’t read about Weinstein, Lauer, Spacey, etc.? Really not much different than any of these stories – it’s just a little more Norman Bates-ish. There is absolutely nothing new about sexual predation in the entertainment business.
What does the entertainment business have to do with it? It’s not any certain business, it’s just certain humans.
“Ladies and gentleman of the jury, my client was simply trying to make sure that no one was urinating in his shower, fully consistent with his rights as a homeowner.”
Good luck to his attorney. Jon Lester’s hitting coach feels bad for him.
HAHAHA . That’s hilarious. You really should be a lawyer… that’s a genius excuse!
I believe Ryan Locke’s lawyer can attest to the effectiveness of such an argument.
Did he get Wood from watching his clients shower?
Swing and a miss
So was this his attempt to keep clients if they ever thought about firing him?
So it was for Blackmail purposes? Maybe just creeper purposes! Yuck !
Didnt work very well, did it?
eh i doubt that. i mean, if you were about to fire him would he tell you “hahaha fire me and i’ll show the world that you take showers hahahaha how embarrassing!”? that doesnt really sound like much of threat ya know?
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you are reminded that you apparently haven’t.
There is no end to mankind’s depravity when the sole focus of our lives is only ourselves.
Yet when it’s a man accused of harassing a woman we hear cries of “gold digger! Fake story! She’s making it up!”
And when it’s a man being harassed, there’s zero doubt.
The truth is that you’re right: mankind has an endless capacity for depravity and thus there’s often no reason to doubt these kinds of allegations.
Funny cause my reaction was the opposite, in that this story has plenty of disclaimers about “jumping to conclusions”, while the Sano story read like a tried and true conviction.
Except if you read through the comments, pretty much most people already consider it to be true. But even without that, I think Adam6710 makes a fair point.
The disclaimers here are likely to be for legal purposes and it’s pretty common for any article to say “if true” or “allegedly”.
In cases such as this, we do our best to acknowledge the seriousness of allegations, avoid implicitly discrediting victims, and make clear that allegations are only that. It’s always a hard line to walk, but I am confident in our process and intentions.
I didn’t write the Sano story, but I don’t see any issues upon reviewing it. I did handle a few of the recent domestic violence cases, some of which were far more troubling than this (which isn’t to excuse it remotely). I have a clear conscience about how I addressed them.
Take the initial Jose Reyes story, for instance, which was the first case to test the new domestic violence policy.
mlbtraderumors.com/2015/11/jose-reyes-arrested-for…
Headline: “arrested for alleged domestic abuse”
In story: “The report is obviously deeply troubling, though as always it is necessary to await facts before issuing judgment.”
I think as fans, in all situations, it is best to take the allegations seriously, but not make any hasty judgements.
But it did strike me as interesting that most of the comments on this story are coming from a starting place of believing the accusations, while many (if not most) of the comments on Sano’s thread were attacking the accuser, and blindly defending the player.
I can’t help but think that either gender is a factor, or that fans are always out to defend players and attack anyone who would make them look bad.
I don’t think there was anything wrong with the reporting itself.
While I don’t discount the possibility of a gender bias, I have to say that there are a lot of people that will just defend their heroes no matter what, and let’s face it, no one’s hero is an agent.
Apparently, Jason Wood has.
he’s seen it all. at least all of clients
I guess his 10% cut wasn’t paying the bills. Had to resort to filming his guys and selling the film to the perverts. Sick bas–rd!
Heard this agent actually LIVES with Benintendi. I think Judge has a live-in agent too. Its common among superstars who are under 25, the rest live with each other as roomies for convenience, until they get married. At least for the reg season its like that, offseason is usually a totally different thing.
Cousin’s best friend’s girlfriends niece who saw a guy wearing a benintendi shirt is not a source.
To each his own
Remember kids, this isn’t about homosexuals., but one man violating another man by recording him in a shower.
Hope they didn’t drop the soap
My best guess is that Wood needs behavioral therapy.
…within the confines of the finest correctional institution the state has to offer.
Probably a blackmail tactic in order to keep big clients from leaving him. Either way i hope he gets punished in both civil and criminal court.
How much wood would Wood film if Wood could film wood?
Alex Wood, Travis Wood
you would…
Is everyone overlooking the fact that all of the clients listed are dudes? Guys wouldn’t be having the same reaction if his top talent was Maria Sharapova.
Exactly. I was thinking along the same lines. There doesn’t seem to be any outrage whatsoever, just jokes. If this is even half as bad as the initial report suggests, this sexual deviant belongs in a state penitentiary, and he should be ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life when he does finally get out.
You need to get out more.
Uh… If this goes to a criminal trial and he’s found guilty he will almost certainly have to register as a sex offender. As for jail? Eh, regardless of whether the alleged victims were male or female it doesn’t seem that likely he’d end up in jail. Maybe the current social climate has changed things but there have been a lot of cases of landlords doing this crap and they usually seem to get probation unless there are extenuating circumstances.
I think the players are probably more upset about the motive than the act. It’s pretty common for athletes to share communal showers.
It’s downright creepy to wonder why he needed the footage.
Uh, personally I wouldn’t give a rats tucchus what he motive was… sharing a locker room shower and starring in footage of sharing a locker room shower are two dramatically different things.
Wood with the denial.
Get your popcorn ready!
I wonder if he had wood while he watched them.
I wonder if he gave out free sports physicals there too?
Maybe it was for personal use and left on accidentally. How would you know otherwise unless accessing the device the images are uploaded to
This could be an opportunistic firing by the owner to dump payroll and a sacrifice to appease nervous players who talk among themselves
If it was in the workplace and not the agents home it would be tougher to explain. I imagine he had a decent gym which players could use when in town and let them use his shower after workouts
Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, … Don’t be clueless with the hypothetical bs
There’s giving a guy the benefit of the doubt, and there’s being contrary for the sake of being contrary.
Obviously there’s much more information that is known then is being initially disclosed, otherwise why would the report says that he filmed multiple players?
Wow, whole bunch of 8 year olds in the comments. I know you haven’t left your moms house before, but it may surprise you to find that it is possible for grown men of any status to have roommates and not be gay! smh, losers….
Hey let’s sign this contract after you use my shower
Per some posters above, I’m just wondering why the “major entertainment outlets” aren’t all over this, as they would be other accusations of this sort? It may end up going beyond the realm of sports, or it all might all be a misunderstanding – but maybe it’s the start of something deeper? I hope not, but still – Respect and thanks as always for the unbiased mlbtraderumors reports.
I am disturbed by the number of jokes about a sexual crime on this forum.
If these jokes bug you I’ll advise you never to hang around with first responders. Mankind has this limitless ability to come up with squirrelly crap to do. There’s a lot of ways to cope with that reality and finding humor in our excrement show of a society is one of those ways.
When we’re talking about staying at your agent’s house, it’s unlikely we’re talking about an 1800 square foot rambler here.
There’s probably some grey area here where it wasn’t the intention to film clients for deviant reasons, but more to make sure they were not doing anything illegal in his bathroom- Peds for example. It would have been a proper thing to notify his clients they were being watched if that was the case. There would be no reason to keep recordings if this was the reason for the hidden camera unless he were to show the agency or the player look what illegal activity I filmed my client doing. He probably learned to be sneaky in college, but he is not a criminal in my opinion.
Again. I sincerely doubt we’re talking about a 3 bed 1.5 bath house here.
Wood: “so what are you guys in for?”
Prisoner 1: “murder
Prisoner 2: “tax evasion”
Prisoner 3: “larceny”
Prisoner 1: “what are you in for?”
Wood: “well you see, I put a camera in a shower…”
l think he was filming for the wife to get her excited.Since he only probably likes Little boys.