Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic recently did a deep dive into the company known as Big League Advance, whose business model involves lump sum payments to minor-leaguers in exchange for a percentage of their future earnings. MLBTR readers might best know BLA as the company entrenched in a legal battle with top prospect Francisco Mejia of the Indians. Rosenthal’s piece goes into detail far beyond Mejia alone, and he notes at one point that BLA claims to have recently signed its 100th player. Players such as Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jose Osuna have benefitted from the lump sum payments BLA offers; the former is using the money to invest in his health, nutrition and conditioning, while the latter claims the money allows him to focus on baseball by reducing the stress of wondering how he’ll support his family. Others around baseball, however, claim that BLA uses predatory tactics to pressure young players into giving up significant money on the whole; indeed they’ve admitted to intentionally bypassing agents to talk with players directly. It seems that the major focus of Rosenthal’s piece is the upside and downside of BLA’s presence in baseball. My biggest takeaway from reading the piece is that there ought to be a serious discussion in the near future about how (or if) MLB ought to be involved in regulating companies like BLA.
More from around the league…
- It was widely assumed that Scott Kingery’s surprise extension and resulting presence on the Phillies’ MLB roster would sap at least some playing time from incumbent second baseman Cesar Hernandez. That hasn’t been the case, as MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki points out. Hernandez has actually started 18 of 19 games for the club this season, and while Kingery is a second baseman by trade, he’s played that position just twice so far at the MLB level. Instead, he’s spent time at shortstop, third and right field. Zolecki posits that while Hernandez may have seemed like an obvious trade deadline candidate at the season’s outset, it’s now difficult to see the Phillies dealing him due to his offensive impact and the uncertainty surrounding Maikel Franco and J.P. Crawford. Manager Gabe Kapler’s comments certainly strengthen that line of thinking: “We knew how Cesar’s track record suggested that he’s one of the better second baseman in baseball,” he said. “And now we’re blessed to see it every single day. It’s really exciting to look out there and see a guy that consistent. It’s really nice for a manager to have Cesar at the top of the lineup.”
- Mike Napoli’s season-ending surgery obviously doesn’t necessarily mean the end of his career. But Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal has some interesting comments from Terry Francona suggesting that he believes Napoli (who was playing with the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate prior to the injury) will be an excellent coach if and when the time comes for him to hang up his spikes. “I’m not saying he’s done playing, I just mean if he chooses to start to be on this side of the field, my guess is he’ll be even better than he was as a player,” Francona said. It’s certainly a fair point; Napoli is well-known for his clubhouse leadership, and especially in Cleveland during their 2016 playoff run.
Cesar Hernandez just seems to be getting more and more patient every year. Theres no reason he can’t be a 3 WAR player consistently. He should get an extension at some point
Perhaps the solution to potential predatory tactics is for the league and the union to pay for outside legal council for minor leaguers. Essentially someone who doesn’t answer to anyone but the prospect would give advice.
Perhaps the solution is to not waste the money on lawyers and pay the players a living wage.
The players that this company preys on are elite prospects and have earned signing bonuses well above their previous standard of living.
Doesn’t the union have lawyers who help with this ?
Sounds to me like Mejia was perfectly fine with giving up some of his future earnings for that loan when he was making the nothing they pay in the minors, but now that he’s actually about to start making money, he wants out of it
Um, yeah, let’s say he makes 50 million dollars in his MLB career. 10% of that is 5 million dollars. 5 million dollars for a 350K loan is the very definition of a predatory loan. That’s not a loan; that’s extortion.
Also, if you’d read the article, he had a sick mother he was trying to care for. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place – which is exactly the way predatory lenders like you to be.
You could also frame it like an insurance policy. You probably pay American Family $50,000 over the life of your driving career, while making *maybe* $5,000 in claims.
Let’s say he gets injured and doesn’t make 50m…are they no longer predatory?
You guys all ignore one thing – and mind you, I am not defending BLA – but no one FORCED him to take that money.
And, BTW, it’s not a loan. If Mejia never makes the majors he keeps the money.
Also, since we’re getting all moralistic here, has anyone considered an alternate scenario?:
Mejia conspired with his agents, who were involved, to take the money from BLA with no intent of ever living up to his end of the contract, and has now donned the familiar “victim hat” we see so often in our society to get out of the deal.
In these situations, many people here act like these players are choirboys, but as we have seen in domestic violence cases and ex-players like Denny McLain – who did time for a variety of felonies, these players are humans the same way everyone else is.
No one here knows what was in Mejia’s heart when he took the money, but the speculative scenario I presented above is entirely plausible.
To pretend it isn’t (and, again, I’m not defending BLA) is ignoring reality.
So you are arguing that he plans to retire from baseball and a possibility to earn millions so he can keep 350 thousand dollars? Okay….
You might want to read the article to see some of the nefarious machinations BLA pulled in this negotiation. Like using their own lawyers to negotiate Mejia’s side of the deal and not providing translators to him.
Yeah he conspired to fight the case and end up spending more than the $350K he was fronted to defend himself…that’ll show ‘em!
You have no clue what minor league players make do you?
His situation is way different ! Would you take the money or let your Mother die because you didn’t take it? What was his choices?
That’s called loan sharking and is illegal !
Honestly Hernandez is a big part of what makes this lineup hum. I’d much sooner jettison Franco or maybe even Crawford to give Kingery regular reps at SS or third. Who knows? They’ve been heavily linked to Machado for a long while now. Next years lineup could very well see Hernandez starting at second with Kingery at third and Machado at shortstop.
Hernandez has some serious value. Package him with one of the Phillies many young OF’s for some pitching. Kingery needs a position and Crawford and Franco seem to be key young guys for the future unless Franco flops and they try to replace him with Machado.
I agree that Hernandez has serious value.. The probelm they have in trading him is that he has way more value to the Phillies than teams are offering in return,
How did you include a piece on Michael Franco without tying him into the header piece. He signed a deal with Fantex for 10% of future earnings.
Herrera and Kingery were rewarded with little to no MLB time and Hernandez is treated as trade bait. If the Phils are smart Hernandez should get his new 6 year deal by this off season. He was a highly rated prospect and was the only bright spot on the club while they transitioned into a new era. So what if he doesn’t bash 20+ homers a season. I think a winning club needs guys who can hit 1 and 2 in the lineup for average, and get on base by hitting more than just singles. The man waited patiently behind Utley and now proves at second base and at the plate that he is the real deal Give third base or short to Kingery. Move on from Franco. He is not a team player. Send Crawford back to the minors to work on his hitting. Reward Hernandez for what he has achieved and make him a fixture in the front of the lineup. It can only pay off in Wins.