Two months after the Wasserman agency announced that it had “terminated” its relationship with Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig, the Beverly Hills Sports Council announced that Puig has signed on with them. Agents Dan Horwits and Cesar Suarez will serve as Puig’s representatives, per the release.
It’s not known precisely what prompted Wasserman to cut ties with Puig, though whatever behavior led to the decision didn’t bring forth any repercussions from the team or from Major League Baseball.
Puig, 27, is in the final season of the seven-year, $42MM contract he signed with the Dodgers prior to the 2012 season, but he won’t be a free agent next year at the conclusion of that pact by virtue of the fact that he’ll be a couple months shy of six years of MLB service time. As such, he’ll be subject to the arbitration process before reaching free agency upon completion of the 2019 campaign. While the polarizing slugger is off to a rough start in 2018 (.222/.283/.296), he delivered a strong 2017 season in L.A., hitting .263/.346/.487 with a career-best 28 homers and above-average defense in right field.
In joining BHSC, Puig will head to one of the game’s larger agencies, as can be seen in the MLBTR Agency Database. BHSC represents Alex Cobb, Jason Kipnis, Rougned Odor, Mike Leake and Salvador Perez, among many others. Puig’s change in representation is now reflected within our database, which contains info on more than 2,500 Major League and Minor League players. If you see any inaccuracies or omissions, please let us know via email: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.
We’ll never know why agency left the player. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. This guy ain’t Manziel??! What could he have done that was so bad that caused agency to leave a player of his stature?
Define player of his “stature” please?
I think he means prominence, agents and agencies get cuts of players contracts in agreement for negotiating those deals for them. He asking why an agency would drop him when after his arbitration year in 2019, he’ll likely get a payday.
If you know something about how Puig came to be in this country, I think you’ll have some working theories about why representing him might come with issues. Hint: it probably isn’t about the player.
Ive read Someone died and somebody’s in prison for him to get here.
I don’t know about that specifically but I do know he had to go through some very shady individuals in Mexico to gain his third-county residency. These people typically demand a hefty cut of the player’s contract, and they aren’t in the habit of asking for it politely. We don’t know what’s going on in the background but it’s easy to imagine his agent receiving phone calls that made them think about their own peace of mind.
do we consider him a bust or no
Jury is still out.
16 WAR over 5+ years? I’d say no.
“It’s not known precisely what prompted Wasserman to cut ties with Puig”
Puig asked Wasserman if he could lick his bat.
IMO this puts the question on Wasserman