Tuesday, December 4, 2007

What Does Jon Heyman Have Against Kenny Rogers?

Last week it was this comment, and yesterday it was the following:

Congrats to penny-hoarding Kenny Rogers, who accepted the same Tigers deal already negotiated by his former agent Scott Boras -- $8 million plus a lot of incentives -- but saved the commission by OKing it after letting Boras go. Real nice gesture for a player who's made more than $80 million in his career. Perhaps the small savings can go to the poor cameraman who got clocked.

Did Kenny Rogers take money from the Salvation Army or something? Does Heyman depend on Boras for inside info – why does this deserve even a mention, never mind a sarcastic asshole-ish shot at Rogers? I thought I read in SI that Boras usually takes 5% (which was lower than what I expected) of the deals he signs. So $8 million x 5% = $400,000. I don’t care how much money you make – that’s still $400K. I don’t think Rogers expected to best Boras’ deal by millions. He probably just realized that he could get the same deal he already had and not have to work through an agent. By my count he came out almost a half million ahead (with incentives). Knucklehead!

2 comments:

eriz said...

5 percent? Really? I wrote about this at FireJay a few months ago, and my (not intensive) research showed that 5% is the average for MLB agents. I guess I figured that Boras would demand more since he's the premiere agent.

Either way, I like how you pointed that out. So many people write about signings without considering the agent's cut.

And that shot against rogers was silly. I guess Latrell Spreewell's latest contract wasn't big enough to cover damages to PJ Carlisimo's neck. LAFFO!!!

Chris W said...

Plus there was a communication issue b/t Rogers and Boras--Boras was not going to get him a deal with Detroit. Rogers wanted to stay in Detroit.

And gee, with the Cabrera/Willis trade that looks like a smart decision on Rogers's part.

OH! And he saved half a million doing it....