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Ronald Acuña Jr. joins Bad Bunny’s agency (sort of), Mason Miller’s medical breakthrough and we catch up with the oldest living MLB player. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to The Windup!
Ronald Acuña Jr. and Bad Bunny’s agency
A week ago, I learned two things. One: recording artist Bad Bunny has a sports agency, and two: that agency has recently gotten into some hot water with the Major League Baseball Players Association. Yesterday, we learned that the agency has signed Ronald Acuña Jr. … Well, sort of.
Let’s start with Rimas Sports, the agency. Rimas (“rhymes” in Spanish) was launched just last year, and its roster includes names like Francisco Alvarez of the Mets and Wilmer Flores of the Giants. One of its agents, William Arroyo, had his MLB license revoked recently, and two others awaiting certification will reportedly be denied.
We still don’t have firm details on exactly why the license was revoked, though other agencies have filed complaints about Rimas in the past, alleging that non-agents have been acting in the capacity of agents, and that players have been offered incentives to switch agencies (neither is allowed).
It was a little surprising to hear that Rimas was welcoming one of the game’s biggest stars into the fold so soon after that news broke. But there’s a catch.
As Britt Ghiroli reports, it appears Rimas will not be representing Acuña in the traditional “sports agent” sense. For that, he will continue to be represented by Rep 1 Baseball. Rather, it seems like Rimas will be handling Acuña’s “marketing and off-field business.”
Representing players on those matters does not require approval from MLBPA, and thus MLBPA certification isn’t needed.
In the meantime, according to Ghiroli’s report, “dozens” of players — many of them Rimas clients — have requested to be added to the MLBPA’s “do not call” list, meaning that other agencies are prohibited from reaching out to them. That is a move that must be triggered by players, not their agencies.
It’s a curious situation, and certainly one worth keeping an eye on as more information becomes available.
Ken’s Notebook: Appreciating John Sterling
The coolest thing about New York Yankees radio broadcaster John Sterling’s retirement might be how much players appreciated him. I learned that reading Brendan Kuty’s story on Monday, in which Aaron Judge said his parents, Wayne and Patty, love hearing Sterling on the radio. And it was reinforced that night, when Chicago Cubs outfielder Mike Tauchman recalled his time with the Yankees from 2019 to ’21.
Tauchman explained that Yankees players, during their brief retreats to the clubhouse during games, liked to listen to the radio broadcast, hoping to hear one of Sterling’s signature home-run calls. The players got a kick out of the calls — “All Rise” for Aaron Judge, “Like a good Gleyber, Torres is there,” for Gleyber Torres, and many more. Sterling was part of the Yankees experience. And they loved the role he played.
Sterling deserves the hero’s farewell he will receive Saturday at Yankee Stadium — he called 5,420 of the Yankees’ regular-season games, including 5,060 in a row from Sept. 1989 to July 2019, plus 211 of their postseason games. But initially, when the Yankees announced his retirement, I feared people would dwell on the occasional mistakes he made, especially in recent years. In case you haven’t noticed, the world in the age of social media is not particularly kind.
One sports media columnist in New York seemed to delight in pointing out Sterling’s foibles, but Yankees fans rarely seemed to take issue with their play-by-play man, regarding Sterling almost like a beloved uncle….
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .