ORLANDO , Fla. — It’s standard to talk about people who aren’t here when we’re at the general managers’ meetings. Such people, though, are usually players.
This year? There’s no more fascinating Man Who Isn’t Here than an agent.
Jay Z has been a part of the player representation universe since April, but only now is he really arriving on the scene — even as he isn’t literally on the scene. Robinson Cano became a free agent in full Monday as he predictably rejected the Yankees’ one-year, $14.1 million qualifying offer, and his representative, Brodie Van Wagenen, is here at the meetings to sell teams on the market’s top free agent.
Van Wagenen, who works for CAA, is working in conjunction with Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports. Ask folks around the baseball universe exactly what Jay Z’s role will be in the process, and you get a similar answer: Something to the effect of “Beats me.” But it would be surprising if Jay Z were not integrally involved — meeting in person with club officials, if not necessarily working the lobby here at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes — in landing Cano his megadeal.
Van Wagenen, through CAA’s media liaison Ed Price, referred us to comments made back in April, when Cano left Scott Boras for this unique arrangement. At the time, Cano said, “I am confident that the pairing of Roc Nation Sports and CAA Sports will be essential in helping me accomplish my short- and long-term goals.”
In the seven months that have transpired since then, that pairing is said to have worked out quite well. Jay Z stayed in the loop as Van Wagenen and the Yankees engaged in early negotiations that led to little progress; Cano wanted a 10-year, $310-million contract, and the Yankees countered with seven years and between $161 million and $168 million. Part of the reason even Yankees officials aren’t certain of Jay Z’s role is that their discussions didn’t last very long.
But Jay Z was highly involved when Cano signed an endorsement deal with Pepsi, and given how important Cano is to expanding Roc Nation — the second baseman is a tent pole of sorts — he isn’t going to be hands off.
The Cano journey continues to move slowly and mysteriously. If there are teams as enthusiastic over bringing him aboard as the Yankees are to bring him back, we are not yet aware of them. Early candidates like the Dodgers, Texas and Detroit have fizzled. Teams that have surfaced out of nowhere in the past — think the Angels signing Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton the prior two offseasons, or the Phillies landing Cliff Lee at the last minute three years ago — don’t seem likely to pull off another December surprise.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman expressed patience about the Cano/Jay Z/Van Wagenen expedition.
“You earn the right to be a free agent. He’s a premier player,” Cashman said of Cano. “Given that status that he carries, those types of players dictate the dance steps. We’ll do the dance as long as we can, but at some point, you can’t do that forever. We’re in the very front end of this thing. The music hasn’t even started yet.”
That’s where the mystery lies with Jay Z; because he’s a rookie agent, we don’t know his strategy. Will he be willing to take Cano into January unsigned, following the lead of Boras (whom Jay Z dissed in one of his songs)? Will he push to strike a deal with the Yankees quickly if the outside market is as dead as it appears?
Jay Z is fully certified by the Major League Baseball Players Association, but his freedom comes with limits. He got green-lighted with the understanding his maiden voyage, with a player as important as Cano, would be conducted with the experienced pros at CAA. Jay Z can’t go rogue and shut out CAA, and there’s no indication he has any such plans.
There’s no indication of pretty much anything, really, except as Jay Z trots the globe and hangs with the world’s beautiful people, he’s helping to direct the future of the Yankees’ best player of the prior five years.
If it seems he and his partners are enjoying our guessing game, that curtain of mystery? We’re probably onto something.