The Pittsburgh Pirates Have Many Hidden Heroes.
There are the men who play on the field every night, whose jerseys we wear, whose names we chant, whose triumphs we celebrate, whose losses we mourn. They are a special kind of hero – the ones on the baseball cards – they are members of an elite brotherhood just 750 strong who every year captivate our minds and our hearts playing a child’s game on a very grown-up stage. But for every Major League Baseball team that takes the field each night, there is another team working behind the scenes to make sure every game goes off without a hitch – for the players and the fans. They are the Hidden Heroes of baseball – and these are their stories.
For Player Agent Rafa Nieves, Relationships are the Key to Success
Ask any Pittsburgh Pirates fan to list the five smartest things owners/management have done this year to improve the team and two of the answers will undoubtedly lead back to Rafael Nieves.
Nieves is an agent for noted baseball agency Beverly Hills Sports Council and the man responsible for negotiating successful contract extensions for both Pirates’ right fielder Gregory Polanco and catcher Francisco Cervelli early in this 2016 season. His efforts greatly contribute to the fact that the Pirates now have seven key players under contract through at least 2018, helping build a dynamic, yet stable team with which to chase the World Series crown. He is the person who, after two years of rumors, ensured that El Coffee would make PNC Park his home. And he’s the guy who, when no one thought it could be done, kept “That’s Amore” playing throughout that same park for a good long time. He is a former player, an astute businessman but most vitally, a friend to his clients.
“It’s very important,” he said regarding the personal relationships he forms with the men he represents. “There are a lot of other good agencies out there that we compete with, so the difference-maker sometimes is the personal bond we have with our clients.”
Having that closeness and sense of family is vital for players, who need to have people “on their team” they can trust to manage some of their affairs and free them up to concentrate on their game. That’s a service BHSC, and many agencies, provide their clients. “We do everything you can imagine from contract negotiations, salary arbitration, marketing, PR, social media, equipment ordering, billpay and other things,” Nieves said. “Basically we try to make our clients’ lives as simple as possible so they can go out there and just focus on baseball.”
Focusing on baseball is something Nieves knows about from multiple viewpoints. [perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”Rafael Nieves” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”I always wanted to be an MLB player, since I was five.”[/perfectpullquote]
He grew up in Caracas, Venezuela and caught the eyes of baseball scouts at a young age, signing with the Detroit Tigers at 16. That was in 2000, and contract situations were very different than they are now, he said. He signed for $100,000 and was the highest paid player from Latin America in the Tigers organization. His agent was Manny Lantigua. “I learned a lot from him,” Nieves said.
After a stint in the Tigers minor league system, and some time with the Yankees organization, Nieves hung up his cleats and retired from baseball. But he knew it would not be the last time he was involved in the game. “I always wanted to get back into baseball,” he said. And in 2011, he got his chance, drawing from past careers to give him an edge.
“Before I became an agent, I worked in two different industries that really helped me,” he said. “I played four years in the minor leagues where I learned the way professional baseball players think and live. After that, I worked in hospitality for a couple years where I learned about customer service and developed people skills.”
That background, plus his fluency in both Spanish and English, made him the perfect person to help his agency expand the business and create a Latin Division. “When I arrived at BHSC they only represented American players, except for a few guys like Octavio Dotel,” he said. “The dynamic of Latin players is completely different than the American guys. They come from different backgrounds, different cultures, different languages, so recruiting and maintaining those clients is a whole different ballgame.”
Coming from the same culture, and understanding the very different experiences Latin players have gives Nieves an edge on his competition. And there’s no denying he’s good at his job. Currently, the Latin Division of BHSC has nearly 70 clients, 23 of whom are on the 40-man roster.
That makes Rafa Nieves a very busy man.
Because he has a lot of clients based on the East Coast, by the time he wakes up in LA, he already has texts, emails and phone calls to return. If he isn’t traveling, he heads into BHSC’s Santa Monica-based office and works from there. He watches three to four games each day and then catches up with his clients after their games have ended. He travels 2-3 times per month and spends about 40-percent of his time on the road, which he offers as a small downside of his job, “The main drawback is the time away from my family.” But he works to balance that out by spending a lot of time with his wife and kids when he’s home – or even traveling with them.
He estimated that he watches between 15 and 20 games a week, in addition to most at-bats and innings his clients play daily. And while being a professional sports agent seems like a dream job to anyone who’s seen a certain movie that-will-not-be-named, it isn’t for those looking for an easy 40-hour a week gig, Nieves noted.
“This job is 24/7. You really have to love it to be able to last,” he said. He recommends that anyone interested in becoming an agent give the position a thorough test-drive first. “Look for an internship at an established firm, get your feet wet and see if this is really your passion.”
By far the busiest time of year for an agent is January, February and March, he said, with arbitration season, free agency signings and spring training all unfolding simultaneously.
And how do some of those things work? In general, he said, everything depends on the client and, as he’s quick to point out, every client is different.
When he’s working to secure a contract for a client for instance, he has to consider a wide number of personal variables related to each individual – which is another place where those relationships come in handy. He has to know what his players need and want and be able to weigh it against all of the “noise” that can get in the way. “A lot of factors play in. From their own financial situation, to the geographical fact, to the clubhouse culture and others,” he said. The steps that go into negotiating the terms for each contract are also as varied as the clients he has, “Every case is different. Extension, arbitration, free agents,” he said tallying up the situations he encounters every year. “I could write a book just about this answer,” he added.
Regarding one of the biggest trends in player contracts these days, opt-outs, he says that while they seem in many instances to be more favorable to players, teams can be supportive of them as well. “The upside for the player is to get back out in the [free agency] market sooner. The upside for the team is if the player opts out and leaves, those high salaries come off the books and sometimes it benefits them,” he said.
A lot is said about the arbitration process in MLB and how it can create a difficult relationship between management and a player given that the goal is to establish “player value” when the two sides can’t agree on a salary. But is it really as acrimonious as the press makes it out to be? “Yes and no,” he said. As for avoiding the process helping negotiations further down the road, “It depends on the case and the team and player.”
When entering into discussions with MLB GMs, he said the longevity of his firm and its reputation within the league helps. “BHSC has been around for over 30 years. I believe that all GMs know we do a good job for our guys.”
Ultimately, for Nieves, that’s the thing that gets him really excited about his job, “Watching baseball all day long,” he joked. Really though, “it’s watching my guys reach their goals,” he said.
He’s had the unique opportunity to do just that with the Pirates twice now in 2016, with Polanco and Cervelli. It’s the first time he’s secured multiple extensions for players on the same team in the same year before. Although it may not be the last – he currently also represents Yeudy Garcia, who plays for the Pirates’ Advanced A team, the Bradenton Marauders.
Polanco’s extension announcement came just two days into the season, meaning that work was presumably taking place during the off-season and/or Spring Training. Is that more ideal than working on one while the season is underway? “It depends on the player,” he said. “Some guys don’t want the distraction, some don’t care.” As for working once regular play is underway, “Sometimes if the player is having a big season, it’s an advantage,” he added.
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”Rafael Nieves” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”Professional athletes are all humans too, and some of them really young ones. Look at Gregory, there were people giving up on him a year ago.”[/pullquote]Some Pirates fans have pontificated that nailing down the five-year extension has vastly helped Polanco, who is off to a phenomenal start in 2016, (batting .316 with six home runs, 29 RBIs, seven stolen bases and an OPS of .949 in 41 games) come into his own as a player. While Nieves wasn’t so quick to agree with that statement, he said it certainly could be a factor. “It’s really a mix,” of having a contract but also having matured to the point that it’s time to discuss a longer term contract, he said. “Having peace of mind is definitely a factor. Gregory was playing under a lot of pressure the past two years.”
Having successfully negotiated Polanco’s contract just the month before helped paved the way for discussions regarding Cervelli’s future with the team, making them easier, Nieves said. “The conversations with Neal (Huntington) were very positive,” he added.
As for netting that extension for the Italian/Venezuelan catcher with a sparkling personality and firecracker energy, there was a lot to consider related to going for security versus trying his hand on the free agency market. And no, there weren’t really any expectations on nabbing a “Russell Martin-type deal” as had been oft discussed in the media given the slim free agency market for catchers expected at the end of the 2016 season.
“When you look at Russell’s career, he had made over $35 million before 2015, so taking a risk and going out to [free agency] was easier than someone like Fran, who was not a starting catcher before 2015 and only made $1.6 million during his first two arbitration years,” he explained. Once again, the player and their unique situation dictates the contract sought. There is no such thing as a cookie-cutter deal for baseball agents.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFg7aP8M0vy/?taken-by=mlb_agent
Once the extension was signed, Nieves said that he and the agency like to step back some and give the team room to plan the announcement and coordinating activities. “…The teams like to announce their signings and celebrate them,” he said. However, the moving piece by Cervelli, I am a Pirate, published in The Players’ Tribune the same afternoon as the press conference announcing the extension, was an idea borne by the catcher and his team at BHSC.
“The Players’ Tribune piece from Fran was an idea we discussed because he wanted to send a message to kids,” Nieves explained. “He’s been through so much adversity that we thought it would be good to share that with the world. Perhaps, there’s a kid out there dealing with adversity who read that and now won’t give up.” And maybe one day, that kid will find his way onto Nieves’ client list.
As for that five year-old kid who dreamed of a career in the major leagues, how does it feel to now help guys like Gregory Polanco and Francisco Cervelli realize theirs? “It feels very good,” he said. “I’ve grown to like the Pirates myself.”
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