Sources: Proformance agency wins ruling to receive $1M in back fees
Fox Sports | November 15, 2016
Ken Rosenthal
Proformance, the baseball agency that once represented Jose Bautista and Ervin Santana, will receive approximately $1 million in back fees based upon the ruling of an independent arbitrator, according to major-league sources.
Bautista and Santana left Proformance to remain with agent Jay Alou, who resigned from the company in March 2014. Arbitrator Shyam Das, appointed by the Major League Baseball Players Association to resolve the dispute, heard the case in November 2015 and made his decision on Oct. 19.
The award must be paid within 30 days, according to MLBPA regulations.
Das, according to sources, ruled that Proformance will receive the fee from the one-year $14.1 million free-agent contract that Santana signed with the Braves on March 14, 2014, shortly after Alou left the company.
The award to Proformance also includes fees related to Bautista’s last contract with the Blue Jays — five years, $65 million with a $14 million club option that the Jays exercised for 2016.
Alou is responsible for a percentage of the money going to Proformance. An earlier version of this story said that Bautista also is responsible for a percentage, but a source said that is not the case.
Proformance was not entitled to a percentage of Santana’s subsequent deal, a four-year, $55 million free-agent contract that Alou negotiated with the Twins. Nor will it receive fees from Bautista’s coming free-agent deal, which also will be negotiated by Alou, who joined another agency, Octagon Baseball, in March 2015.
Both Alou and Proformance declined comment, citing confidentiality rules in the MLBPA regulations.
Proformance, co-founded by Jeff Beck and Bean Stringfellow, continues to represent players.
“Jeff and Bean are pleased to be getting on with their lives and having this concluded,” said Proformance’s attorney, Phil Ciano.
