Yoenis Cespedes questions the Athletics’ personnel moves

By Craig CalcaterraMay 25, 2015, 2:30 PM EDT
18 Comments

The Oakland Athletics are a very different team now than they were a year ago. In the offseason they lost Jeff Samardzija, Jon Lester, Jason Hammel, Derek Norris, Josh Donaldson, Brandon Moss and John Jaso and brought in Ike Davis, Ben Zobrist, Jesse Hahn, Billy Butler, Brett Lawrie and Marcus Semien.

Also, a year ago at this time they had Yoenis Cespedes. He’s gone now, playing for the Tigers. The A’s and Tigers are meeting up this week, so A’s reporters asked him about all of the changes to his old club:

He’s on to them.

Scott Boras to pay salaries of released minor league clients

Scott Boras
Michael Reaves/Getty Images
By Bill BaerJun 1, 2020, 9:00 PM EDT
2 Comments

Across the league, scores of minor leaguers have been released in recent days. Already overworked and underpaid, these players are now left without any kind of reliable income during a pandemic, and during a time of civil unrest.

Jon Heyman reports that agent Scott Boras will pay the salaries of his minor league clients who were among those released. It’s a great and much-needed gesture. Boras described the releases as “completely unanticipated.”

Boras, of course, is perhaps the most successful sports agent of all time, so he and his company can afford to do this. That being said, it should be incumbent on the players’ teams — not their agents or their teammates — to take care of them in a time of crisis. Boras is, effectively, subsidizing the billionaire owners’ thriftiness.