Brodie Van Wagenen
Brodie Van Wagenen (born March 9, 1974) is a sports agent and a co-head of the baseball division at CAA Sports.[1]
CAA Sports is a division of Creative Artists Agency, an entertainment and sports agency, and represents more than 800 of the world's best athletes in baseball, football, hockey, basketball, soccer, tennis, and golf, in addition to icons in individual sports, Olympians, coaches, broadcasters, and other sports personalities.[2]
Background
Van Wagenen grew up in Southern California, where he attended Crespi Carmelite High School before receiving a Baseball scholarship to Stanford University. He was the starting Right Fielder for Stanford in 1993 and 1994 [3] and graduated with a degree in Communications in 1996.
Van Wagenen began his career in the sports industry working for the Chicago Bulls Championship team in 1996-1997. From 1999 to 2001, Van Wagenen served as Director of Business Development for digital sports pioneer Broadband Sports/Athlete Direct. Van Wagenen is a certified player agent with the Major League Baseball Players Association.
Sports agent
Van Wagenen is one of the co-heads of CAA Sports' Baseball division, along with Nez Balelo, Jeff Berry, Greg Landry and Joe Urbon. In March 2012, Sports Business Journal named Van Wagenen to its "40 Under 40" list of "the best young talent in sports business."[4][5]
Van Wagenen was the first baseball agent to make the list since 2009.
In 2012, Van Wagenen was selected for a two-year post on the Major League Baseball Players Association Agent Advisory Committee.
Prior to joining CAA, Van Wagenen served as Vice President of IMG Baseball (2001–2006).
Van Wagenen is based in New York City and, in addition to representing many of the best MLB players -- such as Ryan Howard, Ryan Zimmerman and Robinson Cano -- he oversees the Contracts, Marketing, and Corporate Administration for the Baseball division. CAA Baseball clients have participated in 56 All-Star games and won 17 Silver Slugger Awards, 14 Gold Glove Trophy Awards, four Rookie of the Year Awards, three Cy Young Awards and three League MVP Trophies. CAA Sports represents 67 First-Round draft selections and has negotiated more $150 million in amateur draft signing bonuses.[6]
Since Opening Day 2011, CAA has negotiated more than $1.1 billion in contracts, including eight deals of $50 million or more (Buster Posey, Ryan Braun, Matt Cain, Zimmerman, Adam Jones, Andre Ethier, John Danks and Mark Buehrle.) The four contracts worth $100 million or more (Posey, Braun, Cain and Zimmerman) are more than any other agency.[7]
In April 2013, as part of a joint venture between CAA and Roc Nation, Van Wagenen became the baseball agent for Cano, the New York Yankees All-Star second baseman. According to ESPN New York, “CAA is an experienced baseball group, so Cano will have an agent who knows what he is doing in Brodie Van Wagenen.”[8]
Asked about Cano’s choice of Van Wagenen, Zimmerman said, “I’ve known Brodie for almost 10 years now. Brodie has always taken care of me and my family, just like he said he would. It’s hard to find that sometimes.”[9]
ESPN analyst and former Washington Nationals general manager Jim Bowden called Van Wagenen "one of the most respected baseball agents in the industry."[10] Bowden, writing for ESPN.com, described Van Wagenen as "Stanford grad who is known for his analytics, creativity and presentation skills which are considered the best in the business. His people skills are off the charts and he can be as convincing as he is genuine."[11]
In February 2012, the Nationals signed Zimmerman to a contract extension that guaranteed him $126 million over eight years.[12]
Later during the 2012 season, Van Wagenen negotiated a three-year, $27 million contract extension for Carlos Quentin with the San Diego Padres, which included a full no-trade clause.[13]
Zimmerman was the fourth overall pick in the 2005 draft, and then-Nationals general manager Bowden later wrote that "The shrewd business decision by Zimmerman, as advised by CAA, to sign immediately, and not wait to maximize his potential bonus at the Aug. 15 deadline, paid off."[10]
In 2009, Van Wagenen negotiated a five-year, $45 million contract for Zimmerman with the Nationals.[14]
Since 2002, Van Wagenen has been advising families through the MLB amateur draft process, personally working with 17 first-round selections. In 2011, Van Wagenen negotiated a five-year major-league contract with the Seattle Mariners for draft pick Danny Hultzen, and the guaranteed value of $8.5 million was the largest of the 2011 draft and fifth-highest all-time.[15] It was the third time Van Wagenen secured the largest compensation package of the draft for a college pitcher.
Personal
Van Wagenen and his wife Molly, also a graduate and former athlete at Stanford University, have three children. Van Wagenen's father-in-law was the late astronaut Neil Armstrong. Van Wagenen's father, Jeff Van Wagenen, played professional golf on the European Seniors Tour (1998–2008).[16] Van Wagenen served on the Board of Directors for Stanford University's Buck/Cardinal Club from 1998-2004.
References
- ^ http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2011/02/Feb-23/Labor-and-Agents/Close.aspx, Sports Business Daily
- ^ http://www.sports.caa.com/, CAA Sports official web site
- ^ http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/stan/sports/m-basebl/auto_pdf/letterwinners.pdf, list of Stanford lettermen
- ^ http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/03/12/Forty-Under-40/Introduction.aspx
- ^ http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/03/12/Forty-Under-40/Brodie-Van-Wagenen.aspx
- ^ http://sports.caa.com/baseball.aspx
- ^ http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2013/04/02/cano-leaves-boras-joins-jay-z/
- ^ http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/yankees/post/_/id/51780/reaction-cano-leaves-boras-for-jay-z
- ^ http://therocket.mlblogs.com/2013/04/03/nats-zimmerman-intrigued-by-cano-jay-z-van-wagenen/
- ^ a b http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/the-gms-office/post?id=1190, ESPN.com, "Lessons from the signing deadline"
- ^ http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/the-gms-office/post?id=1460, Scouting the agents of the free agents
- ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/ryan-zimmerman-agrees-to-six-year-100-million-contract-extension-with-the-washington-nationals/2012/02/26/gIQAK2bfcR_story.html, Washington Post, Ryan Zimmerman agrees to six-year, $100 million contract extension with the Washington Nationals"
- ^ http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120722&content_id=35361638&vkey=news_sd&c_id=sd
- ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/20/AR2009042003298.html/, Washington Post, "Ryan Zimmerman's New Deal With the Nationals Was Years in the Making"
- ^ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2015920323_maridraft16.html, Seattle Times, "Mariners sign first-round pick Danny Hultzen"
- ^ http://www.europeantour.com/seniortour/players/playerid=3551/index.html, European Seniors Tour player bio, Jeff Van Wagenen.
