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Leagues and Governing Bodies

Jordan Zimmermann's Five-Year, Nine-Figure Deal Sign Of The Times For Baseball

When MLB teams "ostensibly bleeding money find themselves empowered to throw around tens of millions like it’s no big deal, it is the greatest proof yet that the market has changed and a new reality is upon baseball," according to Jeff Passan of YAHOO SPORTS. When the Tigers on Sunday reportedly handed free agent P Jordan Zimmermann a five-year, $110M deal, it served as a reminder that neither $20M-plus annual salaries nor nine-figure contracts "mean quite what they used to." So long as the agreed-upon system "is backward enough that more money funnels into past-their-prime free agents and the best young talents are underpaid relative to their performance, this is how the system stays equitable and how labor wars are avoided" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 11/29). In N.Y., Tyler Kepner writes nine-figure contracts "are relatively common now." There have been "almost 60," the latest going to Zimmermann (N.Y. TIMES, 12/1). In Cleveland, Zack Meisel notes Zimmermann's contract "will pay him the 13th-highest average annual salary among starting pitchers in baseball history." Awarding $22M per year to a "No. 2 starter is a reality of today's game" (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 12/1).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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