Winners And Losers From Shortstop Jhonny Peralta's New $53 Million Contract ...

New St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Jhonny Peralta changed agents mere months prior to signing his new deal. (Photo credit: Keith Allison)

Shortstop Jhonny Peralta has a brand new 4-year, $53 million contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. The deal was delivered on November 24, a little over a year after the Detroit Tigers executed a 1 year, $6 million option on Peralta for the 2013 season - a season in which he was suspended 50 games for his apparent role in the Biogenesis scandal as a user of performance enhancing drugs.

Peralta's new contract has a lot of baseball insiders talking. Specifically, they are wondering how a shortstop (admittedly talented) was able to go from a 1-year deal to a multi-year relationship that provides him more money per year . . . immediately after supposedly being punished for ingesting substances deemed to be illegal by the league in which he performs his trade. It is quite the punishment if a player can take a 50-game rest only to come back and sign a more lucrative contract with a competitor (albeit in the National League as opposed to the American League).

Some are quick to point out that Peralta forfeited his salary during the games that he missed in 2013. While that is true, it is still tough to reconcile the fact that he was found to explicitly violate certain Major League Baseball rules that have been seemed to take precedence over others and yet has been able to immediately come back and sign a gainful agreement. The loser here seems to be Major League Baseball, which seemingly has a rule on the books that will not serve as a meaningful deterrent (at least for the time being).

Should anyone be blamed for this new development in the performance enhancing drugs debate? Should a person be praised for the Peralta negotiation?

Perhaps the biggest victor is Peralta's baseball agent Diego Bentz of SFX Baseball, a division of Relativity Sports. Peralta hired SFX Baseball less than 3 months ago, after firing long-time agents Sam and Seth Levinson at ACES Baseball. Peralta was one player among many, including outfielder Nelson Cruz, Shane Victorino and Everth Cabrera who left ACES for alternative representation. ACES Baseball is a clear loser, as it could have potentially earned a commission of $2.12 - 2.65 million over the term of Peralta's contract with the Cardinals if it was the agency of record.

In a matter of months, Bentz and his agency were able to find Peralta a high-income opportunity and will cash-in from the commissions.

Darren Heitner is a Partner at Wolfe Law Miami, P.A. in Miami, Florida, Founder of Sports Agent Blog Professor of Sport Agency Management at Indiana University and author of a forthcoming book, How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know published by the American Bar Association. Learn more about him at http://www.darrenheitner.com.Follow @DarrenHeitner

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