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William Arroyo, the main baseball agent for the Bad Bunny-led agency Rimas Sports, had his Major League Baseball Players Association certification revoked after a union investigation into complaints from other agents about improper benefits provided to players, industry sources told ESPN.

The MLBPA informed Arroyo’s clients of its decision, according to an email obtained by ESPN on Friday.

“At Rimas Sports, we uphold the highest standards of professionalism and integrity of our industry,” the company said in a statement. “Out of respect for an ongoing process within the context of the MLBPA Agent Regulations, we will refrain from making any comments at this time. We remain committed to continue serving our clients with excellence.”

Arroyo and Rimas Sports have the right to appeal, but it is not known whether Arroyo will challenge the decertification. An MLBPA representative declined to comment. Arroyo and prominent Rimas executive Jonathan Miranda did not respond to messages left by ESPN seeking comment.

Within one week of Rimas’ official launch in mid-April 2023, the MLBPA received evidence the company had offered players cash and gifts to switch agencies, according to sources. Section 5 of the MLBPA’s agent regulations states that no agent “shall provide, cause to provide or promise to provide any money or any other thing of value to any player, or any person related to or associated with such player” for the purposes of persuading him to join or remain with an agency.

Bad Bunny, the world-famous Puerto Rican rapper and singer, launched the sports management agency in April 2023 alongside his manager, Noah Assad, who founded the independent record label Rimas Entertainment. Miranda was brought in as president and Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez, one of the most popular players from Puerto Rico, was hired to serve as an ambassador. Rodriguez is no longer involved with the agency, according to a Rangers spokesperson. Rodriguez currently serves as a special assistant with the Rangers.

With the launch, Bad Bunny — the stage name of Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio — followed in the footsteps of hip-hop icon Jay-Z, who launched Roc Nation’s sports management division in 2013 and signed major clients across sports, such as the NBA’s LaMelo Ball, the NFL’s Saquon Barkley and MLB’s CC Sabathia.

Rimas Sports focused on young Latin American baseball players, initially bringing in New York Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez, Colorado Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, Cincinnati Reds infielder Santiago Espinal, Mets infield prospect Ronny Mauricio and Los Angeles Dodgers catching prospect Diego Cartaya.

Alvarez declined to comment on the matter.

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Alvarez told ESPN in Spanish on Friday.

“Together we have accomplished great things in the music industry, and now we are ready to take on the world of sports,” Miranda wrote in an email last summer. “In addition, [Bad Bunny] is an invaluable asset to us, embodies our values and goals, and his stellar career represents the success of our model. Our approach is based on talent and a unique vision, with a team of professionals behind the scenes in charge of making it happen.”

In late February, Tovar, 22, signed a seven-year, $63.5 million contract extension that included an eighth-year club option and bought out three years of free agency. It’s the largest deal the company has negotiated to date. Rimas added veteran outfielder Eddie Rosario to its roster during the offseason before Arroyo negotiated a minor league deal with the Washington Nationals in March. Rosario made the Nationals’ roster and will earn $2 million.

Though Miranda said Rimas Sports is a standalone company independent of Rimas Entertainment, cross-pollination potential between the two entities is a draw for players. Alvarez and Tovar were on a panel sponsored by Rimas Sports at Billboard’s Latin Music Week this past October in Miami, a high-profile opportunity for two players coming off their rookie seasons. Alvarez and Tovar also released curated playlists on Spotify as part of a mixtape series by the music streamer.

An email sent by the MLBPA to Rimas Sports’ baseball clients also named other Rimas executives who are not certified agents and are thus barred from acting on the players’ behalf. Those executives are expected to be denied their requests to obtain certification, sources said.

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Giants sell 10% stake to private equity firm

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Giants sell 10% stake to private equity firm

The San Francisco Giants have sold a reported 10% stake in the team to private equity firm Sixth Street.

The team confirmed the deal Tuesday but not the amount of the investment, which was first reported Monday by the New York Times.

Sportico places the value of the franchise and its team-related holdings at $4.2 billion.

Sixth Street’s investment, reportedly approved by Major League Baseball on Monday, will go toward upgrades to Oracle Park and the Giants’ training facilities in Scottsdale, Arizona, as well as Mission Rock, the team’s real estate development project located across McCovey Cove from the ballpark.

Giants president and CEO Larry Baer called it the “first significant investment in three decades” and said the money would not be spent on players.

“This is not about a stockpile for the next Aaron Judge,” Baer told the New York Times. “This is about improvements to the ballpark, making big bets on San Francisco and the community around us, and having the firepower to take us into the next generation.”

Sixth Street is the primary owner of National Women’s Soccer League franchise Bay FC. It also has investments in the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs and Spanish soccer powers Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.

“We believe in the future of San Francisco, and our sports franchises like the Giants are critical ambassadors for our city of innovation, showcasing to the world what’s only made possible here,” Sixth Street co-founder and CEO Alan Waxman said in the news release. “We believe in Larry and the leadership team’s vision for this exciting new era, and we’re proud to be partnering with them as they execute the next chapter of San Francisco Giants success.”

Founded in 2009 and based in San Francisco, Sixth Street has assets totaling $75 billion, according to Front Office Sports.

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Ohtani ‘nervous’ in Tokyo but gets 2 hits, runs

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Ohtani 'nervous' in Tokyo but gets 2 hits, runs

TOKYO — Shohei Ohtani seems impervious to a variety of conditions that afflict most humans — nerves, anxiety, distraction — but it took playing a regular-season big-league game in his home country to change all of that.

After the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ Opening Day 4-1 win over the Chicago Cubs in the Tokyo Dome, Ohtani made a surprising admission. “It’s been a while since I felt this nervous playing a game,” he said. “It took me four or five innings.”

Ohtani had two hits and scored twice, and one of his outs was a hard liner that left his bat at more than 96 mph, so the nerves weren’t obvious from the outside. But clearly the moment, and its weeklong buildup, altered his usually stoic demeanor.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Shohei nervous,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But one thing I did notice was how emotional he got during the Japanese national anthem. I thought that was telling.”

As the Dodgers began the defense of last year’s World Series win, it became a night to showcase the five Japanese players on the two teams. For the first time in league history, two Japanese pitchers — the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Cubs’ Shota Imanaga — faced each other on Opening Day. Both pitched well, with Imanaga throwing four hitless innings before being removed after 69 pitches.

“Seventy was kind of the number we had for Shota,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It was the right time to take him out.”

The Dodgers agreed, scoring three in the fifth inning off reliever Ben Brown. Imanaga kept the Dodgers off balance, but his career-high four walks created two stressful innings that ran up his pitch count.

Yamamoto rode the adrenaline of pitching in his home country, routinely hitting 98 with his fastball and vexing the Cubs with a diving splitter over the course of five three-hit innings. He threw with a kind of abandon, finding a freedom that often eluded him last year in his first year in America.

“I think last year to this year, the confidence and conviction he has throwing the fastball in the strike zone is night and day,” Roberts said. “If he can continue to do that, I see no reason he won’t be in the Cy Young conversation this season.”

Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki went hitless in four at bats — the Cubs had only three hits, none in the final four innings against four relievers out of the Dodgers’ loaded bullpen — and rookie Roki Sasaki will make his first start of his Dodger career in the second and final game of the series Wednesday.

“I don’t think there was a Japanese baseball player in this country who wasn’t watching tonight,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers were without Mookie Betts, who left Japan on Monday after it was decided his illness would not allow him to play in this series. And less than an hour before game time, first baseman Freddie Freeman was scratched with what the team termed “left rib discomfort,” a recurrence of an injury he first sustained during last year’s playoffs.

The night started with a pregame celebration that felt like an Olympic opening ceremony in a lesser key. There were Pikachus on the field and a vaguely threatening video depicting the Dodgers and Cubs as Monster vs. Monster. World home-run king Saduharu Oh was on the field before the game, and Roberts called meeting Oh “a dream come true.”

For the most part, the crowd was subdued, as if it couldn’t decide who or what to root for, other than Ohtani. It was admittedly confounding: throughout the first five innings, if fans rooted for the Dodgers they were rooting against Imanaga, but rooting for the Cubs meant rooting against Yamamoto. Ohtani, whose every movement is treated with a rare sense of wonder, presented no such conflict.

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Cardinals shortstop Winn out with wrist soreness

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Cardinals shortstop Winn out with wrist soreness

JUPITER, Fla. — St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn was scratched from the lineup for their exhibition game on Tuesday because of soreness in his right wrist.

Winn was replaced by Jose Barrero in the Grapefruit League matchup with the Miami Marlins, with the regular-season opener nine days away. Winn, who was a 2020 second-round draft pick by the Cardinals, emerged as a productive everyday player during his rookie year in 2024. He batted .267 with 15 home runs, 11 stolen bases and 57 RBIs in 150 games and was named as one of three finalists for the National League Gold Glove Award that went to Ezequiel Tovar of the Colorado Rockies.

Winn had minor surgery after the season to remove a cyst from his hand. In 14 spring training games, he’s batting .098 (4 for 41) with 12 strikeouts.

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