Marc Anthony is many things; a singer, actor, producer and entrepreneur, to name a few. Now Anthony is taking arguably his most surprising step. He’s heading into MLB player representation.
Anthony’s Magnus Media company announced they would be launching Magnus Sports, dedicated to representing athletes. According to Ken Rosenthal, Magnus Sports will be working with Praver Shapiro Sports Management, which includes Cubs outfielder Jorge Soler as one of its clients.
Praver Shapiro represents a number of high-profile baseball players. In addition to Soler, he represents Reds closer Aroldis Chapman and free-agent Juan Uribe.
From Rosenthal:
Baseball, like music, is an ingrained cultural passion for many Latinos throughout the world, and there’s no shortage of amazing stars of Hispanic origin, Anthony said. Despite that, until now there hasn’t been an enterprise specifically designed to meet their needs. With Magnus Sports, we are changing the existing dynamics and building a new kind of management company that understands the culture and knows how to build big media brands.
According to Rosenthal, Shapiro will continue to represent players in contract negotiations. Anthony and Magnus Sports will focus on the player’s “brand” and marketing.
Anthony isn’t the first musician to make the jump into sports representation. Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports launched in 2013 and has since signed the likes of CC Sabathia, Kevin Durant and Ndamukong Suh.
For now, it seems Magnus Sports is just representing MLB players. As ESPN reports, if they move into the NFL, Anthony will have to sell his minority share in the Miami Dolphins.
Soler is in the midst of a nine-year contract with the Cubs that lasts through the 2020 season. The contract is worth $30 million, with Soler getting roughly $3.6 million in the coming season. Soler has been with Shapiro since leaving Cuba.
