Players switch agents, some often, and sometimes even in surprising or emotional fashions that leave one party or the other with hurt feelings. But the circumstances surrounding a change of representation for Cleveland pitcher Zach Plesac last week are particularly intense, with Plesac walking away believing he had been manipulated and threatened by his former agent.
"I felt betrayed, I felt set up, I felt threatened," Plesac said in a phone interview earlier this week.
Ryan Hamill, for his part, did not want to comment publicly about Plesac beyond a text that read: "CAA Baseball wishes nothing but the best for Zach Plesac and his future endeavors." He did provide his perspective on the timeline of communications between the two.
The circumstances behind the break-up provide a window into the sometimes-cutthroat world of player representation, in which competition for players can fuel frustration and anger. But even within that heated context, the nature of this player-agent break-up is an outlier.