Big League Advance: Everything You Should Know
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The five-year old company, Big League Advance (BLA), is an investment firm that has ties with some of the bigger names in baseball such as Fernando Tatis Jr.; but just what is it that BLA do and what are their intentions?
Michael Schwimer, the founder and CEO of BLA, is a former major league pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, with a Bachelor’s degree in Statistics and Sociology from the University of Virginia. According to Schwimer, the whole premise behind BLA is to provide cash advances predominantly to minor league baseball players in exchange for a percentage of their earnings for the remainder of their playing careers. This all sounds great in theory, but there has been some skepticism behind the overwhelmingly large financial figures and the overall morale of the company.
What has left some people disgruntled with the idea of these cash advances is the undeniably targeted demographic that is being pursued: players from the Caribbean. BLA has plenty of clients from around North America, so it would be foolish to say that their only clientele is that of Carribean-born players, but it’s worth noting that a common characteristic amongst their signees is a feeling of desperation.
The journey of making it to the majors is not only long-drawn-out, it can be daunting and exhausting for many of its participants. Making it through the minor league system can take years, and for many it may never pan out to be a liveable career. With players earning paychecks of next to nothing while having families they are trying to provide for, that’s where BLA has stepped in and found a way to mitigate the hardships that come with pursuing an MLB career.
To tie it back in with the aforementioned, Fernando Tatis Jr., the 22-year-old San Diego Padres phenom, signed a massive contract worth $340 million this past offseason. With the advance that BLA offered him years ago, they came to an agreement where he would share about 10% of his earnings from any of his major league contracts. To put this into perspective, BLA earned a cool $30 million+ from the Tatis Jr. signing alone.
Bringing in another peculiar case, the Chicago White Sox rookie, Yermín Mercedes, was given only a $165,000 advance in exchange for a hefty 15% of his major league contract earnings. Obviously, the severity of offers extended will depend on the trajectory of a particular player’s potential, but just how much should a company such as BLA feel they should be rewarded for their clients’ success? The company does run the risk of giving advances to players who never make it to the big leagues, in which case the player will then owe nothing which makes you wonder what their success rate could be.
One of the more surprising aspects of this new investment firm is that none of BLA’s players have felt frustrated or cheated by the company, or at least not publicly. Both Tatis Jr. and Mercedes have spoken highly of BLA and Schwimer, and have stated that they do not regret any of the decisions made in the early stages of their career.
I will leave most of the opinions to the readers to dissect and decide for themselves, as this will more than likely raise some opposing feelings from the audience. I'm Interested to hear everyone’s thoughts, leave a comment below on how you think BLA will pan out in the big leagues!