Somebody, or some agents, do not like baseball agent Dan Lozano.
Lozano – who represents some of baseball’s biggest names like Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Jimmy Rollins, and other – has apparently made some enemies and someone is determined to expose him.
Deadspin.com reported on Tuesday that they received a plain manila envelope, with no return address, filled with names, documents, and photographs telling the story of “Lozano’s rise to power by any means necessary.” According to Deadspin, that same plain manila envelope was also sent to ESPN.com, Sports Illustrated, and Fox Sports.
Some of the claims against Lozano includes him stealing clients, using women he hired to attract clients, sexual harassment lawsuits, partying, drinking, mismanagement of money, lying to clients, and bullying colleagues. There were also photos of him performing oral sex on a woman and a picture of a half naked woman in his office that he allegedly sent to players for approval.
Deadspin says the claims are verifiable with confirmation from multiple sources who have known Lozano for decades. You can read the whole story here (warning: a long read). But below are some quotes from competitors and former colleagues about Lozano.
According to one competitor, Lozano “was known around the agent scene as a hooker ringleader,” and women were his primary and most effective method of wooing potential clients.
“You come out for a meeting,” explains that agent, who emphasizes that the practice isn’t limited to Lozano. “You have a good time, some good drinks, you take a girl to bed, what’s going to happen? You’re a 20-year-old kid, and you think every agent is pretty much the same. You’re going to pick the one who’s fun to hang out with.”
“As soon as he made money, he spent it,” recalls an acquaintance, who says Lozano would think nothing of dropping thousands of dollars on dinner, most of it on wine, and would think even less of dropping thousands of dollars on women for himself.
A former co-worker concedes that there’s nothing unique about an agent lying, drinking, or whoring. They’re all common vices in that world of long hours and brutal competition.
“You kind of accept that you’re getting into the sleaze,” the agent says. “It’s a sleazy world. But Danny was King of Sleaze Mountain.”
Co-workers say he got lazy after he made partner. They accuse him of never doing prep work for his clients, never bothering with the nuts and bolts of contracts, and never once attending an arbitration hearing—a claim confirmed by a league source. He left the grunt work to his subordinates, they say, then swooped in to close the deal and take the credit and his cut.
“He’d do this one thing all the time,” a former co-worker recalls. “Say he’d get an offer of a million. He’d go back to his player and tell him they’d been offered $800,000, but that was way too low and he’d do what he can. He’d wait a few days, accept the original offer, then tell his player: ‘I talked them up to a million. See how I fight for you? See how I fight for you?'”
“He was a bully,” a former colleague says. “He got off on humiliating people.” On one occasion, according to multiple people who witnessed it, Lozano blew up at a co-worker and forced him to sit on a water jug in the corner, in “time out.”
Agents also said that Lozano’s recklessness has already cost Pujols once during negotiation, and it could do so again.
Albert Pujols was the best thing that ever happened to Dan Lozano, who by 2004 was nearly broke, colleagues say. A source familiar with the negotiations says the Cardinals knew of Lozano’s money issues (as did many GMs around baseball), and they knew he was desperate to get a contract extension signed as soon as possible.
“How can you handle your client’s finances when you can’t handle your own?” asks a rival agent.
The result: eight years at $14.5 million a year. One executive called it “the best owner’s contract in baseball,” according to a baseball source.
Of course Lozano is denying all of the claims. He told USA Today back in September, when confronted with similar claims, that “the allegations against him are the product of jealous agents whom he’s beaten out for the biggest names in the game.”
These allegation are probably from a jealous agent. But I find it hard to believe that all of the allegations are lies. Agents are known to do some sleazy things to persuade a player to sign with them, so I don’t put anything past Lozano.
But true or not, this story is hilarious. Someone has it in for this guy and is puling out ALL of his cards to expose him. I’m pretty sure this isn’t the end of this story.