Uh-oh. Jay Z has only been an MLB agent for about six months now. But it sounds like he's already under investigation for possibly violating one of the Major League Baseball Players Association's agent regulations.
According to the MLBPA, Jay Z attended a birthday party for one of his clients Robinson Cano in Belgium on October 22. And while in attendance at that party, Jay gave Cano—who was the first major athlete to sign to his Roc Nation Sports agency earlier this year—the $33,900 Shawn Carter Classic Fusion watch by Hublot that you see above. It was a nice gift, but it also may have been an illegal gift. That's because the Players Association does not allow agents to give expensive gifts to players in order to entice them to either sign a deal with them or continue allowing the agent to represent them.
"No Player Agent or Applicant shall provide, cause to be provided 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, the purpose of which is to induce or encourage such player to use or continue to use any person's or firm's services as a Player Agent, Representative, or Draft Advisor," a clause within the MLBPA regulations says.
Jay Z could have made things a whole lot easier on himself by simply telling the MLBPA that he was planning on giving Cano the watch (the MLBPA asks that agents inform them of any gift worth more than $500 that they give to clients). Because Cano is already his client, it likely would have been allowed. But since he didn't, the MLBPA is now launching an investigation into the gift that Cano received.
We doubt that Jay is going to get into too much trouble here. But in the future, he might want to spend a little bit of time digging through the rules and regulations involved with being an agent. Or, at the very least, hire someone to do it for him. Otherwise, we suspect that this isn't going to be the last time that a Players Association is going to target him for some kind of wrongdoing. As the new kid on the block, the microscope is on him and he needs to do everything he can to avoid breaking any of the rules that are in place.
RELATED: Jay Z Helps Robinson Cano Get an Endorsement Deal With Pepsi
[via ESPN]
