CAA promotes agent Giovanni Rodriguez

As he discussed his new promotion over the phone on Monday, Giovanni Rodriguez chuckled sheepishly as his wife asked him to take out the trash. The high-powered agent joked that the instructions from his wife would keep him humble.

Few should blame the young Dominican American if he dared to boast after he was promoted to Senior Director of Latin America for Creative Artists Agency Sports Baseball.

Already one of the top Latino agents in baseball, Rodriguez now has the title worthy of the duties he was essentially already doing.

“This is an amazing time at CAA,” he said. “I’m beyond grateful to help continue to grow the Latin space in the vision I’ve had for years. It’s truly special to witness how much my clients have evolved over the years, so this is truly a testament to them. 

“Their evolution as players is one thing. But the way they are evolving as men is what makes me the happiest. I’m here just trying to continue to push forward their success and aid in making their dreams a reality.”

Giovanni Rodriguez ascends quickly

Rodriguez was certified as an agent by the Major League Baseball Players’ Association in 2012. Seven years later, he joined CAA to lead the Latin Division in August 2019. Over the next five years, he steadily grew CAA’s roster of Latino baseball players. 

Since he joined CAA, the agency has represented 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara and fellow All-Stars Marcell Ozuna, Isaac Paredes and Reynaldo Lopez. He also represents top young players such as Yankees phenom Jasson Dominguez and injured Marlins righthander Eury Perez.

Willy Adames, the Brewers’ star shortstop, should be one of the biggest names in free agency this winter.

“In five years we took this group and added Marcell Ozuna, Sandy Alcantara, Oneil Cruz, Edward Cabrera and others to an already exciting core of names like Willy Adames, Jasson Domínguez, Reynaldo López, and Isaac Paredes,” he said. 

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Paredes, Ozuna and Lopez accounted for a quarter of the 12 CAA players who were All-Stars this season. National League MVP favorite Shohei Ohtani is perhaps CAA’s top player at this time.

Ryan Hamill, the co-head of CAA Baseball, raved about Rodriguez’s ability to build bonds with his players.

“I think Gio has kind of hit the nail on the head in terms of educating his players,” Hamill told Forbes recently. “I think he stood out to us in the way that he manages his players and the people around him and the people that work with him.”

Deep roster

Outfielder Jasson Dominguez, the Yankees’ phenom, might be the most hyped prospect represented by the agency. 

CAA Baseball’s Latin division is already quite impressive. That was evident during the All-Star Game and the Futures Game in Arlington, Texas, in July. CAA had a record 12 All-Stars this summer. Three of them are Latinos.

“The Latin presence at CAA is felt with 3/12 of our record-breaking All-Stars being from Latin America,” he said. “Our pipeline is showing to be just as strong.”

CAA Baseball’s roster includes top prospects Samuel Basallo, Dominguez, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Thayron Liranzo and Alfredo Duno. All five of those players are ranked among the Top 100 prospects in baseball. Rodriguez recently hired Tito Ovalle, a fellow Dominican American from New York.

“He’s already leading the way forward and was an integral part in representing Oneil Cruz,” Rodriguez says of Ovalle.

From the Bronx

Rodriguez, 36, was born in the Bronx, N.Y. He graduated from Arizona State in 2010 with a degree in political science. He then got his master’s in Sports Leadership from Concordia University Chicago in 2012. Twelve years later, he is already one of the top Latino baseball agents.

“This promotion is all about the clients and how well we have been able to climb together,” he says. “We all come from humble beginnings. And it’s why we have been able to do so well here at CAA. 

“The leadership team from Howie Nuchow, Mike Levine all the way down to our division heads Ryan Hamill, Andrew Nacario, Matt Ricatto have all been supportive of us from Day 1. They see the vision I have, and they have let me run with it.”