Yankees stars' former agent banned by MLBPA for backhanded COVID dealings

The Major League Baseball Players Association has weathered and absorbed (?) internal fractures before, and they're just about a year ahead of the fight of their lives, with a lockout looming that could wipe out portions of the 2027 MLB season. The least they can do is be unified ahead of a battle with baseball's very worst people, the consistently stingy and out-of-touch owners.

Is Tony Clark the leader the MLBPA needs? Can he clean up his house before facing off with the opposition? There are plenty of reasons to doubt he's the man for the job, and the more challenges mounted and backstabbing uncovered, the weirder it's going to get. On Thursday, another reason to be skeptical about in-fighting surfaced when Evan Drellich reported that the Players Associate had levied a multiple-year ban against Jim Murray.

Murray had formerly been the agent for Andy Pettitte and Adam Ottavino, and is reportedly the current rep for Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells, with a carve-out included in his suspension to help them navigate certain things. In fact, the only non-Yankee client mentioned in Drellich's article was Ian Happ of the Cubs, who was among the leaders of an internal union mutiny back in 2024.

Murray's ban came down because it is believed he went "above and beyond" in crossing boundaries and directly discussing proposals with Major League Baseball surrounding the controversial return-to-play amid the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. The MLBPA and the league had to navigate an unprecedented world of testing, health mandates, and safety protocols, and the Players Association believes that Murray "revealed confidential union information" to Rob Manfred's office behind their back as particulars were being discussed in both camps.

Yankees Anthony Volpe, Andy Pettitte, Adam Ottavino see former agent Jim Murray banned by MLBPA for leaking "confidential union information"

This isn't the first time that Murray's name has been connected to controversy, and the link was much less tangential for the Yankees last time.

He was the "was the first person known to have been interviewed by lawyers" for the congressional committee investigating performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball back in 2009. Murray's name was "mentioned several times in a recorded conversation between [Roger] Clemens and his former personal trainer Brian McNamee," and he represented both Clemens and Pettitte during the scandal.

Now, one year before a pivotal Winter Meetings that could decide the sport's long-term fate and health, he is back in the spotlight.