Phillies OF/1B Jay Bruce hires Excel Sports Management with free agency looming next offseason

Phillies outfielder Jay Bruce has changed representation and is now a client of Excel Sports Management, tweets Robert Murray. He previously was repped by Apex Baseball — formerly known as Sosnick, Cobbe and Karon. The agency rebranded after agent Matt Sosnick left the company following an arrest on charges of domestic violence.

Bruce is a high-profile loss for Apex, although the firm still retains a number of notable, high-end clients — Blake Snell, Max Kepler, Blake Treinen, Mitch Haniger and Brendan McKay among them. Right-hander Chad Bettis also recently departed the agency shortly after the news on Sosnick came out, hiring CAA Baseball to represent him moving forward.

The 32-year-old Bruce had a bizarre 2019 season, ranking ninth in the majors (min. 300 plate appearances) with a career-high .306 isolated power mark (slugging minus batting average). Still, despite being one of baseball’s most powerful hitters in 2019, Bruce’s .261 OBP ranked 270th of 273 hitters with that same 300-PA minimum.

One might think that Bruce suddenly became extremely prone to strikeouts or infield flies to drive down his average and OBP, but that wasn’t the case. His 24.6 percent strikeout rate wasn’t outlandish by today’s standards, nor were the eight infield flies he registered. He batted just .121 on grounders, though, suggesting that he was particularly prone to outs via the shift. Even still, his .200 average on balls in play seems ripe for positive regression in 2020.

Bruce is signed through the 2020 season under the three-year, $39M contract he inked with the Mets prior to the 2018 campaign and will be a free agent for the second time in his career next offseason. He’ll join Didi Gregorius, Michael Brantley, Joc Pederson and Jake Odorizzi among notable Excel free agents next winter.