Agent Boras Going Out of Style

2/24/08

Super agent Scott Boras, known throughout the sporting world as a painstaking negotiator of contracts, is beginning to lose his luster. Players and management around Major League Baseball have shown signs over this past off-season of a growing lack of patience for dealing with Boras. He has almost single-handedly driven the baseball market through the roof, especially for pitching. It was Boras who negotiated a guaranteed 7-year, $126 million contract for Giants’ ace Barry Zito, whose fastball doesn’t top 85 mph. He simply was the biggest name left-hander on the market after the 2006 season. It was also Boras who negotiated contracts for the historically underachieving, malingering J.D. Drew with the Dodgers for 5 years/$55 million (with his trademark “opt-out clause,” and subsequently duped Theo Epstein into giving Drew his current 5 year/$70 million with the Red Sox. He negotiated A-Rod’s former record 10 year/$252 million deal with the Rangers, and, thanks again to the opt-out, Rodriguez is cashing in on the Yankees again for the next 10 years to total a minimum of $275 million.

Here’s where it gets interesting. During negotiations between Boras and the Yankees over Rodriguez’s new contract, $275 million was apparently some sort of insult, and Hank Steinbrenner (whose family has a history of not concerning too much over lavish contracts) wisely broke off talks with Boras simply because the $305 million demanded was too much. No matter what anyone says, a 42 year old Rodriguez will have his ticket stamped to the Hall of Fame waiting for him, but that same 42 year old man will not be worth over $30 million annually. When no other club stepped up to meet these demands, A-Rod quickly realized that he could not afford to have Boras souring the big dollar teams like the Yankees, Angels, Cubs, and Mets, just to name a few. A-Rod then took Boras out of the negotiation process and almost immediately found a common ground with Steinbrenner and GM Brian Cashman on a 10 year deal worth a new record $275 million, plus incentives. Who needs Boras ruining management-player relationships?

Also this offseason, Kenny Rogers fired Boras, who was turning the pitching-rich Tigers away from the 43 year-old lefty. Another Tiger, Gary Sheffield has a pending lawsuit against Boras, and has grown tired of the aggravation. Meanwhile, Kyle Lohse was expected to cash in this winter with a team since he is still only 29 years of age with six full years of major league experience, including some playoff experience in his time with Minnesota in addition to the role he played last year in the Phillies’ miraculous playoff push. Boras fielded offers for his client from the Phillies for Lohse to return for three years, but held out for a fourth year. The Phils then went on to bolster their rotation by adding Brad Lidge to push Brett Myers back into the rotation, as well as adding free agent pitchers Chad Durbin and Kris Benson, and Rule 5 Draft-pick LHP Travis Blackley. The Mets also made a push to acquire Lohse, but dollars and the fourth year were points of discrepancy between GM Omar Minaya’s staff and Boras. They went on to trade for Johan Santana, and with the return of Pedro Martinez, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Mike Pelfrey, and Orlando Hernandez, have no room for Lohse. The message here is that teams around the league have grown sick of dealing with Boras, and the fact of the matter is that there are better options to explore than the players whom Boras represents. Without Kenny Rodgers in the Detroit rotation, life would go on with Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman, Dontrelle Willis, Nate Robertson, Travis Miner, and others. Without the career ERA of 4.82 that Kyle Lohse carries, the Mets and Phillies will still be two of the National League’s best, of that we can be certain.

Message to Boras: “You are ruining Major League Baseball’s winter hot-stove each year with your outrageous, unbending contract demands. Year after year, you drive the free agent market for each individual position higher. You tout historically poor performers as the necessary contributors to lead teams into October baseball. Your long-term, high dollar contracts block legitimate young talent from reaching the Major Leagues and leave teams paying for overpriced, injury-plagued, over the hill egos during the final years of seven, eight, and ten year contracts. Tone it down or call it quits lest your detested personality turn more teams off toward your clients.”