When the Red Sox decided to fork over $103 million for a pitcher who had never thrown a Major League pitch, they do so with the expectation that their investment would open up new markets for them. The Yankees and the Mariners, after all, have managed to secure multi-million-dollar revenue partnerships with Japanese-based companies due to the presence of Japanese stars.
However, the Red Sox were not so lucky. Rob Bradford of The Boston Daily Herald reported today that the Sox managed just one $900,000 deal with a Japanese company. While the World Champions aren’t complaining, they are a bit disappointed in the financial returns.
“There was absolutely not this windfall of corporate advertising dollars we thought there may be, or that [Matsuzaka’s] representative might have led you to believe during the negotiations,” Sam Kennedy, Boston’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, said to Bradford. “But it was fascinating to watch the media, the fans that came over from Japan to see him, and to see someone assimilate into our culture. From everything I hear the best is yet to come.”
And as astute observers may note, Matsuzaka’s representative in this process is the much-beleaguered Scott Boras. With Kenny Rogers’ unceremoniously dumping Boras this weekend and the way the A-Rod saga has played out, this news is just another blow to the Boras empire.