A-Rod, Boras really not talking

January 2, 2008 by Benjamin Kabak 10 Comments

In what is turning into a soap opera to rival Gossip Girls, John Harper checked in with Scott Boras and A-Rod last week. The two, he writes, are still in a fight, and Scott Boras isn’t too happy about it.

Harper notes that many in the New York media believed the whole opt-out/opt-in saga was orchestrated by Boras and A-Rod for some reason, but in reality, it seems that Boras really did make a mistake. While he’s still ~~rolling in money~~ enjoying his commission, Boras doesn’t like being on the outside of A-Rod’s life looking in. Harper writes:

Baseball insiders insist the hard feelings on A-Rod’s part toward Boras are genuine, that in taking over the negotiations himself he accused his agent of betrayal by misleading him about the level of interest from the Yankees. Likewise, they say that Boras is reeling from the ego blow A-Rod dealt him by telling the world on “60 Minutes” he’s not even speaking to his agent these days.

“Yeah, (Boras) made his commission,” a prominent agent said this week, “but, come on, do you know how much money he has? With Boras it’s all about being king of the jungle, the most powerful agent and the toughest negotiator in the game.

“He loves being the guy that everyone in baseball fears. He wouldn’t for a minute concoct a plan that would diminish his reputation. His image as a god to the players is too important to him. A-Rod might not be the most popular guy in the game, but don’t think he didn’t do some serious damage to Boras’ image. He basically called the guy a lying weasel on national TV. Nobody in the business is shedding any tears for Boras, believe me, but he took a serious hit.”

It’s no secret that Scott Boras wants to shape the economics of baseball in his own image. The rich would dole out more money and get all the good players while the have-nots linger in baseball purgatory — now known as Kansas City and Pittsburgh. This A-Rod debacle won’t be the end of Boras, and it’s doubtful that another agent will step up and fill the shoes seemingly left empty by Boras’ failures. But for now, Scott Boras is licking his wounds and trying to recover from a very rare and very high-profile misstep.

E-ROC

Boras will alright. The dude is swimming in money. He has a slight bruise of the ego. He’ll find a way to get one of his average pitching clients a rich contract.
Manimal

Boras is an asshole, whenever I see a good player the yanks could use I look to see who their agent is and when it’s Boras I’m always like AW shit.
http://nyyu.blogspot.com Mike

If you are a Boras client and he tells you that there are plenty of BIG offers out there…do you believe him or wonder if this is another “A-Rod thing”?

If you are a kid looking for an agent. are you looking at Boras or someone like Hendricks?
- Robert
  
  Mike, i agree with you. THis could have some ripple effect. Then again it might not and Boras will just rebound like people probably expect. however, I wouldn’t under-estimate this situation in terms of future clients. Personally, I’d go with Hendricks because they get their clients money, don’t alienate teams and don’t have teams refusing to do business with them. The Hendricks boys also keep you in the loop and don’t demand control of everything like Boras.
  - Relaunch
    
    What have the Hendricks brothers done to impress you? Who are their big clients besides Clemens and Pettitte?
    I don’t agree also with how you say they do not alienate teams. I think it happened with Pettitte when he left to NY and when he left Houston. Also, the drama with Clemens every year.
steve (different one)

i still think Boras is THE guy to hire if you are a top free agent planning to leave your current team. that’s where Boras excels, by getting teams to bid against each other.

what he is not as good at, it seems, is helping his client to get a new contract with their current team that they do not wish to leave, because he tries to use the same tactics in order to extract maximum dollars from that team, and it leads to bad feelings on both sides.

for example, i would bet that any other agent would have gotten Johnny Damon a new contract with the Red Sox. The Sox were offering $10M/year and the Yankees were offering $13M/year. I would guess that Johnny preferred to stay in Boston at that point. Another agent probably would have gotten $11.5M/year from Boston and everyone would be happy. But Boras told Johnny that the Sox “didn’t want him”, and the deal with the Yankees was completed very quickly without really giving Boston the chance to make a counter offer.

similarly, he took Bernie up to Fenway and was willing to recommend that Bernie sign with Boston until Bernie balked and called George. this is what Boras was trying to do with A-Rod, shop him around and then bring that offer back to the Yankees.

Now, I don’t think A-Rod was completely innocent in this situation. He most likely was on board with this tactic in the beginning, but i also believe he truly never wanted to leave the Yankees. When it looked like Boras’ strategy was backfiring, he panicked and called Hank. the rest is history.
- http://www.riveraveblues.com Joseph P.
  
  Good take on it. And I agree. When team execs are saying that they’d have their own kids sign with Boras, you know he’s doing something right.
Steve S

i think boras got in over his head on this one. If we look at the free agent landscape there arent that many big name free agents (position player wise) coming out anytime soon. Yes there is Tex but other than that the big name guys are either signed or under control for the forseeable future. Miguel cabrera will hit the market in two years (at god knows what weight), pujols is signed long term, grady sizemore and hafner are under control. I think people forget Arod’s value. The guy keeps himself in great shape and could break the home run record. I do think its likely that Boras overstepped on this one because he saw this contract as his defining moment. Lets remember there were rumors out there that he would get equity from the new Cubs ownership. I think the Machiavellian rumors about Boras orchestrating this whole thing are ridiculous. What is much more likely is Boras overstepped here and unlike the normal scenario where he is vilified and the client is simply lost in the shuffle, Boras got crucified but Alex got most of the public disdain. It all goes to the fact that our society, and people in sports, like to throw around the term genius a little too loosely.
Bo

Why is Boras an “a-hole”?

Do you know him? Have you had dinner with the man?

Or is it just because some writers that are in the teams pockets say he is?

That they are mad because he actually tries to get actual money for players who obviously deserve it.

It makes him an “a-hole” because he gets great deals for his clients and instead of teams pocketing the profits now they have to spread it around?

That’s funny.
Kevin23

Boras is just an agent. Agents are just lawyers. Everyone hates lawyers.

That is, until they need one.