Agent Scott Boras and MLB disagree over whether the league’s teams lost money during the pandemic-shortened, spectator-less 2020 season. Speaking with Jon Heyman of MLB Network and other reporters Tuesday, Boras declared that clubs “lost profits” last season, but they didn’t lose money. Per Heyman, a league spokesman responded that “clubs lost $3B — $100M per team.” It now appears the league and the players side are in for another few months of disagreement over whether to play a full schedule in 2021. MLB reportedly wants to push the season back, which would mean a second straight shortened season. That would cost the players money, though, so they’re currently not open to the idea of playing fewer than 162 games next year.
Boras, for his part, remains upset that the league’s teams only played 60 games in 2020. “I was very disappointed we didn’t play 100 games at minimum, 120 games, in 2020,” he said (via Chris McCosky of the Detroit News). Boras is of the belief the league can return to its normal slate going forward, as he stated: “We now know we can play the game and we can do it safely. And with the vaccine coming, we can play it at an even higher level of safety. It’s not a question of whether we can do it. We’ve already done it. That unknown has been erased.”
The ever-outspoken Boras had plenty more to say during his discussion with the media. Here are some other highlights…
- Boras asserted that the low-budget Athletics will need “an insurgence of a small amount of money” in order to sustain success, and they can’t simply rely on a potential new stadium for that, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle relays. That “insurgence” doesn’t appear as if it’s coming this offseason. According to Slusser, the A’s have been telling agents that they don’t have much to spend, which is especially alarming for a team facing the losses of several key free agents (Marcus Semien, Liam Hendriks and Tommy La Stella are among them). In better news for the club, Boras announced that third baseman Matt Chapman has been cleared for increased activity and should be ready for spring training. Chapman underwent hip surgery in September, at which point Boras said he’d need 12 to 16 weeks to recover.
- Although Cubs third baseman/outfielder Kris Bryant has been the subject of trade rumors this offseason, Boras seems to be under the impression he’ll remain with the team for another year, per Heyman. On Bryant’s future, Boras said (via Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune): “That question probably will be very clearly addressed at the end of ‘21, because we’re going to know a lot more about what Jed (Hoyer) wants to do, and also about the continuance of Kris Bryant’s excellence in a baseball uniform.” The Cubs would be selling low on the former MVP, who’s due a projected $18.6MM salary in his final season of team control. Many clubs may deem that too rich after Bryant endured uncharacteristic struggles last season.
- Likewise, Boras doesn’t expect the Rays to trade left-hander Blake Snell.
- MLB introduced the universal designated hitter in 2020, but even with free agency underway, there has been no official word on whether it will return next year. Boras advocated for it to come back and took a shot at the lack of clarity from the commissioner’s office, saying, “Maybe in the commissioner’s office, the DH may stand for dragging their heels.” He also believes it’s “absolutely necessary” for the league to stick with expanded rosters (via Tyler Kepner of the New York Times and Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register).
In the next CBA,there will be an “unforeseen provisions” that protect all parties. Both sides need to cut the financial pie and share. But they won’t. The big clubs need to come in and crush the Luxury Tax.
How would crushing the Luxury Tax contribute to cutting/sharing the financial pie?
Baseball is dying and boras is just lavar baseball yelling about anything as it slowly goes the way of the Buffalo
Baseball is not dying sunshine.
“Lavar baseball?”
Crackhead
Yearly drops in attendance and tv ratings paint a different picture. Maybe not dying but pick whatever adjective you prefer on the decline certainly.
Actually the NLCS got higher rating than nba finals. I think covide season was reason for tv ratings. A lot of my friends didnt watch because of season. I barely watched nats games once I knew they were out
The NLCS was more interesting and entertaining than the NBA Finals. People think the game is boring, but what they’re talking about is how the league is ran. MLB just doesn’t do a good enough job marketing it’s players or market to the younger fan. It’s safe now, but watch when the 10-30 year-olds become 40-60 year-olds.
Most other sports have figured out a way to stay relevant year-round. The freaking reigning Cy Young winner has been available for almost two months and there’s crickets regarding his market. Honestly, fans don’t even have to think about baseball from November to March anymore.
The schedule formula prevents half of fans from seeing the other league’s players. If you live in an NL market, you’re only going to get to see Mike Trout one series every handful of years.
They made a good step by making the draft in-person.
TV deals are terrible mostly across the board. I live in southeastern NC and unless I pay for MLB.TV, I can’t watch the Braves, Nationals, or Orioles (the three closest teams).
They don’t need to speed games up; they need to figure out a way to bring the game to as many fans as possible and generate excitement in the sport.
Not a bad reference, really.
The sport isn’t dying but it is contracting and adjusting to the new leisure time landscape. Some consumers obviously will prefer spending their time on social media versus consuming sports so all traditional sports leagues will shrink with the new avenues of entertainment available. I probably became a sports fan like my father because there was nothing else exciting available at that time to watch.
Comparing any ratings to the nba isn’t smart. The nba shot themselves in the foot by going political. They lost market share they may never get back.
@Twinsfan333
I think part of it is they are losing interest due to rule changes. It’s almost not baseball anymore. Universal DH? 7 inning doubleheaders? Pitching clock? Extras start with a runner on second? I mean come on. They’re also trying to get rid of umpires. As much as I complain about umpires when I play, I want them to stay. Umpires are baseball. Let baseball stay baseball
Boras 100% correct, teams, for the most part lost little if any money, and those that did will write it off and increase value of their property. The owners are duplicitous egotistical people who keep forgetting that other than their money, they offer no value to the product, so stop being cheap and do your job.
Good to know you and Boras were able to see the teams books in order to say they didn’t lose money. We were all wondering about that. Now we have you to thank for that information
Are you hiring?
There are definitely teams who lost more than profits. I’m not one to side with billionaire owners, but teams that were actually spending big money got absolutely hosed by the pandemic.
You do realize that these rich owners have been making $$$$$ hand over fist the past 10 years or so. They may have lost money in 2020 but they have made much more than they have lost the past few years.
And? You do realize that’s not how a profitable business thinks or operates, right? They have budgets based on expected revenue and they’re gonna cut costs where they can.
Listening to 12 year olds talk about how to spend other people’s money…
Do you know salaries have also increased significantly over the years? Or maybe you think the players play for free?
Correct 1984, it’s insane how so many fans think baseball can run itself contrary to the logic of every other business in the history of existence and still survive. As if losing money in a fiscal year is a casual thing. It’s so childish.
Certain fans like to use this word “billionaire” causally as if there’s a billion dollars available to spend. These same fans also seem to think that there’s plenty of money to fund whatever these owners want. Each team has to stand on their own as a business venture. It’s never a good idea to shift money around to fund a failing business. Normally a failing business gets lopped off like a dead limb if there no hope of recovery. Whenever discussing finances it’s best to keep things in perspective and to stay within reason with respect to each clubs profit and loss statement.
Dodger, and realize that when entities budget for 2021 they don’t give a crap about 2015 and how profitable that year may have been. Irrelevant. Completely.
@DODGER JR I don’t understand your comment. What does making money in the past have to do with one’s financial situation post-pandemic?
Nobody of guaranteed profits and during this pandemic many businesses large and small are losing money, many going under. However, it’s even a worse business practice to kill your employees and customers. This nightmare will be over soon but until then many will have to bite the bullet.
Nats took a huge bath. Horrible TV deal because of Angelos, no fans, and a massive payroll. To boot, no World Series windfall. They have to be the biggest loser in all of the MLB.
Very few teams have great local,TV deals. Not a lot of money to be generated in many of the cities.
We don’t really know. Owners’ books are closed and they are hiding revenue from each other. When revenue sharing for local TV rights began, teams started hiding TV revenue through ownership shares of the regional cable network and by getting as separate “licensing fee” for things using team trademarks from the stations on top of the broadcast rights. It’s all legal as long as it isn’t used to avoid taxes. It’s how Hollywood runs and sports are just another part of the entertainment industry.
We do have the Brave’s books. Why don’t fans start there?
$162 million in profits in 2019 for the Braves. Less than 30% of revenue from tickets, concessions, parking etc…In other words from fans. So they lost no profits in 2021.
Koamalu, I call BS. What is your source for these numbers you are making up?
Good luck Cosmo. Koamalu has a habit of making up numbers and not having an ability to calculate math. Also can’t judge baseball talent. You won’t like his answer but glad you called him out.
The Braves are owned by a publicly traded company so their financial information is freely available for anyone. I haven’t vetted what Koamalu just posted but anyone could if they wanted to.
If we’re going to talk based off assumptions—some teams definitely lost money. There’s no doubt. Let’s say players salaries and team revenues were slashed equally. There’s still a bunch of fixed costs that every team has. Some higher than others. Fixed costs do not change whether you generate 300 million dollars or 100 million dollars. There was some sort of loss on the teams part.
I would disagree with your logic but since I couldn’t find any, I guess I wouldn’t.
You mean because the Nationals signed that ‘horrible tv deal”?
Teams are going to write it off? That suggests some accounting magic since businesses tend to write off on losses on assets to reduce taxable income on your 1040. All this depends on whether the losses are filed under an entire corporation or by the individual owners.
Kramer:
It’s a write-off for them.
Jerry:
How is it a write-off?
Kramer:
They just write it off.
Jerry:
Write it off what?
Kramer:
Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything.
Jerry:
You don’t even know what a write-off is.
Kramer:
Do you?
Jerry:
No, I don’t.
Kramer:
But they do. And they’re the ones writing it off.
Owners are duplicitous egotistical people and players are humble public servants.
You must do standup.
@fffbbb
Laughing in your face. Sure the teams will just “write off” the losses and that will make the team even more profitable. Hahaha ok sure whatever you say
Do explain.
Undisputed are 2019 in person attendance, and 2019 average ticket prices.
When that went to zero fans, over $4 billion was not spent by fans on baseball games.
MLB also reportedly achieved $10 billion in total revenue pre-pandemic.
I guess I missed where non-gameday revenues surged by 67%, where full broadcast fees were not prorated to games played, and where the season wasn’t shortened – or where some mysterious benefactor shipped pallets of cash to MLB.
FACT: every ball club lost revenue in 2020. Correspondingly every MLB club lost profits in 2020. Only question to argue is whether each respective club wound up in the red or black for the season, but they all lost revenue.
Not to mention season ticket sales for 2021
Explain then how a successful franchise like the Atlanta Braves LOST money in 2019; a full season with full fan attendance? There’s zero chance that any team made money last year. Over 40% of their revenue comes from day of game attendance. Not a single team made a dime of profit last year.
Ever heard of “Opportunity Cost”?
Yep, the teams that usually make 400 million only made 2oo million, and the extended playoffs is another way of added revenue for the teams. They didn’t cut our cable bills when their were no games.
MLB has to start enforcing spending rules and a salary floor, or else these billionaire cheapskate owners will take every dime they can. A’s, Pirates, Cubs, Twins owners all have been acting ridiculous lately, and the A’s owner has been pulling this crud for decades in the name of moneyball, a thing that always still needed money to actually work.
Moneyball+ No money = Playoffs.
Moneyball + Money = World Series.
Always been like this. Every world series winner has tons of “moneyball” type players, but they also need to be next to superstars to win it all. A’s will never win it all .
Cubs were one of like 3-4 teams to pay the tax after 2019 if I remember correctly.
The Cubs paid the tax after 2019. It was not a huge tax hit for them in the scope of things though.
Paying tax shouldnt matter or be used an excuse. These are billionaires “worried” over under $100M, which is nothing to them.
I agree Marty
The only way either a salary floor or cap will work is if both are enforced. If you enforce a cap, then you give owners who already don’t want to spend less of an incentive to spend. You put in a floor and the teams like the A’s, Pirates and Twins will all do the bare minimum to get to the limit and then rich teams will spend more. Or you have a team like the Pirates, A’s or Twins spend big on a big contract that weighs them down for years, preventing them from making more moves, but only there to keep them above the floor. You also have to understand that most of the time, high payroll teams only have a high payroll to keep players they themselves found through the draft, internationally or through moneyball-like ways through wavier claims, minor league signings and other small deals. Teams build throug their core anymore. Time and time again we see a team “win the offseason” just to have a mediocer regular season and miss the playoffs entierly.
Impose a floor on the teams who can’t spend. What a well-thought out approach! Now how much are you prepared to take from the top teams and give to the bottom team who did not earn it? The cure to “helping” teams like Oakland is to force them to spend more and lose more money thanks to this floor concept?
The floor is a mistake for many reasons. This is one of them.
I’m actually for a floor but only if a cap goes with it. You need a floor, a cap and revenue sharing to make a league work to it’s full potential. A floor alone is about the dumbest thing any sport can do. A floor alone is just like saying, “Hey… Why don’t we just screw over the poorer teams even more!”
I’m not really for either, but if they put in one for the sake of “fair playing ground”, they need both.
Well said crab… I like the full potential part…a lot of people want to argue for mediocrity
Would it be hard to pull off- Most def
Would the end result be absolutely amazing if done right- You better believe it
One things for sure is we know Manfred is not the guy to get the job done
Ive always found it a bit odd that most posters on here dont want a floor/cap when essentially we are all wanna- be GMS from 32 diff fan bases…. seems a natural breeding ground to be in favor of it but so it goes
Did you know that each team gets about 110 million a year from Revenue Sharing? Plus about 80-90 million more from National Television, radio and other media revenue? I think that the floor for each team should be equal to the revenue sharing, teams can use the National revenue plus ticket sales and concessions to cover other costs and also provide profits.
SoCal what are the overall expenses of each team?
You want a cap and floor? Ok. Don’t complain when you see the following:
-Marginal players overpaid by these teams just to reach the floor
-Better than marginal players overpaid thanks to marginal players overpaid
-A worthy MLB player waived, not picked up due to salary and dwindles in AAA
-Aging but still effective player passed by top teams due to salary cap
-Want a core to stay together? Good luck. Teams will rebuild at least twice in a decade.
-A player stays on the IL even if they aren’t injured because they’d put the team over the cap.
Cap and Floor would do more harm than good.
You can’t have a cap and a floor because of revenue sharing. The luxury tax contributes to the revenue sharing. But there should be a floor. There’s no excuse for a team that gets almost 200M in revenue sharing to have a payroll of 40M. If you’re operating costs are 160M, then you suck at running a business. This doesn’t even take into account the 100M that each team takes in through ticket sales, merchandise and concessions.
The league minimum salary should be raised, teams that do not meet the floor spending would simply return the unused money to the revenue sharing pool for the next year.
All the problems you mention that a salary floor would “create” are problems that we currently have.
Agreed. A cap and floor should be put in place.
A cap is not happening. The tax is the only profit for some teams. No way those owners force teams like the Yankees to agree to it, they would lose money. Why you think it hasn’t happened yet?
Yeah, how dare the cubs only have the 3rd highest payroll! It’s cute that you think the solution is so simple though.
That is correct, and they also 2nd time offenders which is a higher penalty.
Yup. It’s almost like the luxury tax is working as it was intended to, but some people just like to cry about, “da billionaires”.
True. Even when players are going to soon be billionaires themselves..
Then what will they say?
You are exactly right. Salary basement + salary cap increases both players (overall) and owners salaries. It also increases parity. Parity is great for every sport. More people watch because any team can win on almost any given season. It shuts down dynasty’s but dynasty’s are only good for the team that wins them. MLB owners and players need fans watching all over the country. Not just in the typical dynasty cities. The players will make more money then.
MLB needs to have more input into its national tv schedule. ESPN televises Yankees vs Red Sox almost exclusively while ignoring upstart teams like the Brewers and Rays; then MLB is baffled why come October much of the nobody outside of diehard fans knows who Christian Yelich is, or Blake Snell.
KCMark
You a sooo right on! I cannot watch another Yankees Red Sox matchup
Espn televised what gets the highest viewership and what it’s advertisers pay the most money for commercial airtime for.
Granted, some of you may enjoy watching a KC/PIT matchup in a prime televising slot, but, by and large there aren’t many of you and advertisers don’t pay the premium for that.
Well Yankees/Red Sox = Bigger ratings which = more $$$$$$. No one wants to watch the Brewers/Rays or Rangers/Giants. To be honest Baseball ratings across the board have been in the tank for the past few years as the sport just continues to get more boring as the years go by. MLB needs to start playing day WS games on the weekends instead of games that don’t end until 1 AM on the East Coast. Manfred is the worst Commish we have had in many years and he is slowly killing the game.
So don’t watch it and stop whining about it.
A lot of the money in MLB comes from those, “dynasty cities”.
You’re right …
The thing is that Beane is good at making excuses how his @&$t doesn’t work in the postseason but fact is he’s made some horrible moves (or lack of moves) that didn’t necessarily involve increasing payroll that resulted in early exits from the playoffs … just this past year he failed to make any moves before the deadline to strengthen his team. Totally overated GM!
Beane isn’t the A’s GM, but continue…
Right! He’s not making the calls, you’re right but go on …
You aint wrong Marty…
Good post !
Its absolutely 100% embarrassing –
You have a team like the Rays trying to sell Snell,
A team like the A/s letting Sieman walk and my God dont get me started on the Indians who should be right in the thick of a friggin Dynasty right now and being talked about in the same sentence as the Dodgers – Turning the other way does nobody any good – They need a strong leader in the middle not a puppet ….till then we are doomed
Not sure who the Twins or Cubs get lumped in with the A’s and Pirates. The Twins usually spend around league average and the Cubs have been near the top in payroll the past few years.
You’re right!!!!! The Cubs shouldn’t be in the same breath with the A’s. The Cubs rolled the dice and won a WS a few years ago but right now the A’s have the better organization as the Cubs just have a ton of bad contracts and not a great Farm system.
@sky spot on man! This is especially about A’s, Pirates, Rays end Cleveland I’d say.
Because both the Cubs and Twins owners have cited “money problems” when it comes to signing players this current offseason. Both teams have spent in the past, but not now, because?
@Marty your exactly right mlb needs a salary floor 100%! Couple of these owners a milking it!! Especially A’s owner one of the richest families in America!!
It’s almost like net worth of the owner doesn’t directly correlate with revenue generated by the team. Do schools just not teach children anymore?
Your right! But he’s pocketing over 10 million a year doing what he’s doing dragging his feet with the stadium that’s been going on for well or 10 years now!! And barely talks to the public or fans! I’d almost bet anything you’d have a line of billionaires if the A’s went up for sale tomorrow!! I’m not say they going to throw all there life savings into the team but like a guy like Mark Cuban has passion for his team could much better that what they are do now!!!!
The A’s turn a profit every year, due to “moneyball” aka cheapness that doesn’t get you a ring. If you aren’t owning a team to win a title, you should not be allowed to own a team.
That’s exactly what he’s doing! Owning to make money NOT to win a tile!!
I agree with you there needs to be a floor of 100 million, if teams can’t afford it sell the team.!!
The problem with caps and floors is that you are focusing on only one part of the baseball operation. Other parts of the operation contribute to the success or lack of success for a baseball team. Enforcing a floor on poorer teams will force them either to reduce expenses in other areas such as scouting and player development, or reduce profits, if there are any. Enforcing a salary cap would mean that “rich” teams could spend more on other parts of the operation or would reap larger profits.
To make more teams competitive, I would argue that you would need to equalize resources available to each team. I am not talking just about the budget for player salary but for the entire baseball operation. Do I know how to achieve this and to get people to agree? Sorry, I’m not that smart.
Marty, and the players and agents don’t try to take every dollar they can too?!!! Scott Boras is trying to leave money in the owners pockets in your world? My goodness, no.
For once I agree with Boras on nearly every point he made, and for the first time I have to wonder what Major League Baseball would look like if he were commissioner. He’d never take that kinda pay cut, but it would make the game more interesting.
My guess- shut down in 10 years
There hasnt been a worse figure for the sport in the last qrter century than Scott Boras
Agreed. He has single handedly damaged the financial balance of baseball.
Unless Boras walked into every negotiation with a bazooka, he’s not at-fault for teams willingly reaching agreements with him to pay his players millions.
Ever look inside the white throne before you flush?
MLB under boras would look something like that.
I never thought I’d say this, but Boras is speaking straight facts all the way through.
Go read the Atlanta Braves financials for 2019 and tell me how one team made more than $1.00 in profits in 2020. While the Braves generated positive cash flow (about +$35M) their net income for their successful 2019 season was approximately -($40M). A lot of this has to with debt service but paying down debt and interest on that debt is part of baseball business. The facts are most teams do not make much in profit each year and last year crushed them because each team lost $10’s of millions of dollars in cash. Boras thinks team payroll is the only expense when team payroll is less than 50% of the expenses paid to operate a MLB team. Owners has shared audited financials with the MLBPA in the past but the MLBPA didn’t believe them. For this to work, owners need to open their books but players need to be prepared for the reality when they see them and agree to partner with them to maximize income for both sides. A revenue share and salary cap works best (see NFL & NBA) but the MLBPA will refuse to agree. This same disaster will continue each year until both sides get true leadership whose sole purpose is to create a fair and equitable deal for both sides and for both sides to help grow the product. Enough finger pointing already; man up and do the right thing for the good of baseball and its fans even if that means slightly less pay to players or less profit to owners.
The Braves are not a good example to follow because they are owned by Liberty Media for the explicit purpose of creating a tax write off. They are not built to create a profit. Now this may sound like it’s a negative, but it isn’t. I imagine some owners also follow this same approach, but the great majority is actually trying to turn a profit in their investment.
The Braves books are more fake news that the MLB has put out there. This is very similar to what goes on in this country right now. Boras is right! What about all the TV money, big business is good at hiding money. Yanks usually make 700 million so now they made 400 million.
Although an oversimplification, the point you are trying to make is definitely not entirely invalid, @slider.
But in your effort at “proof” you have committed…I dunno, let’s call it mathematical hyperbole.
If the Yankees would have made 700 mil in a normal year how does one figure that in a third of a season they’ll make over half as much as they would have?
Ya know?
I think your argument would have been better served just being forthright & including more of an effort to provide an accurate estimate.
There was really no cause to include extra. But doing so makes it seem like a rather reactionary & dubious take.
Boras hit the nail on the head. they were able to have a season without a vaccine, so any semblance of one is gravy. April is over three months from now, so vaccines should be distributed enough for enough fans to have them to get some into stands.
Best way to keep Bryant healthy is by not having him play outfield. His 2020 season was a mess because he dove for a ball in LF and rolled his wrist.
So what was his excuse before he hurt the wrist? Bryant stunk from day 1 last year.
Paul Beeston refused to do business with Boras because Paul Beeston represented ownership and there needed to be a balance of power.
Paul Beeston retired. Jusy like that old school thinking which, effectively, provided leverage to owners in general.
Now, thats all awash and we get to hear glorious tales of Boras. He’s playing both sides and has God syndrome. Put him in check, anybody.
Who the heck is Paul Beeston? You didn’t feel like you should have clarified that before your comment? Is he the owner of the Oakland A’s or something?
How about you Google Mr Beeston? It’s not that hard to do and you will get your answer in 2 mins.
That would explain why the Jays stopped winning after 1993.
I never could figure out why many thought Boras was the enemy; he does what he gets paid to do, and in general does it pretty well. And ya I’ve got to agree with hum on most of the points. And really, the owners who whine the most about Boras are the ones he’s outmaneuvered.
Maybe not about the Rays trading Snell, tho. If you take a Snell/KK combo, you can have them for Refsnyder/Swihart.
How dare you take the name of Rob Refsnyder in vain!
I shalt be flogged with a thong belonging to Blake Swihart.
Maybe owners dislike Boras because sometimes they were dealing with Boras in good faith and weren’t expecting him to “outmaneuver” them. Some agents actually deal in good faith you know. Some teams do too.
Except the owners are the ones signing off on the deals for Boras Clients. So they have no one to blame but themselves. Boras does what he is getting paid to do and that’s get the most $$$$ and best deals for his clients.
Would you give that same deference to owners trying to maximize their profits, that is their job
When there are some teams who literally will not deal with him, there has to be something to it. When there is smoke, there is fire.
Yeah, @tillman, that’s always puzzled me as well. He’s the best. I mean, isn’t that the guy we’d all want to represent us?
I don’t understand getting mad at someone because they’ve committed the faux pas of being competent.
That’s pretty weird stuff.
Boras is hated because he gets paid bank to do an unnecessary job and talk his BS. His god complex doesn’t help.
How true that rings in our society! Thanks for the chuckle with the sad kernel of truth.
Say what you will about his tactics at times, the man is effective at his craft. Looking at his comments today through a logical lens, his words and perspective are difficult to dispute.
Cart vs horse, chicken vs egg…
Do boras’ clients get paid because he is good, OR, is it because boras’ clients are the cream of the MLB crop that they get paid making him look good?
Plenty of his clients have sat out until midseason and not signed.
If a player is talented enough, doesn’t an owner or gm eventually step in and say ok, here’s an extra 10m you can help out club?
Boras doesn’t take on the refsnyders and swiharts of the world this offseason and find them sweetheart deals after all.
Now, if you do have premier talent he tries to sign you on. And he does offer what appear as non-negotiation “kickbacks/bribes” to his clients via trainers, facilities, etc.
But if he could squeeze lots of money out of any player’s deal he’d be signing on many more than just the apparent premier talents of a given time….
I hear what you’re saying, @GASoxFan, & that is certainly a valid point.
I can see another side of that too, though. At some point a lot of businesses/companies/entrepreneurs no longer need or care to have that much volume. 12 years ago, I’d build 10K roofs all the time. These days I honestly don’t have any interest in building jobs like that.
Ya know?
At some point those “small” deals are just kind of a waste of time.
I guess I should go & check out whom his clients have been over the years & see if there was a progression to where he’s now just repping the top of the market.
I guess the upside of that is if he was my agent that’d mean I’m really good.
@Ducky – I think that examination/analysis will be tricky, for a couple reasons, the biggest being the draft itself.
Boras tries to get in as an advisor to the top apparent talent when he can. We all know prospects are very hit or miss, it why not every 1st round pick even has a mlb job and yet there are dozens of rounds in the draft. So there will be former clients of his who amounted to nothing mixed in there.
On one hand exclusivity is a marketing tool. On the other, contract negotiation is relatively low overhead business often using boilerplate. With those 10k roof jobs, materials and construction labor are probably 8x profits. Not the case with representing a client.
& that is what I found out, @GASoxFan lol.
Ay caramba but I couldn’t really get anywhere. For the very same reason you pointed out. There are a bunch of “non-stars” that he’s worked for over the years.
Guys like Oliver Perez & Jeremy Hellickson. But I kinda bogged down in figuring out when they signed on with him & how highly regarded they were at the time.
I never even found a comprehensive list of all the guys he’s represented over the years.
I don’t mind rolling around the internet but my days of college research papers are firmly in the review mirror.
I’d gone into it pretty confident that I’d be able to figure it out fairly quickly. Oh, boy. So not the case, bro!
I looked at where a lot of them were drafted but even that didn’t go all that far back. In the end, I think I side more with your take at this point. I found it pretty interesting for a bit & it was world’s better than having the same arguments over politics.
As a “research project” – however – it was a stunning failure.
I’m a big enough man to freely admit that.
😉
I’d guess it’s because people blame him for their teams best players leaving. Either by representing them or raising the bar for other players.
I’m surprised the Nationals, who were linked to Bryant, haven’t been on LaStella. Seems like a perfect fit. LaStella is a capable 3B who can slide over to 2B or 1B, two other positons the Nats could use some help at, and won’t break the bank.
Boris clitoris
I think I have heard of that move. Isn’t that when you screw someone over and get them to pay you for the pleasure?
So in other words, as long as professional athletes get the vaccine before others who should logically get it before young healthy people, baseball can be safer therefore the players can get paid more. Got it., Scott.
Have to wonder if this makes a healthier society, tho. People are depressed and miserable, so what’s a few thousand vaccine doses on the big scale. Having normal sports again would go MILES.
I agree that it could signal a return to a somewhat normal world. I get that and it has some importance. However, getting back to normal requires the higher risk population getting vaccines before healthy, strong, young men. No matter their occupation. Unless the spread of the virus is mostly controlled, the fans will not be in the stands and that is the real requirement of getting back to normal. It all depends on the amount of vaccine available when spring training starts. If the higher priority groups have access already then we can get back to a normal season. If there’s a shortage of vaccine then letting Mike Trout get some before my grandfather, isn’t fair and shouldn’t happen. I just don’t want to see a repeat of the unfairness of the system like when Covid tests were in very short supply but athletes had no problems getting tested daily.
Kris Bryant is overpaid
Change my mind
World series win with him is worth more in dollars by far over Kris Bryant pro-rated, and yes overpaid, salary for 21.
” Boras is of the belief the league can return to its normal slate going forward, as he stated: “We now know we can play the game and we can do it safely. And with the vaccine coming, we can play it at an even higher level of safety. It’s not a question of whether we can do it. We’ve already done it. That unknown has been erased.””
” He also believes it’s “absolutely necessary” for the league to stick with expanded rosters (via Tyler Kepner of the New York Times and Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register).”
Well, if we can play at a higher level of safety, why is it absolutely necessary to stick with expanded rosters? I thought the purpose of that was in case players got ill, there would be replacements readily available.
LMAO…..that’s what you get for looking behind the curtain…..
Except, well, they couldn’t really could they?
How much pushback was there over a couple week bubble from the mlbpa? Are they really prepared to sign on for a 7 month version?
How about the dodgers covid issues post WS? Or those teams that didn’t even play 60 games? Or the shut down the phillies, marlins, etc, etc faces? What about clevinger and plesac?
So many examples of barely holding it together for 60 games and failing to hit that mark, and yet, it’s a given that it can be so simply done for triple the timeframe?
Boras doesn’t actually care, he just wants his clients to get paid (that’s his job, so i won’t fault him), but to act like anything he says, ever, is for any other reason, is just naïve.
Amen 1984
Screw Boras he’s the worst thing that has happened to baseball !!
He’s a GREEDY ASSHOLE !!!!!!!
The only thing I take from this comment is that you would rather the owners keep more money than the players.
That sounds like a you problem.
I would. The owners have a business to run and have all the financial risk. Players are assets to the business.
We are getting to the point where the A’s need to sell on high on their arbitration players, give up a season, look for Diamonds in the rough, and hope the retool works out in a year or two. Only way this team keeps going.
Ah Boras! Heck of a lawyer protecting his numerous clients…
If the vaccine is mandatory for people to attend games… I guess I’ll stick to the TV.
By law, they can’t make it mandatory. It would be a HIPAA violation for them to ask any medical history.
Probably would require something like the “vaccine passport” airlines are talking about using for international travel… No proof no fly/ no proof no admittance/ no I.D. no drinky.
Anyone esp a young athlete willing to get a vaccine before they understand the outcome it could potentially have is an idiot. It should simply be on a basis of im willing to potentially kill my self n I’ll take it basest. I have health issues n there is no way I’m looking to take this vaccine before knowing what it could do to me, if a person who is making millions playing sports is willing to take n risk the outcome ok but no one in the country should be forced to take it. I wouldn’t if it was gonna potentially cost me millions bc there’s legit no research done or comparison to it. Boras is the king of scum in sports. I’d like to see him take the vaccine pure minimum 6 months before a single client of his does so he can tell them first hand what there about to deal with.
I couldn’t agree more
We will see if doctors and nurses are forced to take it.
I’m against a floor and ceiling (cap). I do support the commission’s recommendations from a few decades ago that laid out precisely what the league needed to do. The owners have dragged their feet since. It’s the usual problem, owner’s mistakenly believing they’re operating in a free market rather than a protected monopoly.
They can either fix the issues facing the league or not. This incremented crap is a decision not to fix the issues. Sound familiar?
is the cost of escalating salaries, forcing a unlevel economical playing field, not the biggest issue?
I’ve got to say usually Boras is just running his mouth and going off on random things clearly trying to bolster his own players value or the value of free agents in general. But in this case… I’ve got to say I agree with pretty much everything he said in these statements. The league should just play 162-games and not go into a giant prolonged dispute with the players union again… they should make the decision one way or another on the DH situation already (like c’mon the off-season has started teams need to know now… not after all the potential DH’s sign in the AL… As for whether teams lost money or lost profits or what have you… idk enough to have an opinion… but it is an interesting statement that teams didn’t actually “lose $” they just didn’t “make $” however I have to imagine if that were true… teams like the Phillies wouldn’t be so concerned with cutting payroll — like they obviously want to compete and make the playoffs… it’s not like their a team that just slashes payroll just because. So that they seem to be so handcuffed payroll wise… makes me think they actually lost money… not that they just didn’t make as much as usual.
Yeah, he’s still just doing that this time.
If they wanted to condense the season, play more games upfront… maybe expanded rosters in May and June? Argument against the DH about tradition and style of play… okay theres a thing called interleague play… so is it okay that teams sometimes have a DH but not okay all the time?
Boras is spot on as usual. Teams only lost profits, not lost money overall. Too much guaranteed money coming in and the players took a $2.4 billion drop in payroll.
Please show the receipts to back up this claim
so your business made no profit this year. You gonna be in business long?
It’s not shocking to see what Boras views are on a lot of these topics… most of them mean more potential money for him. But there are a lot of items he’s 100% right about. We definitely can play an entire season! And mlb isn’t losing money, just profits. That’s a short term problem that will correct itself soon. MLB is like the left, using the virus to impose their will when it’s not necessary…..
To sum up the viewpoint of about half of fans: owners are horrible jerks cuz they’re rich. Players are rich but they are the salt of the earth and underpaid. Businesses can survive running at a net loss cuz rich owners. Also businesses never actually lose money or go under cuz absurd accounting nonsense I just made up without any education, research or intelligent thought.
But something something billionaires something something capitalism something something the MLBPA is pure as the wind driven snow
Lol completely true. But that’s what happens in society when half the population is taught to demonize anyone who has succeeded because they’re somehow conspiring to hold you back and keep you down.
You have pretty much summed up the ‘new’ American way. Hate because they actually made something of themselves.
sums it up for me.
Money Bags Boras should just SHUT the $&@# up …. take your $$$ and go home already !!!!!
Boras is correct. As usual.
Since his MVP season Bryant has been underwhelming.