Pitchers and catchers will be reporting to Spring Training in three weeks but there is still a lot of offseason business to be completed. 19 of MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents still don’t have agreements in place for 2024, along with many players who weren’t on that list.
Of those 19, six of them are represented by the Boras Corporation. That includes the four top remaining names in Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery and Matt Chapman, as well as J.D. Martinez and Rhys Hoskins. Boras also represents notable guys that missed the Top 50, such as Joey Gallo, James Paxton, Hyun Jin Ryu and many others.
While most players and agents would prefer to get their offseason business done early, Boras has shown an unusual willingness to wait for the right deal, even if that means it doesn’t come together until very late. Using MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, we can look at all the free agent deals signed by Boras clients going back to October of 2010. Focusing on the ones signed after January ended, we can see if a picture emerges.
Quick sidenote, the cutoff date of the start of February is a simple one but also slightly arbitrary, as Boras has signed some notable deals towards the end of January. Prince Fielder got $214MM in late January 2012, Max Scherzer got $210MM from the Nationals in 2015 and Chris Davis got $161MM from the Orioles in 2016, though those latter two both had significant deferrals. But without further ado, let’s look at the track record of deals that follow the first month of the year.
March of 2023
- Jurickson Profar signs with the Rockies for one year and $7.8MM. MLBTR had predicted Profar for a two-year, $20MM deal at the start of the offseason.
February of 2023
- Elvis Andrus signs with the White Sox for one year and $3MM. He received an honorable mention on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason.
March of 2022
- The 2021-2022 offseason featured a large number of late signings due to the lockout. With transactions frozen from the start of December until mid-March, Boras had to quickly work out deals for Carlos Rodón, Yusei Kikuchi, Ian Kennedy, Nick Castellanos, Kris Bryant, Matthew Boyd, Carlos Correa and Zach Davies after the lockout ended. But that was at least partially due to the unusual circumstances and not necessarily about a waiting game played by Boras, so it’s probably not useful to look at those deals for this exercise.
March of 2021
- Jackie Bradley Jr. signs with the Brewers for two years and $24MM. MLBTR had predicted Bradley for a two-year, $16MM deal at the start of the offseason.
February of 2021
- James Paxton signs with the Mariners for one year and $8.5MM. MLBTR had predicted Paxton for a one-year, $10MM deal at the start of the offseason.
- Trevor Rosenthal signs with the Athletics for one year and $11MM. MLBTR had predicted Rosenthal for a two-year, $14MM deal at the start of the offseason.
- Jake Arrieta signs with the Cubs for one year and $6MM. He wasn’t listed on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason.
- Aaron Sanchez signs with the Giants for one year and $4MM. He wasn’t listed on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason.
February of 2020
- Taijuan Walker signs with the Mariners for one year and $2MM. He wasn’t listed on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason.
June of 2019
- Dallas Keuchel signs with the Braves for one year and $13MM. MLBTR had predicted Keuchel for a four-year, $82MM deal at the start of the offseason. He had rejected a $17.9MM qualifying offer and was tied to draft pick forfeiture, but waited until after the draft when that no longer applied.
March of 2019
- Bryce Harper signs with the Phillies for 13 years and $330MM. MLBTR had predicted Harper for a 14-year, $420MM deal at the start of the offseason.
February of 2019
- Marwin González signs with the Twins for two years and $21MM. MLBTR had predicted Gonzalez for a four-year, $36MM deal at the start of the offseason.
- Mike Moustakas signs with the Brewers for one year and $10MM. MLBTR had predicted Moustakas for a two-year, $16MM deal at the start of the offseason.
- Brad Boxberger signs with the Royals for one year and $2.2MM. He wasn’t listed on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason.
- Jeremy Hellickson signs with the Nationals for one year and $1.3MM. He wasn’t listed on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason.
March of 2018
- Greg Holland signs with the Cardinals for one year and $14MM. MLBTR had predicted Holland for a four-year, $50MM deal at the start of the offseason.
- Jake Arrieta signs with the Phillies for three years and $75MM. MLBTR had predicted Arrieta for a four-year, $100MM deal at the start of the offseason.
- Mike Moustakas signs with the Royals for one year and $6.5MM. MLBTR had predicted Moustakas for a five-year, $85MM deal at the start of the offseason.
- Carlos González signs with the Rockies for one year and $5MM. MLBTR had predicted Gonzalez for a one-year, $12MM deal at the start of the offseason.
February of 2018
- J.D. Martinez signs with the Red Sox for five years and $110MM. MLBTR had predicted Martinez for a six-year, $150MM deal at the start of the offseason.
- Carlos Gómez signs with the Rays for one year and $4MM. MLBTR had predicted Gomez for a two-year, $22MM deal at the start of the offseason.
- Eric Hosmer signs with the Padres for eight years and $144MM. MLBTR had predicted Hosmer for a six-year, $132MM deal at the start of the offseason.
- Tony Watson signs with the Giants for three years and $9MM. MLBTR had predicted Watson for a two-year, $12MM deal at the start of the offseason.
February of 2017
- Matt Wieters signs with the Nationals for two years and $21MM. MLBTR had predicted Wieters for a three-year, $39MM deal at the start of the offseason.
- Jered Weaver signs with the Padres for one year and $3MM. He wasn’t listed on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason.
March of 2016
- Pedro Álvarez signs with the Orioles for one year and $5.8MM. He wasn’t listed on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason.
- Austin Jackson signs with the White Sox for one year and $5MM. MLBTR had predicted Jackson for a one-year, $12MM deal at the start of the offseason.
February of 2015
- Francisco Rodríguez signs with the Brewers for two years and $13MM. Rodriguez was ranked 36th on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason, before that post featured specific contract predictions.
- Everth Cabrera signs with the Orioles for one year and $2.4MM. He wasn’t listed on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason.
June of 2014
- Kendrys Morales signs with the Twins for one year and $12MM. Morales was ranked 28th on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason, before that post featured specific contract predictions. He had rejected a $14.1MM qualifying offer and was tied to draft pick forfeiture, but waited until after the draft when that no longer applied.
May of 2014
- Stephen Drew signs with the Red Sox for one year and $10.1MM. Drew was ranked 14th on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason, before that post featured specific contract predictions. He had rejected a $14.1MM qualifying offer and was tied to draft pick forfeiture, but re-signed with his previous club.
March of 2014
- Óliver Pérez signs with the Diamondbacks for two years and $4.3MM. He wasn’t listed on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason.
February of 2014
- Francisco Rodríguez signs with the Brewers for one year and $3.3MM. He wasn’t listed on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason.
- Jeff Baker signs with the Marlins for two years and $3.7MM. He wasn’t listed on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason.
March of 2013
- Kyle Lohse signs with the Brewers for three years and $33MM. Lohse was ranked 10th on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason, before that post featured specific contract predictions.
February of 2013
- Michael Bourn signs with the Guardians for four years and $48MM. Bourn was ranked 3rd on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason, before that post featured specific contract predictions.
February of 2012
- Edwin Jackson signs with the Nationals for one year and $11MM. Jackson was ranked 6th on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason, before that post featured specific contract predictions.
February of 2011
- Johnny Damon signs with the Rays for one year and $5.3MM. Damon was ranked 47th on MLBTR’s Top 50 that offseason, before that post featured specific contract predictions.
_____________________________
A few caveats need to apply here for context. Many of these older deals were impacted by the previous qualifying offer system, wherein a signing club would have to forfeit a first-round draft pick and a player could receive multiple QOs in his career. This was changed going into the 2017 season, with players capped at one QO in their career and the draft pick forfeiture moved back, depending on a club’s revenue-sharing or competitive balance tax payor status. Since that time, the QO seems to have had less of an impact on free agents.
Even with those caveats in mind, the data doesn’t paint a rosy picture of playing the waiting game, at least relative to the expectations from the start of the offseason. Most guys on this list settled for a lesser contract than was predicted, either in terms of guarantee or AAV or both. Guys like Harper and Hosmer still got really strong contracts, but Harper’s was clearly below projections while Hosmer’s deal stretched the years to get a larger guarantee but less AAV. The results for guys like Keuchel, Holland and Moustakas (twice) came in well below expectations.
Perhaps the early-offseason offers were even lower for some of these guys and waiting it out was the smart play. It’s hard to know for sure without having details of those discussions, which don’t often come to light. But there aren’t many instances of a player waiting until close to the spring and then finding a really amazing deal. That’s likely due to the fact that many clubs have already spent most or all of their budget for the upcoming season by this part of the calendar, or at least they can posture as though that is the case for the purposes of leverage.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the same will happen in the weeks to come, but it will be an interesting situation to monitor for Boras clients as well as any other player. As mentioned, the top four remaining free agents are all Boras guys, but there are plenty of non-Boras guys still available as well. The 13 guys from the Top 50 that aren’t represented by the Boras Corporation are Jorge Soler, Mike Clevinger, Aroldis Chapman, Michael Lorenzen, Gio Urshela, Amed Rosario, Whit Merrifield, Justin Turner, Brandon Belt, Héctor Neris, Jakob Junis, Liam Hendriks and Tim Anderson.
The risk you take being a Boras client. You either get really overpaid or you have to settle on mediocre deal after passing on better ones.
Darren – This proves what I’ve been saying all along, the delay tactic doesn’t work.
Keep in mind some of these could have been the result of the player wanting more, not necessarily Boras advising the player to hold out.
Not really. Almost all his clients get paid well.
The ones in this article signed for well below their predictions either in dollars or years
Predictions? : -)
@LordD99 Well if you don’t care about predictions then I’m not really sure what your measure of success is. “Paid well” is a subjective term when you’re talking about millions of dollars over several years.
“Almost all his clients”..Boras does well with the top tier of players that will get paid at the highest level regardless. That being said, he’s been involved in some of the most spectacular fails, whiffs and over-reaches for several of his mid tier and lesser clients.
MLB fan: If Boras signs enough players to mega-contracts, I doubt he worries all that much about lesser players who have to settle for below their asking price.
“If Boras signs enough”…I do believe you’re correct.
mlb – Exactly!! And as the above article shows, many who signed late took less than expected or even less than was previously offered.
But as I said above, ultimately Boras works for the players … not the other way around. Every offer has to be accepted or rejected by the player.
You know that Boras isn’t the one making the final decision, right? The player is free to accept or reject each offer on the table, regardless of the advice of the agent.
BUYER BEWARE: other than that weird 2019 year where Bryce Harper signed super late, very few of these contracts panned out for the club (nor the player really).
The next step would be to see how these late signings affected performance.
And Scott: you understand that RSNs are going bankrupt, right? MLB teams can’t sustain constant $30M/year contracts when they’re looking for new revenue streams.
My thoughts as well. There are some real train wreck deals on this list.
The – I agree!
JBJ was brutal.
The Padres are still paying Hosmer.
And those Twins hadn’t a clue Marwin’s career would go into the trash.
Not that I think it happens this year, but I love when Boras misplays and his client gets screwed..
On average, Boras profits at the client’s expense. Boras takes higher risks and gets more rewards, but we just tend to focus more on the few who got screwed over. Conforto weighs more heavily on our memory than most guys who get 20% more.
There was a video out there just recently from a former Marlins’ GM where he discussed the lengths they would go to avoid drafting or trading for Boras clients. I suspect most GMs feel the same way.
The Natural: It seems Boras has the advantage. He represents some of the best players and most of them who chose Boras get what they want because teams get into a bidding war. Actually, in that case everyone wins. The team gets a very good player, the player gets a ton of money, as does Boras.
If you’re a perennial all star then Boras is probably the right call. If you’re a “sometimes good” player like Bellinger then it’s a crapshoot of risking the big payoff contract over an extra 20-40 million dollars.
In my opinion, Boras has overplayed his hand with Jordan Montgomery and in the end, this kid gets screwed.
“I love when talented players don’t get paid their worth and billionaires get to keep more money”
What a take
“I love paying hundreds for jerseys so poor millionaires can become richer.”
The jersey prices have nothing to do with player’s salary. Your anger is poorly placed.
SPWJ
“The jersey prices have nothing to do with player’s salary. Your anger is poorly placed.”
That’s not true
Because people are willing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on baseball, players make a lot of money
Uh Superstar, your response to degrom is poorly placed. He made no mention of jersey sales going to players. Pretty sure he’s referring to owners making bank on merchandise sales. And owners pay/don’t pay the players. Perhaps degrom didn’t respond to you cuz your post was in left field.
“don’t get paid their worth”
Is Anthony Rendon worth $38M/yr?
Is Blake Snell worth 9 years/$270 million? (the reported benchmark set by Boras)
It’s not a matter of a billionaire paying a multi-millionaire, it’s a matter of blowhard Boras making ridiculous claims about his clients (comparing Snell to Randy Johnson) and squeezing every dime out of a deflated market. Right or wrong, it holds up the market and affects the lesser players who end up scrambling for jobs. “Scrambling” is not an exaggeration.
Scott Boras: The agent who saved MLB (more than once).
I’m assuming this was said tonque-in-cheek. God I hope so.
MLB fan interest has collapses numerous times until Boras injected new energy into it with his free agent contracts. Also the 1994 and 2010 strikes might not have ever ended without him stepping in.
This must be a boras burner account
Shohei Ohtani, CAA Sports
Aaron Judge, PSI Sports
Mike Trout, Craig Landis
Mookie Betts, VC Sports
Ronald Acuna, Magnus Sports
Boras gets the guys like Snell to overhype them. The top players, other than maybe Harper, avoid his hot air.
Scott would LOVE for you to think he’s the savior of baseball, but it’s far from the truth.
Not a Scott Boras burner account but you might want to listen to a guy with 170+ mlb HR and 200+ mlb SB.
Scott’s free agent contracts have revived dead mlb fan interest numerous times and hes also a great person.
Oh, you’re Scott’s mom
I’m not saying Scott is a bad person, I’m saying his hold-em-and-make-them-sweat approach hurts the game. He has an impressive client list, averaging around 150 players in recent years, but there are 750 players in the MLB. There’s 600 other players affected by his stall tactics (in some form or fashion).
I will say I agree that he has “helped” negotiations during MLB labor outages – not because of good will, but because he’s losing money when players are not on the field.
Great article. Keep up the exceptional work!
Almost all the players ended up getting less money than predicted.
The Build a Big Check of baseball has been shown the door. Time to move on from his nonsense.
whyhayzee: People have been saying that for years, yet he’s still around.
MLBTR.
“Even with those caveats in mind, the data doesn’t paint a rosy picture of playing the waiting game, at least relative to the expectations from the start of the offseason. Most guys on this list settled for a lesser contract than was predicted, either in terms of guarantee or AAV or both.”
You missed a HUGE part of this analysis
How well does the site do predicting contracts.
If the site, on average, predicts contracts higher than are received in real life, then it makes sense that it would also over predict a sample.
Further, there seems to be an implied assumption by some that they left money on the table by waiting. As if each of these guys was offered big money early and didn’t take it. Obviously, in the case(s) where I guy rejected the QO and then settled for less, we know they lost. But in all other cases, we don’t actually know what money was out there.
It’s entirely possible in many cases that the contract they got was the best they were offered.
Waiting may play little on the outcome. It might have more to do with various teams rankings of certain players. If some players are far down the pecking order due to some perceived flaw, by the time teams get serious about an offer, most money may already be spent and most positions already filled
I agree with this, most likely these guys signed the best offer they got.
There is a chance that boras set such a high price he scared of guys then had to settle. Perhaps a lower starting point may have created a bidding war which could have led to more.
Nobody really knows but I can say the reported 240 or 270m he supposedly is asking for isn’t going to happen.
The other issues because of the high ask there doesn’t seem a lot of teams with current interest.
That’s true but there is no evidence one way or the other. I agree you need to know that to know for sure.
In other words, you want to wait out the market because Boras told you to? Good luck with that.
99: If you hire Boras, you probably will follow his advice. I just think Boras’ method of waiting helps the best players because they’re going to get their money no matter what. It’s the middle and lower level guys who are going to lose out.
That’s a lot of bidding wars for Boras and other agents to gin up this year. It’s a relatively lean free-agent class that is already starting to look a little picked over. My guess is that deals from now on will tend to come in below expectations, which I admit is a vague term depending on who’s doing the expecting.
In other words, I don’t look for wild wars like the Yamamoto free-for-all which drove his contract up way beyond early estimates. But we’ll see.
CaseyAbell: Then there’s the issue of a player overestimating their own value. One good season which came in the cubs bandbox of a stadium will not get Bellinger the mega-deal he’s looking for. When Montgomery realizes that, for some reason, he pitches better in Texas than he does in NY or St. Louis, he’ll take the Ranger’s money.
There are a few free agents left at the top of the list but they have some warts. Like Bellinger stinking it up in 2021 and 2022 and Snell sometimes walking the park and looking very ordinary in years when he doesn’t win the Cy Young.
As you move down the list of remaining free agents, there are some guys who might be nice to have but they don’t inspire you to smash the piggy bank to smithereens. But that one-word description of baseball still applies: you never know. It only takes one owner desperate to make a splash, and a free agent can land what looks like a stupid money contract.
Just chiming in to say that these types of writeups are my absolute favourite piece of non-news content that the site produces. Analyses on TV Deals, contract signing tendencies, and the other less “ESPN-friendly” parts of the business of baseball are articulated well and presented effectively. Kudos.
Same!
HC
“parts of the business of baseball are articulated well ”
Except this article completely drops the ball
It heavily implies (maybe it even days it, I’m not going to reread it) that waiting costs players money. But that can’t be proven given the data presented here
What kind of proven data do you want?
You will never know exact offers. Even leaked “offers” come clouded with wording that may be an implied offer, a spoken offer, a written offer, a conditional offer, deferred money, or “promises”.
On top of that, most info that is given is one sided from player/agent, or team.
People do with what they have.
It makes no sense to wait for info you will never have.
cad
“What kind of proven data do you want?
You will never know exact offers. Even leaked “offers” come clouded with wording that may be an implied offer, a spoken offer, a written offer, a conditional offer, deferred money, or “promises”.
On top of that, most info that is given is one sided from player/agent, or team.
People do with what they have.
It makes no sense to wait for info you will never have.”
Not sure if this was in response to me or not since the threading of comments sucks here
My point was that if site systemically over projects contracts, then that the Boras waiting contracts come in under projections means nothing
Do you have any proof that this site systemically over projects contract? There have definitely been cases were they projected less than what the player ended up getting.
Jfs92
“Do you have any proof that this site systemically over projects contract? There have definitely been cases were they projected less than what the player ended up getting.”
This is what happens when people whose understanding of science maxed out in middle school are let out into the wild.
No, I have no proof of that. I’m not saying that it’s the case. But, we also have no proof that their contract estimates are valid.
That their contract estimates are valid is prerequisite for this “analysis” to have any meaning.
It’s like taking a bottle of a specific brand of bottled water and seeing it boils at 98 degrees instead of 100 and saying there’s something weird with the water, but not boiling other types of water to realize that your thermometer is broken.
I never said they were valid. I simply asked if you could prove your point and you immediately went to insults. Considering it’s their literal jobs to do this sort of thing I’m guessing that their estimates were made with extensive research unlike your claims.
If you want to take shots at their analysis do the work.
Jfs92
“I simply asked if you could prove your point
…
unlike your claims
”
You completely missed the point because you don’t have even a high school level understanding of science.
My point WAS NOT, in any way, that MLBTR systematically over projects contracts. I made nothing that a reasonable person could interpret as a claim.
My point is that this analysis is total garbage because it doesn’t follow the most basic rule of having a control group.
This isn’t a science experiment. It’s a baseball article. Since we don’t have any record of what was offered and never will, MLBTR estimates are as good as anything else we could use.
It may not be scientific, but it’s interesting to look at which is the whole point. Given that you can’t produce anything better, maybe don’t criticize posts on a free site.
Also I graduated from College with 4.09 grade point average and have a 121 IQ so you can put that insult to bed.
Jfs92
‘This isn’t a science experiment. It’s a baseball article”
Again, just showing that you have zero understanding of what science is.
“MLBTR estimates are as good as anything else we could use.”
Sure. I have not said one thing that a reasonably intelligent person could construe as mynhaving said otherwise. But that on no way negates that the analysis used in the article is flawed.
Can you not see that if MLBTR consistently over projects contracts, they would be very likely to over project these contracts? That’s not a difficult thing to understand at all (note: this is not me saying that they over project contracts – just in case you couldn’t grasp that).
“Given that you can’t produce anything better”
You have no idea if that’s true or not. You actually, should know that it’s not true. I know enough about analysis to know that MLBTR’s analysis here sucks and that they need to control for any potential bias or error in their contract projections. They, however, don’t seem to know that. Or,they understand that their readers are mostly scientifically illiterate so they just don’t bother.
“maybe don’t criticize posts on a free site.”
Bad things should be criticized. And I didn’t just criticize,, I constructively criticized. I stated what was wrong and how to make it better.
“Also I graduated from College with 4.09 grade point average and have a 121 IQ so you can put that insult to bed.”
I don’t believe you. Not for a second.
Hi I am a data professional whose role involves regression and validation of statistical claims.
The actual focus of this article is which contracts were signed from this agent’s client base after a specific date. The sample selected is unassailable.
Given that the thesis of this article was not “Waiting costs Boras clients money”, I don’t see an issue with presenting some slightly unqualified color from other metrics when listing the deals that met the criteria. If I had my druthers, I would love to see some representation statistics on which percentage of Boras deals were done before or after the analysis date, and a comparison of contract estimate accuracy before and after the line. However, given that this data was provided as color as opposed to primary substance, and given that the tracker is linked and cited as the data source where further such analysis can be carried out, these ‘omissions’ have been handled appropriately.
Maybe you’re the one who is revealing the lack of depth within your understanding of how data is calculated, interpreted, and presented – however I’d never be so ignorant as to state that categorically based on the sample of a few moronic comment replies.
HC
“Given that the thesis of this article was not “Waiting costs Boras clients money””
That absolutely is not supported by the article
As a data professional, you should know that
Wait out the market, pass on never work again money, settle for a one year deal and get hurt…..
Filihok, no. It heavily implies that waiting COULD cost players money, not that it definitely DOES.
It says exactly what you’re pointing out. Right in the article. “It’s hard to know for sure without having details of those discussions, which don’t often come to light.”
All this article is doing is shining light on a well known conundrum, does Boras’ method work. And from the dat gathered, it has shown that sometimes it hasn’t. That’s all the article is saying.
Hamts
“And from the dat gathered, it has shown that sometimes it hasn’t. That’s all the article is saying.”
It doesn’t show that.
Remember in middle school, when you learned about the scientific method? Remember control groups?
There’s no control group here.
It MIGHT show that sometimes it hasn’t
But, it might show that MLBTR systematically over projects contracts.
There’s no way to know unless you see how all MLBTR projections compare to their actual contracts.
Well it’s not mentioned in this article, but it is IMPLYING that it hurts the player more often that doesn’t. A tiny small control group is Chapman turning down 120/6 from Bluejays only to sign for less. Also back in 2018 I am not sure of the EXACT number but this is a fact Kuechel & Boras turned down around a 5 year 95 mill deal AND the QO of 17.9 mil to sign for like 17 mil flat. If Snell ends up signing for less than 6/148 we know that’s what NYY last offer was that that beat “Rodons” contract. This last example isn’t really losing money but it didn’t gain to much either considering it took 2 different offseasons of negotiations to get, Correa signed with MIN for 6/200 the Astros offered him 5/160, 2 years previously lol. I would like to see some before & afters tho of we could ever get the previous best offers received pre Febuary then the compare to actual deal they ended up with.
I wish I had Scott Boras’s job, I would be eating steak every night instead of Spam, and driving a Lamborghini instead of a 1984 Buick LaSabre.
I’d have teeth…..
Bellinger, Snell, Montgomery and Chapman are better than all the guys, with the exception of Damon, Harper and JD Martinez. They are looking for a LOT of years AND a big number. None of them are Harper. Bellinger had one good year after several bad years. Snell is trying to cash in on his 2nd Cy Young but he has been average outside the 2 Cy Young years. Montgomery is trying to cash in big on last year with a limited starting track record. Chapman is all glove, serious HR power and that is it.
I can see them getting 1 to 3 year contracts at big money but NO ONE is going to give them 8+ years at 25+ years guaranteed.
In the past, it seems MLBTR was way way overestimating contracts and instead trying to run up prices for their favorite players. It seemed more like what they wanted guys to get paid instead of what they really would get. Harper, Machado, JD Martinez, and Holland are obvious examples.
Not enough likes/responses to my comment yet. I’m out of here.
I wonder if there was a way to do a heat map of off-season signings over the last 5-10 years.
Someone was very busy with the Google on the internet machine.
Here’s how it works. We’ll use a fictional player called, ummm, Slake Bnell. Teams think he’s worth $125MM. Scott says his client is worth $250MM. Player signs for $175MM. Fans say Boras overplayed his hand, but he got tens of millions more for his client.
And himself.
They should have hired the Superfife!
Enough nonsense!
Hire the Superfife!
Who is that? Does this person have references?
References are like badges.
If you insist, I can refer you to both God, Jesus, and my mother.
Berry Gordy Jr, Smokey Robinson and Bob Dylan, along with a whole slew of other MLBTR readers would prefer I be given the job.
Ask them.
Gordy because knows he can get a percentage
Robinson because he’s a nice guy
And Dylan because it’s good insurance, just in case his current job falls through……
is Boras on Trade Rumor’s payroll? Why does an agent get so much press here? He seems to be the only agent who gets this preferential treatment.
Wow, Boras is the topic of conversation on every hot stove show and in every hot stove article. This isn’t free publicity. It’s a very good article written for the majority of baseball fans who anxiously wait and hope their team signs a top free agent and know that Boras represents most of those top prospects.
13 guys repped by Boras + 11 teams waiting on the Diamond bk = slow off season.
Moose got massively screwed in 2018 by Boras.
It makes for a booooorrrring off season
Anybody can get a top tier player a great contract. Incrementally, Boras might get guys a bit more, but with a bit more agita too.
It’s guys like Spencer Turnbull who turned to Boras, who promptly ruined any hope that the Tigers would want to deal with him anymore. that get hurt.
Yeah, Boras got the Tigers to give Turnbull that extra year of service time, which he did not earn, so he gets to free agency sooner….but in the end makes him less signable by teams who don’t get any control of him after 1 year.
Watch what gets and where Turnbull ends up. I’m betting it won’t be pretty.
I have no love or hate for Boras. I don’t think this is the offseason for the waiting game. It may turn out to be musical chairs.
A lot of those deals stunk up the room and the players didn’t preform up to their contracts.
Walking DL list or just plain bad.
Mostly overrated players. Shouldn’t be in the majors in the first place. Let’s hope they sign in Japan or Korea.
Lengthy, expensive pitcher contracts almost never work out well. Scherzer on Washington is the only recent example I can think of that worked out. There have been some disastrous signings and I think Snell aka Boras is going to way overplay his hand. No one is giving Snell 7 years or $200 million plus.
Kershaw’s 7-year extension with the Dodgers is another one that was well worth the money.
Yankees are getting their money’s worth out of Cole so far.
But you are right in that the negative examples are more numerous.
Boras is the ugly person at the bar. At some point of desperation someone will come over and say hi. They can have each other. Meanwhile, plenty of teams have had it with this guy.
Thank God Dodgers tend to avoid Boras represented players.
Spoke too soon, but they have a manager who can’t win in the post either
Bore Ass!