2023 ended up being Juan Soto’s final year in San Diego, as the Padres swapped the star outfielder to the Yankees in a blockbuster deal last December. Given the Padres’ inconsistent play during their disappointing 82-80 season, there was plenty of trade buzz surrounding Soto during the year, and a trade began to look like more of a reality once reports filtered out after the season that San Diego was looking to reduce payroll.
However, some attempts were made to keep Soto in SoCal via a long-term extension. Agent Scott Boras told Jon Heyman of the New York Post that former Padres owner Peter Seidler had started to explore a multi-year deal last summer. “Peter called about wanting to pursue [Soto], and there were discussions about wanting to keep him. And unfortunately, it did not work out because of [Seidler’s] health,” Boras said.
Seidler passed away in November at age 63, leaving behind a huge legacy during his three-plus years as the Padres’ majority shareholder. Eager to bring San Diego its first World Series championship, Seidler turned the Padres into one of baseball’s biggest spenders. Players like Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, and Jake Cronenworth were all signed to pricey extensions, while Xander Bogaerts was signed to an 11-year, $280MM free agent contract.
Extending Soto would’ve required the biggest expenditure of them all, considering Soto’s youth and contractual situation. The three-time All-Star is set to hit free agency this upcoming winter (just after his 26th birthday), and has already posted numbers during his seven MLB seasons that indicate a future spot in Cooperstown. Soto already turned down a 15-year, $440MM extension offer from the Nationals in 2022 before Washington traded him to San Diego, and a big 2024 campaign in the Bronx will surely move his asking price even further into the stratosphere. Boras is sure to seek far beyond the deferral-influenced $460MM present value of Shohei Ohtani’s contract, and seek a new record guarantee in Soto’s next contract.
Ohtani’s deal with the Dodgers wasn’t yet a reality when Seidler and Soto’s camp talked last summer, though it wouldn’t have been surprising if a mega-deal had been reached. As Heyman puts it, “Seidler did everything to win without regard to payroll or tax,” and “some connected to the team say they believe a Soto deal in San Diego would have gotten done had Seidler lived.” There is also the interesting detail that the early discussions might’ve been limited to Seidler himself, as Heyman writes that “the talks were kept quiet at the time (even to folks around the team).”
Negotiating directly with owners has been a common move for Boras over the years in finding big contracts for his clients, and the agent has explained the tactic by simply noting that since the owners are the ones ultimately signing off on the huge deals, why not talk directly to the person signing the checks? Unsurprisingly, front office executives and even rival owners haven’t always been impressed with this strategy, as it can be seen as an agent bypassing the usual methods of negotiating with a GM or president of baseball operations (who might have qualms about signing a Boras client for various reasons). It isn’t known if Padres president of baseball ops A.J. Preller knew about Seidler’s talks with Boras, or even if Preller would’ve had any objections — Preller is a famously aggressive exec in his own right, and surely would’ve welcomed having Soto remain a Padre for years to come.
Extending Soto would’ve added yet another big contract to the Padres’ books, and complicated the plans to reduce payroll that were reportedly in the works well before Seidler’s passing. The Padres ended up cutting payroll rather drastically in going from $254.5MM in 2023 to around $167.2MM at the start of the 2024 season (all figures via RosterResource), plus San Diego has now gotten under the luxury tax threshold after surpassing the tax line in each of the previous three years.
Meh…in the past.
Also gives an indication of what is likely to happen in the future. Soto turned down more than a half billion from Seidler. Think about that when you start looking forward to what Soto’s contract demands will be when he becomes a FA at the end of the season.
Probably Dodger deferrals until 2060.
Will be interesting. Given he doesn’t also pitch, to me the AAV Ohtani deal (present value) is not doable but add in a couple of years for age.
web, where did you read that “Soto turned down more than half a billion dollars from Seidler?” I don’t think I’ve seen that.
I suspect Web is guessing as that info was never reported, GBS.
Scott Boras once again flails in front of the MLB media, desperate for attention after a humbling offseason. This is the definition of a ‘nothingburger’ statement. Juan Soto gets off to a great start with the Yankees and he somehow decides to indignantly—and randomly—puff his chest out with hot air. Absolutely pathetic.
He’s working for his client. Soto is going to be a free agent after the season and he’s setting the ground work.
Fan – True, but speaking of alleged conversations with someone that is no longer around to confirm or deny … sure seems like a slimy attempt at fabrication to help him build Soto’s market.
he’s already fabricating stories in the media to drum up interest for his clients, I wouldn’t be surprised if he lied on someone’s grave as well.
Should be fun after the season to see if a) Cohen has a no limit purse, b) if Henry will truly open his and c) what surprise teams (Texas, Houston, Philadelphia, etc.) will look to make it hard on the Yankees. Cou
dewey – I think for the most part there will be too many factors that can’t be predicted.
As for Henry, it will all depend on this year’s revenue. After experiencing a $30M drop in organic revenue last year, this year could be far worse. Injuries will play a HUGE part as the Sox have virtually no depth and are not likely to spend at the deadline.
Juan Soto gets off to a great start
=========================
Is it a great start? One HR in 29 ABs is 21 per 600 ABs.
My guess is that Boras doesn’t want to go thru the “Boras 4” again, and might want to sign sooner rather than later.
I’ll be surprised if Soto surpasses the Ohtani contract. The marketing value isn’t close.
Nowhere near dude. The Ohtani contract drives Soto’s up, but nowhere near those levels..
He turned down 15 years at $35-36 million. He wants $43+ million AAV. Its going to be $600 million.
Guarantee Soto ends up less than 600m unless he has an mvp year.
If you think you can guarantee that, then you aren’t paying attention.
He can want $600 million all he wants, but that doesn’t mean he’ll get it.
Negative he turned down 440/15 which is $29.3 million avv far too low and reason why rejected.
Easy to say this when the person he’s referring to has past. There is no way the padres would have signed him to a 500+ mil dollar contract, regardless of the health of Seidler.
I could see the padres offering 17 years for 500 million before. Getting Soto to 41 or 42.
And it really is possible the padres try to sign free agent Soto next year, after reseting the tax penalties, Hosmer contract coming off the books, and possibly a better tv deal.
But neither the padres, nor anybody else, wants Soto long term for 40mil+ AAV.
Do you mean 12 years, given your math.
Helus were pushed out as owners.
Alfred Harp Helu was a significant part of the ownership group with the capital to sign Soto.
Yes, the Padres could have signed Soto.
I’m not doubting Boras had discussions. What I think remains to be seen is if the Owners have successfully changed valuations with the last off-season. If the new math means calculating the “after tax” dollar, then the numbers of suitors is likely to be fewer. I think the Yankees will bid, but let’s say $50MPV AAV is the price…for the Yankees (and Mets and Dodgers that’s $110M. I doubt any team would pull the trigger on that,
Both the Yankees and Mets will be under the first CBT threshold after the season. Not sure either team will go pass the Cohen threshold again.
The Ohtani contract costs the Dodgers a 110% penalty this year, so even using the $46 million AAV number he cost them $101.2 million for 2024.
The Dodgers make $1B off their wholly owned stadium alone. They are flush with cash, from annual revenue, and ownership has almost unlimited additional resources to draw upon. However, they aren’t stupid people, and won’t spend more than they need to to keep the Dodgers competitive.
If, for example, the Dodgers want Soto, they’ll have him, unless Soto (as previously reported) really prefers the East Coast, and takes a lower offer for that type of reason.
The Dodgers sold 3,8 million tickets at an average of $52.76 per ticket. They were 2nd in MLB in sponsorship revenue and that was less than $50 million. They don’t sell naming rights to the stadium. They don’t even get parking money from Chavez Ravine.
Where the Dodgers made the most money was from their TV deal which pays them $8 billion over 25 years.
Their total revenue was around $700 million.
As a morally strong human being..If Boras is lying about this to trying to secure a pay day for his clients, how would you feel about that?
Boras is an attorney. I expect it so I have no feelings about it.
Yeah you do dude. Tell the truth. How would you feel about it? No attorney/client privilege here.
I’m serious. I’ve learned life is more peaceful with managed expectations. I might be angry if I were related to Seidler. I’m not and I do expect that kind of thing from people like Boras. Why would I be upset about it? I wish the world was a better place. It’s not.
If Boras lied, he would not be so effective of an agent. You can’t sell anything if the buyer doesn’t trust you.
Lol, talk about naive! Yeah, Boras lies, not always, he’s not a psycho or sociopath, but he’ll “shade the truth” whenever it suits him. He’ll “leak” details to the press regarding confidential negotiations. He’ll misrepresent. The GM’s know who and what they’re dealing with. Just like those who some years back insisted that Preller was such a “dirty” GM, that no one in the league would deal with him.
When it comes to baseball, and a target resource that a team wants or needs, GM’s will deal with anyone, including agents who have a reputation for being a “tough negotiator”, a.k.a. dishonest. If Boras has the cookie a GM wants/needs, the GM will deal with Boras, but it doesn’t mean that they trust him at all.
A leak is not a lie.
If the owner of a team doesn’t trust you, he won’t buy what the agent is selling and that is the players services at a certain price. Boras is the best agent in the game precisely because the owners and the players he represents know he DOESN’T lie. They trust him and you don’t gain trust by lying. Period.
There is no but or further explanation or attempt to say otherwise. No amount of negativity on your part will make that basic fact of human interaction different.
“Know he doesn’t lie”…Scott Boras is a habitual liar and was obviously lying when he told the Mets that both Carlos Correa and Kumar Rocker were “fully healthy”. Correa’s health is far from certain and of course Kumar Rocker underwent Tommy John surgery just months after Scott Boras declared him “fully healthy”.
@web The owners absolutely don’t trust Boras. They negotiate with him because they have to to get the players they want.
If the owners didn’t trust Boras, he would not be the top agent. He would never have become the top guy unless they trusted him. He didn’t always have the top clients. The bottom line is you don’t do business with people you don’t trust. Its a necessary component of business and the larger the deals get, the more trust you have to have built up.
Not the case. But you thinking so shows that YOU are a habitual liar that thinks other people are like you.
@web You do if they have an asset you want enough. Agents are secondary. It’s the player teams are after.
When you go on a job interview, do you say “I am looking for $xxx (high), even though you would gladly take 15% less?
Or if you are selling four $500K house, do you ask for $500k, or do you ask for $550-600k?
The owners lie about how little they make owning the team, whatever it takes to sucker a community (really, its politicians) into giving them hundreds of millions of dollars for a new ballpark.
When you look at the Braves and Blue Jays public annual stockholders report and realize that they are both bringing in more than $500 million in revenue each the last 3 years and think about the fact that neither team is in the top 5 in overall revenue, just how much revenue the top teams are bringing in is staggering.
No team was lower than $250 million in 2023. Including the A’s, Rays, Marlins, and Pirates. That is staggering too considering the goal in the negotiations for the last CBA by the MLBPA was to increase player salaries from 37% overall closer to 50%.
I never understood some of the signs for $$ amounts they made anyway. Giving Bogey 280m, when it was rumored Boston was “close” on a deal only slightly less than 200m, then after Machado opted out nearly halfway thru his deal, going right back and ending up on the hook for another 300m deal with him.
They knew Soto was approaching FA and he was much better than both, why not work on one of the top 3 guys in the game long term 1st?
Teams sometimes are hard to figure, Dombrowski was always good at this.. Miami, Detroit, boston and Philly. He may have destroyed farm systems, but he knew the core guys to try and retain and who to flip/allow to walk. Some my 2c really are clueless.
Machado didn’t even opt put. He had another year left before the opt out. Padres went insane that offseason.
Machado said that he intended to opt out the following offseason. There was no question that he would be opting out if the Padres had not extended him.
Yep, even if Machado had desired to stay in S.D. over any other club or location, business is business. If the Pads hadn’t offered him an extension with more money, he’d have been “gone like Elvis”. Sometimes that stuff comes back to bite a player, kinda like Profar. Profar would have been ahead in just about every category, including money, if he had not exercised his opt out clause. However, Profar wasn’t Manny. Profar (or his agent) overestimated the market.
Besides, Manny’s already a $millionaire many times over. The “downside” for him if the Padres had not extended him was pretty minimal. He would still have landed on another competitive team, and he has enough money that he could afford a private jet to fly him to Miami whenever he had an off day. Profar, and guys of his level, opting out of guaranteed money is a heck of a roll of the dice, IMHO.
He ultimately had a bad enough year and an elbow surgery that likely would have persuaded him to opt in. Regardless, the Padres gave him $350 million one year before free agency. Even with another MVP level year he would have struggled to get $350 million as a true free agent.
@web Let him.
If Manny had another MVP level year he would have been looking at the same AAV as Judge or very close to that. Not
$31.8 million AAV. A $400-$440 million deal.
@web But he didn’t.
Goose, You have a crystal ball that let you know that in advance? You think that Preller has one? GMAB
Yes.
Does it surprise anyone that Boras communicated this through John Heyman? And why now? Neither Soto nor Seidler are in SD, so the point of the story is almost… What would’ve happened had Seidler lived, I suppose?
And, is there really a team owner outside of Miami, the A’s and maybe one other that *wouldn’t* discuss an extension with a generational hitter that is set to hit FA at 25?
It’s ALWAYS Heyman—Boras’ mouthpiece
Don’t we all know that Soto has had zero interest in signing an extension?
Putting pieces together here Clip, and it almost seems Machiavellian of Preller to dip below the CBT… in a concerted effort to pursue Soto… perhaps? I surely don’t know what’s going to happen, but that would be kinda sweet after netting all those Yankee arms (and Cease!)
Aloha brah!
I like the way you think, Gwynning. They certainly could do that.
Gwynning – I think the idea of resetting for a target FA has to be the plan – the Dodgers did it for Ohtani. However, I’m not convinced it will be for Soto. The young SP projected to be posted from overseas maybe? No matter who, they will be bidding on Soto and others after the reset. Losing Hosmer $$ after 2025 will effectively work toward another reset then even if they do go over in 2025.
Cease and King will fall off and be replaced by cheaper Lesko and Snelling to add to that equation.
They should have money to spend the next 2 off seasons if needed. If the class of 2025 prospects pan out, they may not even need to spend then!
If posted, and just like Ohtani originally, Roki Sasaki will be held to the International money provided by a team. This is to say, he won’t be able to command a top dollar FA contract. You might be right in saying it is an intended strategy- the only question is for whom? I doubt it’s a FA arm (Bieber, Burnes, etc.) with so many top Padre farmhand pitchers about to hit MLB. Who else is available post-’24? Fun speculation! Cheers fellas, have a great weekend
Could be Kim even! If the prospects pan out (just 2 out of 4) we won’t need any SP next year. If 1 out of 4 top OF prospects is an impact CF, won’t need OF.
If Kim leaves, Jake to 2b, Merrill to SS, Marsee to CF.
How about 2 years on Goldschmidt for 1b?
Alonso even?
If Kim leaves, Bogaerts to SS.
I was also in “negotiations” last year to date a world famous pop singer.
That fell through also when she met, of all things, a football player!
Sigh…..
Hey! It could happen!
You’re still alive so there is always a chance! GL!
There was a poster on here, I think it was “PadsFan” (?) who was adamant that the Padres had tried to extend Soto. This was before he was traded to the Yankees when most Padres fans were poo-pooing all the talk of payroll reduction that was in the cards Nobody believed him. PadsFan is now vindicated.
How is he vindicated when he said (from multiple accounts) that Soto was guaranteed to sign an extension just because he supposedly bought a house in Coronado next door to Manny Machado? And then muted everyone who disagreed with him lol.
The Pads fans know that Soto was a dog last season. I’m surprised anyone signed him after that performance, or more to the point, lack of performance. He was absolutely abysmal in Left Field; didn’t even try. Then, by some stroke of magic, he’s become boy wonder for the Yanks. Gotta wonder what the hell happened in San Diego. Or maybe he just wanted to play for a real team. Regardless, San Diego wants their money back.
Soto was awful against Arizona after a great opening series. I’m beginning to see why Pads fans were not too upset when he was traded.
This is why I don’t believe Yankees go near Soto’s price tag. They will make an offer to see if he really enjoys being a Yankee and accepts less but that’s wishful thinking. Soto is a very good player but no way on Betts, Acuna or even Judge level who are better all around players. If Soto puts up say .275/37/109 with 100 walks I do believe Dominquez will put up similar numbers albeit far less walks but superior defense and 20 SB’s all for mlb minimum $730k. Add Jones in another year or 2 who looks incredible will also put up excellent numbers as well. One is a switch hitter and the other a lefty! My point here the team is better, more payroll flexibility and can focus on pitching. Sorry but I dont see Soto with Yankees long term.
Yeah, but it’s also a contract year for Juan Soto. I know there are debates as to whether players perform better during contract years, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s the case with Soto, Torres, and a few others. They want those big dollars and I’m certain that Boras/Soto are eyeing the Ohtani deal as a barometer for Soto.
Soto didn’t perform well against AZ; but, I have to say, his defense has impressed me. I didn’t expect him to perform as well as he has defensively. Naturally, his offense will be good this year.
He gets a bad rap because he’s not graceful to watch, but for a bat first guy (or, a walk first guy) his defense is serviceable.
Serviceable is debatable. He will get worse as he ages too. In a perfect world he’s your dh.
nosake,
Soto was, once again, one of the best players in baseball last year.
Must have been on the day I wasn’t watching.
You mean the entire season?
Mega contracts seem to come in waves. There’s just been a huge wave of them. Soto will never get the money he seeks. He’ll be lucky to get what the National’s offered him.
A fool and their money will soon part
Thank the gods Seidler died when he did. If he signed Soso that to that deal and then died afterward, the Padres would’ve been hamstrung. I can only imagine the commissioner’s office stepping in three or four years from now to take over the club until a suitable buyer could be found.
Crikey, what a terrible thing to say bruv. Go to bed.
Yup, that was a pretty Machiavellian kind of comment. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, that he wasn’t happy that Seidler passed, but that he didn’t leave the Padres with a “Soto” sized payroll problem. But, per my post below, I disagree with the entire premise, that the Padres 2024 financial retrenchment would not have happened if Seidler were alive. I have to assume that he as his partner were in close contract, particularly as Seidler became ill, and that Kutsenda executed an already agreed upon plan for 2024.
I get ticked about all those (pros and fans) writing that Seidler was dying, out of control, and had no idea what he was doing, so the “adults” stepped in after his passing and cleaned up his mess. NOTHING he ever did in his life, characterized that kind of behavior. That stuff is almost as bad as CrickesAlready’s comment.
I guarantee PS kept Preller in the loop. For the record, I’m about 50/50 that Seidler would have still been full throttle… but all in all, the CBT reset was the smart thing to do given all the circumstances. Cheers Salty
I differ in opinion with almost everyone (i.e. sports writers). I DO NOT believe that Seidler was out of step with his GM and other owners. All the writers out there describe Seidler as some sort of crazy rich man, spending $millions he was going to lose on baseball. To the contrary, the retrenchment of 2024 was ALWAYS intended, maybe more so not because of Seidler’s passing, but because (a) they lost their TV contract ($50M), (b) because they missed the playoffs (maybe $50M lost), and (c) because of both of those things, they took on debt at the end of the season, which the MLB claimed put them out of compliance with league rules. (d), Of course, what the penalties involved with a third or fouth time offender. Resetting the Lux tax penalties to zero was, I am certain, always in the cards.
Second, I don’t believe a WORD that Boras says. Just because Seidler talked money and extensions with Boras, doesn’t mean that the Pads intended to automatically extend him if Boras & Soto’s unknown magic number was hit. Trading him last fall made a lot of financial sense, the same financial sense that Seidler would have approved. I don’t think he and his partner were again, out of step. Seidler proved in business and his personal life, that he strategically knew how to make a dollar.
I agree with @Gwynning that Eric Kutsenda and Preller may very well be in on a potential Soto deal. However, that, as Schildt likes to emphasize, is “situational”. If the Padres offense, perhaps with a couple of rookies and/or prospects coming on strong, will they really NEED Soto, or would that money be better spent on other needs, like a genuine 1b (though Cronie is doing great, he’s worth more as a 2B, and I think he eventually gets traded when his performance reclaims his value). Or, on pitching. Personally, pitching is SO important that I’d rather invest in that every year, when spending FA money, while the Padres have the 5-tool kind of guys they already have on the roster. I’d rather they spent “Soto’s money” on extending Kim. Maybe it’s because I saw Soto on a couple of down years, that I don’t value him at Ohtani money. He was a one dimensional player on the Padres. Supar defense, he’s an average runner at best, and in my opinion, anyone who buys 10+ years of Soto is buying a DH for most of those years.
Honestly, I lay a lot of the problems with the 2023 Padres at the feet of Hader and Soto, two guys playing for themselves from day one, who were focused on their big payday over either their teammates or their fans. I’m glad Houston got Hader, and that he’s no longer a Padre. They were everything I’d prefer my team avoid, which is also why I’m delighted that they didn’t pay for a Pham return. Same kind of guy.
OldSalt, you have a lot to say. Not saying I agree or disagree but as verbose as you are (and I mean that in a good way), please pony up the $30 and buy your way onto this site. The owners could use the money and it just makes you all the more respectable.
I do agree with you wholeheartedly about Hader and Soto.
It’s impossible for the first and Soto trade to have both made sense.
The game needs more Seidlers and fewer Fishers.
The game needs an even playing field before it is too late a lot more. A floor as well as a ceiling.
Greed is ruining this great game.
Newsflash- greed ruins everything it gets its grubby paws on.
Hopefully Cohen “steals” Soto from the Yankees next winter so they don’t have another anchor contract on their books. Also, Soto is not 25. More like 29 or 30.
Soto had a great series against the Astros, then disappeared (1 for 12) against the Dbacks. This guy is not worth $450 million, nevermind the totally ridiculous numbers being thrown around in the media.
I, personally,hope he walks after 2024 and the Yankees use that $ to go after a couple of top pitchers.
Dont worry Soto not returning. Given Hal’s frugal ways and refusal to sign Yamamoto for more than Cole rest assured they wont blow past Judge $40 avv which is going to be Soto main target at a minimum over 13-14 yrs. I just don’t see Yankees going more than 13/500 which is $38 avv annually
Hal may be a lot of things, but he’s not frugal. Their payroll is around $310 million
Soto already turned down more than that.
As a RS fan, I’d prefer they follow Websurfer and give Soto $600M/15. I just cannot see that working out.
Soto is 25. He will get $600 million..
Good try Scott Boras, but this attempt to divert attention away from your massive failures this winter by presenting a story, that can’t be verified, isn’t going to work.
Everything I’ve heard re: Seidler and Soto are true. It hurts that Peter died and we had to trade him. It hurts that we extended Manny and X first. But Peter was just getting his friends paid before he left.
I think without him, the padres probably have no Tatis, Manny, or X and are probably running out a Pirates like Payroll. Tatis is probably in his walk year.
Instead, franchise value and attendance are at an all time high. It looks like they can support a payroll around 10th in the league.
All things considered, I’ll take where we are now.
Should have never traded for Soto at all and then just tried to sign him as a FA.
Seidler was the worst thing to ever happen to the Padres. I said what I said.
They averaged ~ 40,000 for a Mon-Tue-Wed series v StL. I suspect that SDP fans might disagree.
Ask me if I care what a bunch of casual fans who unironically think Wil Myers was ever good think.
This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever read on this site.
Without Seidler the padres would have remained bottom 5 in the league in payroll, and would never have tested the limits on their revenue potential.
The team knows this market can support a top third payroll moving forward because of his guts.
100% spot on.
I’d have bet he was wrong, no doubt. But he wasn’t. I’d like to know the change in franchise value before and after.
Of course, Cohen tried the same thing, to no avail. So time will tell.
@Well that’s a silly thing to say. Of course they wouldn’t have remained a bottom 5 payroll without Seidler. They might not have spent like drunken sailors but they could have easily been somewhere around rank 10 in payroll without Seidler. Overpaying all your buddies before you kick the bucket and leaving your successor to clean up the mess is no way to run a baseball team. Nor is trading your whole farm that you spent years building up for one player to try and “gain the inside track on an extension.” Nor is extending a bad GM for 6 years because the team made the playoffs once in a 60-game season when the bad GM in question already had 2 years left on his contract.
Seems like you would have preferred a combo of moorad and billy eppler
Nope. Prefer what the Braves/Orioles have done.
The Yankees have this set up well. By the time they are done grossly overpaying Stanton they will be grossly overpaying Judge. Then by the time that deal runs out after 2031 they will be grossly overpaying Soto.
I respect Boros and his does a very good job for his clients.
However, doing an “end run” around a Team’s hired professional Front Office baseball Executives can lead to unintended consequences.
Example, Scott Boros developed a personal relationship with former Tigers Owner Mike Illitch.
Boros had the former Tigers Owner’s personal cell phone number.
Boros would often call Illitch directly and try to “offload” many of his high priced free agent stars thru “the back door” and a “separate decision-making channel”
outside the Front Officer team decision-making structure.
The Detroit Tigers already had a hired professional Front Office “decision maker” at that time and he was President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski. who had his own plan to build a pennant contender.
Dave Dombrowski was given an yearly spending budget by Mike Illitch.
And, Dombrowski knew what kind of players he needed for a playoffs roster.
However, that did not stop Scott Boros from going outside the Tigers chain of command and selling Illitch on signing slugging free agents like Prince Fielder for top dollars.
There were many more players like that signed directly by Ilitch with Boros without consulting Dave Dombrowski in advance;
And, Illitch did not allocate even more dollars for Dombrowski to fill needed holes on the team after using the budget money on players Dombrowski told the press he was not interested in signing like Prince Fielder who Dombrowski thought was not a fit for that Tigers team.
And, the contending Tigers would end up with a team with 4-5 very large DH type players who could hit, but some of those guys had to play defense in the field and not too well I might add.
That lead to the Tigers fielding one of the leagues worst defensive teams including Miguel Cabrera @ 3rd base
And, Illitch would spend away money that Dombrowski had budgeted
to fill other holes on the Tigers team like the bullpen.
But, after Ilitch dropped a few expensive, very large DHs on the Tigers team without consulting Dombrowski in advance, the budget money for the bullpen would be all “spent out”.
So Dombrowski would be forced to go “dumpster diving” to try to “patch other holes” on the Tigers team.
Boras’s creative “end arounds” Dombrowski and the Tigers Front office
left some gaping holes in the Tigers teams and, very likely, cost them 1 or 2 World Series Championships because the lacked a dominant closer could have used a speedy leadoff guy instead of another few very large, slow DH types who were marginal fielders.
And all those very large contracts and crazy contract extensions for declining, older veteran players issued by Mike Ilitch?! ?! Many of those deals were issued by Mike Illitch that handcuffed the team for a long time after Mike went to that big ballpark in the sky.
So Padres fans, be thankful that former Padres Owner ,Peter Seidler, did not sign a few more of those Scott Boras franchise busting, mega contract extensions that would have been unsustainable over time in that smaller San Diego market and would have seen AJ shopping for pitching and a CF @ baseball flea markets.
Rumor has it that Boras dealt with Ilitch and the Orioles owner when they were in less than pristine mental capacity.
Stop *clap* trying *clap* to *clap* include *clap* Ha-Seong *clap* Kim *clap* in *clap* your *clap* trade *clap* proposals *clap* for *clap* other *clap* teams’ *clap* best *clap* players *clap* if *clap* they *clap* are *clap* trading *clap* those *clap* dudes *clap* they *clap* would *clap* have *clap* zero *clap* interest *clap* in *clap* a *clap* pending *clap* free *clap* agent *clap*
Your computer malfunctioning?!