Jason Varitek And Draft Pick Compensation

Boras is an idiot

You ever think that it was the players choice to bypass arbitration? You do realize that Boras is just an agent right? The best agent in the business.

Boras can give all the advice he wants, its up to the PLAYER to take it or not. If Boras is an idiot, Tek is a bigger one for listening to him.

Why wouldn't the Yankees sign Juan Cruz? He's coming off 2 straight very good seasons as a reliever. He walks too many guys, but he strikes out a ton and doesn't give up many hits. The market for him is depressed because of his Type A status, but at this point, what would the Yanks have to give up, a 4th round pick?

But Scooter has a good point. The Yankees are in a good position to be a good Type-A sign and trade (or just sign) team. I think Tim linked to an article that mentioned something like this last week.

BigScooter, I agree with you. Cruz could really improve the Bullpen and they would only lose a 4th rounder. Their isn't much competition from other teams b/c of he is a Type A FA.

Technically a team can't trade a player signed in the offseason until June, but I'm pretty sure the player can waive that.

On the day I saw the news about the Tek decision, it seemed like a stunningly awful decision.

Scooter brushed across a possible solution for Tek (although he was suggesting it from Cruz). If a team that had already signed a few other type A guys with higher Elias ratings than Tek, they'd sacrifice a low pick.

However, the number of teams in this situation is low, and the number needing an aging catcher is even lower. The Yankees already have Posada, so I can't imagine they're in a hurry to add another graybeard backstop.

Varitek has gone against Boras's advice in the past. His last contract with the Sox was for less money than S.B. wanted him to get, but he did it to stay in Boston.

The choice to decline arbitration certainly hasn't worked out and it was a gamble from the beginning, but I'm not on board with saying it was idiotic. I think that 'Tek legitimately believed that he could get another 2-4 year hitch with the Sox.

Times like this are kind of frustrating as a Sox fan. On the one hand, I have a great sentimental connection to the players. On the other, I totally appreciate that Theo has ice water in his veins when it comes to those attachments. He's out to make the team better, sentimentality be damned.

Last time I checked, the Yankees still could move Posada to DH and sign Tek- screwing the Sox both by grabbing their 'leader' but also by only having to give up a 4th round pick as compensation (Tex 1, Sabathia 2, Burnett 3).

Most likely however is Tek accepting a 1 yr incentive laiden deal with the Sox that could push him over the 10M mark but only has a base of 5-7M or so...

Tigers would make some sense- as would the Royals (Tek would go along way to helping groom Greinke/Hochevar types)

Tony-

I don't think the Tigers would be interested after trading for Gerald Laird earlier this off-season.

I think the Royals are tapped out financially. I think they would need to trade Jose Guillen's contract and I dont't see that happening in this economic climate.

"mets should contact boras about a value meal/package deal

Ollie
Varitek
Manny

if they get all 3, they get a discount! Like gettin the fries for free at Wendys!

Posted by: bigchart333 | January 14, 2009 at 09:16 AM"

thats not the way it works. if you sign one player you dont get a discount on another player. for one id be pissed if i was the player getting the "discounted" contract.

If a team signs them to a minor league deal would they avoid the loss of a draft pick??

Also, if the player goes unsigned for period of time, at what point does the signing team not loss the draft pick??

boras screwed jason, but is that really his fault? varitek couldve taken the arbitration against boras wishes and didnt, he probably couldve gotten a nice 1 maybe even 2 year deal from the sox for decent money and didnt, he couldve come to terms on a deal before the season ended (which probably wouldve been the best idea for both parties), but no, he turned all that down and now he is a free agent in an unfriendly market in an awful economy and he came up his worst offensive year ever. You cant blame boras, this one falls solely on Jason, if he was such a great leader like we thought, he would have taken charge of his own life and made a smarter decision

jason should fire boras for how he handled tex, he obviously put all his focus onto him because he was going to make him the most money and put his other free agents, even manny, on the back burner until he got enough money HE could be satisfied with.

"I was playing pool at the same pool hall that the red sox scouts were having a reception."

And I heard from Sully at the corner store down in Somerville that the Sox were about to trade Buchholz for Mauer straight up.

Seriously? A pool hall? Try harder, man.

"Last time I checked, the Yankees still could move Posada to DH and sign Tek- screwing the Sox both by grabbing their 'leader' but also by only having to give up a 4th round pick as compensation (Tex 1, Sabathia 2, Burnett 3)."

How is signing a catcher who's numbers have been in the toilet for three consecutive seasons and can't throw runners out worth a damn "screwing" anyone but oneself? You want him, go nuts. A fourth round draft pick is STILL worth more than Varitek at this point.

Beyond that, let's not forget that there's the remote possibility that Burnett could very well be ranked lower than Varitek on the Elias rankings, thus bumping the Blue Jays to a fourth round pick and giving the Sox the Yankees' third rounder.

the red sox should just offer jason varitek a job somewhere in the red sox organization, hes ready to move on to the next step, whatever that may be

"Actually Glen, that supposedly happened in 07 with Dice-K taking a discount if the Sox signed JD Drew at his asking price. "

Really? Dice-K got a $50M contract from the ONLY team allowed to negotiate with him. That's a discount? For a pitcher who had never thrown a major or minor league pitch? And had the deal not been signed, Dice-K would have been back in Japan making MUCH less than $50M.

"Really? Dice-K got a $50M contract from the ONLY team allowed to negotiate with him. That's a discount? For a pitcher who had never thrown a major or minor league pitch? And had the deal not been signed, Dice-K would have been back in Japan making MUCH less than $50M."

IMO, even at the time, 6 years/52M is a pretty nice bargain when you look at just the actual contract and not the posting fee.

I think a couple of things factor in with Varitek.

a) No one could've foreseen just how bad the economy would effect FA spending this year.

b) Never have I seen the value of a 1st rnd pick be so stressed this year. When you have teams like the Brewers who are on the cups of being contenders again last year saying how they won't be factors in signing a FA SP because they don't want to lose their 1st rnd pick says a lot.

I truly feel that Boras could not have realisticaly expexted to get a team to cough up "Posada" type money. When teams pass on a guy like Varitek who offers so much more than offense at such a premium position it's hard to imagine he can't even get offers for a 1 year deal. It leads me to really believe it's this emphasis on a 1st rnd pick. Therefor, I see the Orioles being the most likely destination for Varitek since their pick would be protected. A 1 year deal provding direction and grooming for Weiters.

I work in the entertainment biz and deal with managers/agents all the time. The acts I hate to deal with the most are "mediocre" or "has beens" who are being represented by the big name agents. That agent is living in the past and negotiating as if the act, or in Boras/Teks case, the player is still in his prime. IMO, Boras was the absolute worst agent to represent Tek going into this contract year. Boras is great at getting the marquee players top dollar but has no "touch" on how to work his 2nd and 3rd tier clients. ALso, those guys tend to end up on the back burner until the bigger clients find a home. When I hear a 2nd tier act I want is rep'd by someone like William Morris Agency, my conversation ends right there and I tend to move on to whoever is next on the list. Not worth the trouble. Lowe should consider himself lucky that the Braves were so vigorous in their desire not to be shut out against another big FA this year and willing to blow the Met's offer away.

As we see what is going on at the moment Zaun has more value then Varitek even for mentoring for the Orioles. You have to have at least a sign of some offense. Puttting millions of dollars for a catcher that call a good game is just not worth it.

People need to understand:

1. Boras' asking price is NOT what he realistically expects to land for players. His asking price is always high and gets negotiated down. This helps fans and teams feel like they got over on Boras. Meanwhile, the team still paid overmarket costs to acquire the player.

2. If Boras gave the Sox a "deal" on Dice-K (6 years - $100m, some deal) because they signed Drew he would be in violation of his agent agreement. It may have been rumored but there is nothing to suggest this happened. I doubt Boras OR the Red Sox would want liability in a collusion case over a few million bucks of salary.

Varitek probably wanted out of Boston and figured clubs would give him 3 years 40 million like Posada got last year.

Posada blows out his shoulder and was worth nothing last year. I think clubs realize old catchers who can't hit have zero value and Theo knew Tek would never agree to arbitration due to the pride factor.

Theo put gave him arbitration for draft picks. With Borass as agent knew he would not accept it.

"Or the fact that he's posted the following season and runs into the same situation."

That wasn't a concern. If a posted player is not signed, they return to Japan for one season and are then designated as free agents. If Daisuke was not signed, he would've been granted free agency for the 2008 season. This put the Sox in a pretty desperate position too, since the Yankees highly coveted Matsuzaka and their pitching was an even bigger mess going into 2008 than it was before this offseason. If the negotiations fell through, 2008 would have had a bidding war over him.

"If a posted player is not signed, they return to Japan for one season and are then designated as free agents."

No, you're incorrect. They remain with their Japanese team until their contract expires.

http://mopupduty.com/index.php/japanese-posting-process-explained/

Boras can give all the advice he wants, its up to the PLAYER to take it or not. If Boras is an idiot, Tek is a bigger one for listening to him.

Posted by: yankeegirl49 | January 14, 2009 at 09:15 AM

I think you're 100% correct that it is the player who is ultimately responsible for making career decisions. But Boras is one of the greatest used car salesman of all time. He's a borderline hypnotist at times. The guy can talk team owners into paying elite money for less-than elite players. If he can word the owners like that, I'm sure he can work the players equally well. Tek is responsbile for making the final call, but Boras has an amazing track record of success and he can be very convincing....I'm sure he flattered the pants off of Tek. Remember the story about the Fox and the Crow with the cheese?

Even if you have a protected pick, Varitek is such a scrub, signing him isn't worth your second round pick + a free supplementary pick going the way of the red sox.

"In this market you can be sure that theo's offering Tek 1 yr. at 3-5 million max. Theo is not one to give away extra cash out of respect like the Evil Empire does so people here are delusional when they say Tek will be offered 7-10 million to save face."

That's odd, you used respect with the term "Evil Empire". Does that mean the Great Empire formally known as the Boston Red Sox don't show "respect" to their players.

I might say though, the way the red sox operate is the smarter business decision. The Yankees have been burned in the past with the signing decisions they make out of "respect" to their players. With that said, there is something about rewarding the players who brought you championships.

Also, that whole evil empire tag that was placed on the Yankees by the sore loser Larry Luc. is utter bs. They were just pissed that they didn't sign Contreras (lucky for them btw) even though THEY were the ones who bought out ALL the rooms in the hotel that Contreras was staying in just so no one else could have a shot of signing Contreras. Sounds like a bunch of hypocrites to me.

It's still hard for me to believe that Boras wanted Tex to go to the Yankees. The best case scenario for Boras would be for Tex to sign with the Red Sox.

Signing with the Yankees completely kills the market for Manny.

I'm way more inclined to think that because Henry was trying to be slick (ala Dice-K negotations), instead of going after the target like he should of done in the first place, it gave Texiera time to consider being a Yankee, gave the Yankees the thought that they could actually be in the hunt for Tex, and gave Boras time to get an offer from the Yankees.

If the Red Sox played it correctly, there is no way Tex would be in a Yankee uniform next year. Mr. Henry just got a little full of himself and overplayed his hand.

I'm way more inclined to think that because Henry was trying to be slick (ala Dice-K negotations), instead of going after the target like he should of done in the first place, it gave Texiera time to consider being a Yankee, gave the Yankees the thought that they could actually be in the hunt for Tex, and gave Boras time to get an offer from the Yankees.

If the Red Sox played it correctly, there is no way Tex would be in a Yankee uniform next year. Mr. Henry just got a little full of himself and overplayed his hand.

Posted by: BklynJT | January 14, 2009 at 01:01 PM

Sorry buddy, but you're way off. Teixera said himself that he decided he wanted to be a yankee a week before the red sox FO made the trip to try to lock him up. Boras gave the Sox FO the impression he was going to sign to get their best offer, then went to the yankees.

Make no mistake, in the end it wasn't about 170 million vs 185 million-- Teixera didn't want to be a Redsox. Or, more precisly, his wife prefers shopping on 5th avenue to Newbury street.

sidenote: Teixera looked like a whipped bitch at the yankee news conference talking about how his wife wanted new york.

I will never be confused for a Scott Boras apologist, but some perspective is warranted here.

None of this will ever hurt Scott Boras. None of it. He may "fail to be rewarded" with a handsome commission if Tek doesn't get a good deal, but Boras will come out just fine thank-you-very-much.

Varitek is a big boy able to make decisions for himself, and if he didn't want the $10 mil he might have gotten in arbitration, he was very capable of assessing the market. For all we know, Boras privately told him to take it, but once the client makes a decision, Boras' job is to do the best he can for that client given his marching orders.

We do not know and will never know this; that is one of the reasons he has so many big name clients. His discretion in deals usually works to his clients' financial benefit, and that is his job. He's an ass the way he goes about that job, but by and large he acquires pretty good results.