Back in February, the Scott Boras Corporation was in the midst of a rough patch. They'd brokered some big deals, sure, but arguably failed clients Johnny Damon, Jarrod Washburn, and Felipe Lopez. Lopez went so far as to fire Boras that month. Since then, things have been looking up for the company. Consider:
- Kendry Morales switched to Boras in February. Morales made the switch with one season to go before arbitration, though his campaign was cut short by a May leg fracture. Still, it's a big addition.
- Boras added another young star that month in Shin-Soo Choo. Choo had another strong year and is heading to arbitration for the first time.
- Tommy Hanson joined the fold in July; he could be arbitration-eligible after the 2011 season depending on what happens with the Super Two concept. Top prospect Desmond Jennings also hired Boras.
- Alex Rodriguez jumped ship in September, though he's signed through 2017.
- Boras recently signed two clients coming off massive walk years: Jayson Werth and Rafael Soriano. Suddenly Boras has the second-best position player and best reliever this winter. He also has Adrian Beltre positioned for another big contract at the perfect time. Carlos Gonzalez broke out; he'll be arbitration-eligible after 2012.
- It's not all roses for Boras, though. He doesn't represent any top pitchers from the upcoming free agent class. And clients Prince Fielder, Jacoby Ellsbury, Stephen Strasburg, Carlos Pena, Manny Ramirez, Carlos Beltran, Jair Jurrjens all faced adversity this year. Click here for our full list of Boras clients.
The real question is, does Scott Boras have enough minutes on his phone to handle all of the tentative calls that we think he’ll get.
I think the biggest thing Boras will do is get some of his stars traded. That would be best for guys like Beltran, Fielder and Ellsbury. Jayson Werth is going to get his money and years, that shouldn’t be hard to get. Rafael Soriano will likely have to settle for a 3 year deal, but he is still going to get paid.
If Boras could set up trades for his soon to be free agents Fielder and Beltran, as well as get Ellsbury somewhere that he will play every single game when helathy, he will be setting himself up for a HUGE December in 2011.
I concur.
Ellsbury shouldn’t be traded. He has had an injury plauged season, and when he’s healthy everyone knows what he can do. Durability is not an issue because he has stayed healthy prior to this season. He has had 120 SB in a span of 2 seasons, while managing an average OBP of around .355. If he isn’t the RS lead off hitter next year then I don’t know who is.
I think that Fielder would be a great target for the Red Sox. If Boras gave them a chance for an extension I think the Red Sox would be smart to offer something like Jacoby Ellsbury and Lars Anderson for Fielder. That would be a great deal for the Brewers as well. Boston could move Youk to 3B and have Fuelder play 1B and DH every once in a while.
I highly doubt Lars and Ellsbury is enough for Fielder.
The Brewers need one thing: Starting Pitching. Anderson would be nice as a throw-in, but the Brewers have no use for an injury plagued center fielder. That’s actually a position they have covered nicely right now with Lorenzo Cain.
Injury plagued? This is Ellsburys first time spending major time on the DL, it’s not like his knees are about to give out. He ran into another player at full speed resulting in broken ribs, just an unfortunate accident….
“get Ellsbury somewhere that he will play every single game when helathy”
I don’t get this statement. Ellsbury already plays every day when healthy.
Werth is gonna get offers of 3 to 4 years and he’ll only get a 5 year deal put on the table by a desperate team such as the Nationals or the Mariners. The question is, does he get $13MM per or $18MM per, which believe it or not is probably the range we’re looking at for his contract.Rafael Soriano will get 3 years/$40MM, but from whom is the big question.Adrian Beltre will get 3-4 years/$13-16MM per. It’s a big question who offers what, however. I could see the Red Sox going 2 years/$26MM or 3 years/$42MM.
Why will Soriano get so much money?
His last 2 seasons he put the following numbers:
138 IP / 2.41 ERA / 0.94 WHIP / 10.4 K9 / 72 saves
Compare that to:
126 IP / 2.93 ERA / 1.15 WHIP / 9.9 K9 / 69 saves
While Soriano looks better than Valverde they are pretty close (all numbers are easily within the margin of error due to small sample sizes). Soriano is just a little bit younger than Valverde was last season. On the other side of the equation Soriano has dealt with far more injuries and doesn’t have the experience that Valverde does (if you buy into the notion that closing experience means something).
Yet, Valverde was untouched through most of the post-season – signing in January for a paltry 2/$14 deal.
I have a hard time believing that any team will think that Soriano is worth an extra year and an extra $26m vs Valverde.
My guess is that he signs for 3/$30-$33. Even that’s a steep price when you consider that it will cost a draft pick as well.
If Beltre would agree to 3 years in the $13-16M range, the Sox should snap it up. There’s no FA or near-term prospect available who can provide that kind of offense and defense. Granted his offense won’t be what it was in 2010, but I’d much rather keep Youk at first than weaken the defense on both sides of the diamond.
Why would the Red Sox offer Beltre more per year for 3 years than 2 years?
$42m/3 years = $14m/year, $26m/2 years = $13m/year…
I’d think $28m/2 years or $39m/3 years makes more sense…
Obviously Boras is regarded as the best, that’a why he has the most amount of big name clients
Varitek and JD Drew a couple more of his clients past their primes and hard to see Varitek getting anything close to the 3m he made in 2010 even.
Boras might be good for his top clients, but it’s hard to see him being much use to the lower rung ones, or ones past their primes. Might be why some dump him. Felipe Lopez cpl off seasons ago did after putting up strong numbers in DC. I don’t think Boras does have the time/resources to go around and initially spends it on his top FA, trickling down his time to others, like Lopez and the rest as he sees fit and costing them money.
On another note, if Ellsbury does stay in Boston can see him being the 1st arbitration case to go all the way to the board this year. Boras and his never give in and the way Ells ducked the team all year, plus management wanting to more than likely protect the rest of the players that were injured, attempted to at least show support by being with the team. it won’t be good for Mr. Ellsbury and Boston could easily avoid it and pay them, but Ellsbury needs a message sent in strong terms for a change… Nothing is easy in this world…
How much did Lopez’s new agent get him? Remember, it was his new agent that negotiated his 2010 contract. Last check it was a LOT lower than what Lopez was holding out for. Granted, having Boras take so long didn’t help. His negotiation leverage was pretty low by the time he was signed.
However, the real story was that Lopez was a punk coming off a crazy year. Many people were predicting a regression back to his career norms. When you look at his career numbers you see a back-up utility infielder. A guy who has had 2 great years out of 9 total years in the bigs. He was signed for slightly less than what he was worth but so did a lot of people last off-season.
Bad attitude guys with a mediocre track record generally aren’t breaking the bank in this economic climate.
That was the point with Lopez, he waited until middle of Feb to get rid of Boras, many teams by then have already filled out their teams starting 9 and who set the price tag for Lopez? Boras? Of course he did. No arguments from me that Lopez isn’t a bad attitude, but teams have signed them to more than 1M contracts coming off the season that Lopez had just did nearly every time before, even chronic malcontents like Dukes, Bradley got more looks and signed sooner than this guy. it was a classic Boras “back seat, wait until I can get around to you, but the astronomical price is out there for teams if they will jump on it” all the way.
No arguments he can help anyone he actually wants to, or has time to help maximize their signing dollars, some people fall through as his client totals mount up and even his stars get dissatisfied, as in Sheffield and now even Rodriquez.