Scott Boras was on-hand in Pittsburgh yesterday to watch the Major League debut of client Addison Russell and one of Kris Bryant’s earliest games, but the agent also discussed a pair of other clients — Pedro Alvarez and Gerrit Cole — with local media. Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes that Boras feels more confident these days that Pirates ownership has a strong desire to compete, and he’ll give the Bucs “an opportunity” to secure his clients as core members going forward.
Boras added that there have been no serious talks of a long-term deal with either player yet, and he also strongly refuted the notion that he discourages all of his clients from signing extensions before reaching free agency. “I always let players make their decisions,” said Boras. “People say I always go to free agency. I can give you 15 players that did not go to free agency.” While he’s correct in stating that his clients don’t all reach free agency as early as possible, the vast majority of them do. Nonetheless, notable examples (via MLBTR’s Extension Tracker) such as Jered Weaver, Elvis Andrus, Carlos Gomez, Carlos Gonzalez, Carlos Pena and Ryan Madson each signed contracts that gave up free agent years in the guaranteed portion of their contracts.
It remains to be seen whether or not the team will express interest in long-term deals. Alvarez, in particular, may not be viewed as a long-term piece, as he’s seen his role reduced over the past year. The 2013 NL home run leader opened last year as the team’s everyday third baseman — a role he filled in both 2012 and 2013 — but he eventually lost playing time to Josh Harrison. Alvarez developed a serious issue in throwing over to first, making 25 errors in just 99 games at third last year, and he eventually slid over to first base. This year, he’s been platooned with Corey Hart at first base, batting .227/.277/.523 with all but three plate appearances coming against right-handed pitching.
Despite those defensive shortcomings, Boras unsurprisingly voiced a confidence that Alvarez could still be a serviceable third baseman at the Major League level. That, as Sawchik notes, may serve as a rift if the two sides do ultimately try to assess Alvarez’s long-term value. Alvarez would have more value as a third baseman, but the Pirates don’t seem to believe that he can handle that role, or, at the very least, recognize that they have a vastly superior defensive option in Harrison. Alvarez is slated to hit the open market following the 2016 season.
As for Cole, the budding ace can be controlled through the 2019 season, so the Pirates probably don’t feel a strong sense of urgency to complete a contract extension in the near future. Nonetheless, I’d imagine that Cole, along with Gregory Polanco, would be at the top of their list of players they hope to extend. The 24-year-old is off to an excellent start to his 2015 campaign, having worked to a 3.18 ERA with even more encouraging peripheral stats in an admittedly small sample. However, he’s worked to a 3.44 ERA with 8.5 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and a 50.1 percent ground-ball rate since debuting as a 22-year-old back in 2012.
Madison Bumgarner currently holds the record for largest extension among starting pitchers with between one and two years of service time (Extension Tracker link) thanks to his five-year, $35MM contract in San Francisco. The record for pitchers with two to three years of service (Ext. Tracker link) remains Gio Gonzalez’s five-year, $42MM pact with the Nationals. I’d expect Boras to set his sights significantly higher if he were to have serious extension talks either during this season or next winter, as he’d surely look to obtain a premium price on any free agent years sacrificed by Cole.
Whether or not the two sides ever have serious discussions regarding either player seems to be largely up to the Pirates, based on Boras’ comments to Sawchik. “I don’t sign checks,” said Boras. “I’m in the back of the bus. … I get the message when the driver pulls over and says, ‘I need to talk to you.'”
” batting .227/.277/.523 with all but three plate appearances coming against right-handed pitching.” Should read “left-handed pitching”
No it is correct. As written, it means all but three at bats came against a right handed pitcher. That would be a correct statement.
Thank you, my mistake
🙂 — no problem.
Ultimately, it is up to the player to decide if he wants to stay long term with the current team or go on the market to maximize income. While Boras can not keep a client from extending, he can continually advise his clients to not negotiate extensions. It will be interesting how both of those players deal with the issue.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I think the people who dislike Boras have their cause and effect backward.
He has been an agent long enough that anybody who signs with him knows in advance that he is all about maximizing overall value. They sign with him explicitly because of that fact. A player going year-to-year isn’t because he’s a Boras client; he’s a Boras client because he’s willing to do things like go year-to-year if he believes it will make more money.
As he pointed out, the players are ultimately in control. They control what contract offers they accept, and the approval or disapproval of that should be on them, not their agent. If there are allegations that Boras is not delivering contract offers to his clients who want to hear them, that’s highly unethical and I’d love to hear about it — but I haven’t heard players making that accusation.
I have not seen anything unethical done by Mr. Boras. However, his idea of clubs giving control of constructing their rosters to a panel of baseball people. That kind of comment is just laughable.
Some of the hate is related to general pro-ownership attitudes but Boras has a long history making ridiculous comments.
I think those are in his job description but I can not blame the fans.
No doubt. I’m a Cubs fan, so I’ve seen some of his ridiculous comments up-close in the past few months.
While I wish he would just not say anything sometimes, I don’t hold it against him; he’s advocating for his clients. I’m just over all the hate he gets for the way his clients approach free agency. If any hate is deserved for that (and I’m not saying there is), it should be on the players.
Whole heartedly do I agree that it is on the players. They pick an agent based upon how they want to approach negotiations. He is a guy that advocates maximizing income for the players so of course several high profile clients will gravitate towards agents like Boras. All he has to do is remind them why they picked him in the first place.
Sure, Boras is just in the back of the bus. He was right up front next to the driver and still is regarding Bryant and how the Cubs handled his call up. Now demanding the clubs give up the power to construct their rosters as they see fit. Amazing concept but MLB would cease to exist. No one would want to own a team that they have no call on how it is constructed.
This site loses a lot of credibility acting as a mouthpiece for Boras, disguising these agent-generated PR articles as some kind of necessary (or interesting) fact-based reporting.
One might wonder “who cares,” but how can a baseball transaction rumors resource ever be considered credible in the reported rumors when there is a demonstration of serving personally the agenda of agents?
And Scott Boras is just that, nothing more than another agent in a sea of them, so stop catering to his creating certain narratives that do little more than line his wallet at the expense of credibility.
I am no fan of Boras but they are legitimately referencing a news article concerning players on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Boras happens to be the most vocal of all agents. In my opinion your complaint is unfounded.
All agents are vocal and, despite popular opinion, are equally or more successful and powerful. Boras didn’t negotiate the majority of major contracts in baseball, but even if he had, none deserve an exclusive article on this site or the next.
This is absolutely a fluff piece orchestrated by the agent for this site to incite the clubs and thhe buzz about his players, the same as the annual phantom job postings that appear here from Boras Corp.
To each their own, but you can’t be taken seriously as a “rumors” source if you are demonstrating a pattern of serving the agents that utilize disinformation as a means to drive their negotiations. It’s a violation of ethics.
Yes, most agents are vocal. Boras just happens to be one of the top agents and has several of the higher profile players as clients. Because of that, more of his comments get national attention where as comments on lesser known players get only local attention. I have no problems with comments regarding players and negotiations, etc.
If your implication is that Scott Boras somehow, in any way, influenced me to put this article on our site, you’re way off base. An agent or executive discussing the extension status of players is almost always going to merit some kind of mention from us. In this instance, the fact that Boras is stating any kind of openness and adding that nothing serious has been presented is something that Pirates fans probably want to be aware of.
You can dislike it, and that’s fine, but the fact that this is Scott Boras had no bearing on the article. Any agent or exec openly discussing the extension status of as high-profile a player as Gerrit Cole is going to warrant acknowledgment.
If I were pushing some Boras agenda, I wouldn’t be pointing out Alvarez’s fielding woes or the fact that he’s been reduced to a platoon player.
Also, your assertion that all agents are vocal is far from the truth. I’ve interacted with many who avoid the media and deliberately refrain from going on-record.
There is nothing off-base about questioning why mlbtradeumors is acting as a Scott Boras mouthpiece (and employment agency), nor that it is a conflict of interest to baseball gossip site.
99% of your readers might not get how this works, and that’s fine, but do you guys or Scott Boras really think that MLB professionals or other reps fall for this crap?
How many Scott Boras fluff pieces do you post a day on this site, compared to other major reps?
Speaking of credibility, the comment “Scott Boras is just that, nothing more than another agent in a sea of them”, has none.
I don’t like Scott Boras, but I’m not going to pretend he isn’t incredibly successful.
Incredibly successfull compared to whom, exactly? How many of the mega deals in baseball belong to Boras, versus others? Cabrera? Cano? Kershaw? Lester? Verlander? Stanton? ARod fired him, so not even he counts. Hanley? Felix? Sandoval? We could be here all day…
Regardless, my assertion was not that Scott Boras isn’t successful, but rather that he is hardly the only big fish in the sea, despite being the most visible, specifically because he uses third tier blogs and subsidiary media sources as his PR centers.
First agent to negotiate deals over $50 million, $100 million and $200 million respectively.
Founder of the most valuable single-sport agency in the world (as per Forbes).
He’s broken barriers and set records in regards to draft compensation – Strasburg, Turner, Belcher, Tate, all getting figures that had never been seen before.
Approximately 175 professional clients represented by his agency.
His body of work as an Agent is absolutely phenomenal, the likes of which have not been matched in Baseball. I can’t stand the guy, but pretending he’s anything less than incredible is an embarrassment.
He’s been at the top of his field for longer than a lot of the people he represents have been alive.
You’re clutching, mate.
I find it kind of humorous that some of the examples of Boras clients that signed away one or more years of free agency have either underperformed those deals (Andrus) or lost out on bigger contracts later on due to bad advice (Madson).
Players who extend early do so for longer term guaranteed money to hedge against a career threatening injury or an injury that hurts the performance. In the case of Tabata, Signed what was thought to be a great deal from the Pirates side but he never was able to play up to the level he had prior to his hamate bone fracture and his hamstring issues. Lost power and speed. Great deal for him now. Young players who sign early bank on the fact that they will be still young to hit the FA market after the extension and if they out perform the contract, they will make it up in the next one. There are players too that like where they are and want to make good money and allow the team to keep resigning teammates. I believe that is why McCutchen signed his extension. Pretty good money, Likes being in Pittsburgh. Unless injured, will still make great money on the next deal no matter where he goes.
Gerrit Cole made his debut in 2013 as a 22 year old, not 2012.
Guess the link provided for the stats for the player was not clicked on to verify the year. Oops!
We all do it. Prolly a typo, I may be wrong but I think they have it set up to auto-link names to BR.
Tipos can be funs!
How long until the term “BS” is replaced with “Boras”? A true spin-doctor. Glad the Jays seldom have anything to do with him.