6:11pm: Boras spoke with Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star about Moustakas at greater length, and Mellinger suggests that Boras and Moustakas may be comfortable waiting until after the June draft to sign. At that point, there’d be no draft compensation attached to Moustakas, and there’d also be the possibility that more teams have unexpected needs at third base (or that unexpected contenders are looking to add).
Boras isn’t directly quoted regarding the possibility of waiting until June, it should be noted, and the agent spoke with some optimism that Moustakas could yet find a landing spot before the season begins.
“The teams are coming, and Moose is going to be playing baseball,” said Boras to Mellinger. “But I don’t control time, and I don’t control competitiveness. The question is when do those teams want to commit to winning, and of course I think he’ll be playing, yes.”
Boras does note that free agency would be a “totally different world” for Moustakas were draft forfeitures not attached to signing him, pointing out that the new CBA stipulates that players can only receive one QO in their career. With that in mind, perhaps Boras and Moustakas would be amenable to a one-year pact that would allow for another crack at the open market next season, when Moustakas will still be a relatively youthful 30 years old.
11:03am: Agent Scott Boras, who represents many of the top remaining free agents, suggested to MLB.com’s Jon Morosi that at least some of his clients could be nearing new contracts. (Twitter link.)
Boras represents four still-unsigned players who had spots on MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agent list: Jake Arrieta, Mike Moustakas, Greg Holland, and Carlos Gonzalez. Four other players with other representation from that list of fifty names also remain available.
Morosi says he posed the question to Boras whether deals were imminent for any of his four top free agents. This was the response:
“We’re closer to deals than we were two weeks ago. Some of those things are only a phone call away.”
Clearly, there’s nothing earth-shattering in that quote. But it’s nevertheless notable to hear that real progress has been made. And given Boras’s frequent barrage of criticisms over the course of the offseason, it’s also worth emphasizing that this relative optimism could well be a real indication that the end is in sight for some of these players — particularly given the clear suggestion that there are some firm offers on the table.
Of course, there’s also little in the way of specifics. In some cases, Boras clients still seem to face relatively meager prospects for maximizing their value. MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently examined the remaining top-fifty free agents in a piece that covers the field of potential suitors and illustrates the less-than-ideal leverage situation from the players’ perspective.
But, but, but, but, who are the teams??
Who are the teams?
Boras is just trying to get teams to bid against themselves via the media.. He’s full of hot air.
No doubt! I wonder if he is getting one extra dollar for his players by waiting so long. My gut says he isn’t…
Man Bohrsass be saying sum thing stew pid again. Hairy Etta isn’t close to singing, Mouse Tacos isn’t close to singing, Lancelot Lynn will have to sing in Japan. Corn of the Cobb will sing after screen training. Bohrsass is not knowing nothing.
Halla,
Eim Scott Bohrsass. I vant thee playas to vin big MONEY butt only if i vin BIGGER MONEY for myselves. Playas sing o no sing I vant MONEY!
Ha. I see what you did there. You took the names and made similar sounding things with them. Very original humor there. Seriously though, it’s signing. I’m sure they all have wonderful singing voices though. Hairy Etta, brilliant.
I think the pitchers will be easy to find a team. Even if they eventually break and take a little less money, there’s plenty of teams who have holes in the rotation. Minnesota, Milwaukee, Baltimore, and the Angels seem like they could use one of Arrieta, Cobb, or Lynn. And there still will likely be a big injury in spring that will force a team to bring in a pitcher. The position players are different though. I don’t know why a rebuilding team wouldn’t sign them to a 1 year deal and flip them for a prospect at the deadline.
The infamous mystery teams!
Probably the Orioles on at least on of the players.
If (and I say if) the Orioles had any sense…
They’d sign Moose to a 3-4 year deal, 12-15AAV. They’d trade Machado for some good prospects and a couple lotto tickets.
Sure, Moose isn’t a fifth of the player Manny is, but he could be locked up, hold down the hot corner for a few years, and he’d be a left handed bat in the lineup.
If deals are a phone call away, why doesn’t he call? Is his phone broken?
It seems clear to me that Boras tends to play the long game as much as he can. Meaning, he gets an offer that’s ok but not great and doesn’t accept it, knowing it will stay on the table for a while. Then he tries to negotiate for better until he gets it, and if the other side doesn’t cave, he can always go back to the original deal.
It’s basically a scenario he can’t lose in, unless he waits too long and the offer gets rescinded. But that rarely happens, unfortunately (see JD Martinez).
I highly doubt Boras being patient results in offers getting better. Teams have all the leverage this off-season.
Don’t we say that every year, and every year they get the offers they want?
Stephen Drew is like the only FA to suffer from this tactic
All evidence points to the fact that JD Martinez didn’t get his opt outs until later in the negotiation. So, sounds like patience paid off.
JDM also didn’t get the 6 years and $150 mil he was projected to get, now did he?!
But that’s completely besides the point. All we’re discussing is the value of waiting it out once you get the offer. JD and Boras set unrealistic expectations and didn’t get their initial wish, but had they taken the offer submitted a few months ago, they would be worse off today.
Besides the point? So they set the bar too high and had to accept a contract with less term and less guaranteed money but because there are opt-outs they come out as the winner?
Can you provide some logic behind that? Because in the past if 6 years and $150 million was the projection then Boras would have gotten that for JDM at the very minimum!
That’s only because every year one team gives in and pays stupid money. Most of the GMs willing to do dumb stuff that mortgages the future are either getting wise or getting fired. Look at the top 40 contracts in baseball right now… like 15 of them are essentially dead money.. Teams are finally learning not to overpay to the extreme for past their prime players.
You may be correct in the fact that Boras would have gotten it….However the contract is 2 years 50 mil with player options after that. So to me that is a win for JDM. If he smashes the next 2 years like he did last year He still gets his 25 mil a year for 2 years plus the chance to get more then what is on the table now!
Were those opt outs a response to not getting a higher AAV in the deal?
I would say that’s a good compromise. JDM gets his AAC for at least two years and the Red Sox don’t pay for his low production, mid 30’s years.
This year is clearly different. Arietta and Moustakas are more on the higher end of the talent pool but we are starting to see several other guys sign for much less than expected, some even been resigned (not re-signed) to minor league deals. I can’t imagine that waiting this long is going to result in better offers they received back in Dec/Jan.
Ask yourself, are ANY of the remaining FA a missing piece to a potential championship team? I don’t think so.
Huh? If he opts out, that means he’s playing at an outstanding level
and Boston loses him
and doesn’t get the full value of the contract!
Maybe not better offers, but I would bet that they’re about the same as what they got offered a couple months ago, give or take a couple million a year. I obviously can’t prove that, but that seems to be what typically happens with Boras clients.
At least as far as the pitchers go, most of the teams they fit on don’t need them any less than they did earlier in the offseason. Moose is a different story, and I’ll admit Boras may have swung and missed on him. But we also don’t know what kind of offers Mike was getting earlier in the offseason.
Most agents aren’t willing to play the waiting game because it seems risky, but that’s Boras’ thing. I by no means like the guy, but if I were an agent, I would at least adopt this aspect of his strategy.
“At least as far as the pitchers go, most of the teams they fit on don’t need them any less than they did earlier in the offseason.”
While that may be true, that doesn’t mean they are or will be any more willing to meet Boras’ price.
Again, the big holdup in getting his guys signed (with the exception of Mous [because who really knows what the issues are there]) seems to be the number of years in the contract.
It will be interesting to see who bends or breaks first on that one – the players/agent or the teams.
And Kendrys Morales and Edwin Jackson all Boras clients who got screwed because of Boras stalling.
Really Free Clay? Care to share all this evidence?
What evidence even suggests the opt out was part if the deal months ago?
Or he does not “smash it” plays not up to expectations. Misses 30 games and two years later does not opt out and there goes his chance to get more. It works both ways
He didn’t get his 200mil & Neither will Jake
But Free Clay earlier you said all the evidence points to how smart your Boras guy is? Now you have no evidence?
Kendry Morales did too that year
Meaning him and Stephen Drew that year
He’ll sign a new contract if he opts out because he is playing well you dimwit
@ Brixton
Off the top of my head, Kendrys Morales (circa 2014) also suffered from waiting too long. And Edwin Jackson too. In pretty sure there are more, but I’d need to look them up.
Yes, he’s good at waiting it out, but sometimes his players get hurt individually (i.e. Drew).
He’s good at his job.
We also have to keep in mind that payers and agents are always trying to reset the table and push compensation higher, and there is a tremendous amount of pressure on them from the union to do so.
The problem the union/players/agents seem to have in the current market is that the more analytically oriented front offices of today all seem to have reached the same conclusion:
It’s foolish to give out long term deals to guys into or entering their 30’s.
IIRC the Blue Jays have never given out a contract longer than 5 years since the Wells deal. In some sense they may be viewed by history as a leader in that regard.
Lying snake oil salesmen.
As MLBPA’s biggest marketer, what else could he say?
This guy could go away tommorrow and I would not miss the coverage he gets.
Whether the players or owners get the money, it seems like the fans are the ones who may never get relief. It is less appealing when some of your own money goes to “Super Agent” Boras.
It’s his job to put the best possible shine on things. What is he going to say? “Omg my guys are screwed”.
I did think it was interesting that he admitted Moustakas might not be on an opening day roster, but that was reported somewhere else I think
Any surprise that it’s his clients that are the ones still waiting on deals?
So, has Boras been asking for too much term and/or cash this off-season? Probably.
Collusion on the part of the GMs after years of Boras taking advantage of them? Maybe (hopefully).
He works for his clients. If they wanted to take deals then they would. That’s how agents work. I find it amusing that people hate Boras for simply doing the job his clients pay him to do – get them the most money and the best situation possible. Players willingly hire Boras; nobody is forced to use him as an agent. And nobody is taking advantage of billionaire owners. Every owner in baseball is worth many multitudes of millions more dollars than Scott Boras.
Boras has had carte blanche over these GMs for years. Now it’s their turn.
Oh, so before 2018 no owner knew how to say the word “no”? That’s quite odd. One would think a billionaire baseball team owner would have basic English skills.
That sounds like he has some magic elixir that he put in their water at the negotiating table.
He is very good at negotiating the best deals for his clients, and I don’t get the hatred because that IS his job.
But FOs seem to be wising up with regard to long term deals to guys in their 30’s.
Getting teams to pay for past performance is something a lot of agents – not just Boras – got teams to do, especially by circumventing the GM and going directly to the owner. I’m not sure what the pitch was but I’ll bet it had a lot to do with appealing to the owner’s ego and desire to win.
However, apparently, a lot of owners are increasingly staying out of contract negotiations and leaving it to the guys they hired. That, and the game shifting to younger players will require newer strategies from agents to get their guys paid earlier. It may also require a newer strategy from the union if the big FA paydays to the 30+ club are going to be extremely limited.
It will be fun to watch it all play out.
To me, it’s not that Boras gets his clients the most money and years, it’s when he comes out and throws tantrums to the media and makes himself the center of attention that bothers me
But why? I mean, there’s some narcissism in him, sure, but he’s representing millionaire athletes against billionaire owners. We live in a country Presided over by a millionaire narcissist who throws temper tantrums in the media daily; this is what people like them do. It doesn’t really affect your life. (Him stating what he believes are facts doesn’t constitute a temper tantrum, btw.) He is paid to serve his clients. They seem t be assured enough of his abilities that they continue hiring him.
@ davidcoonce74
Maybe you can explain the absurd contracts that have been given out over the years? Pujols, Cabrera, Price, Fielder, Cano, Heyward, Teixeira, King Felix, Chris Davis, Matt Kemp., Tulo…???? The list of bad baseball contracts is never-ending!!
Please….tell me where all those billionaire baseball team owners were saying ‘no’ then?
You’d have to ask the owners. They sign the contracts.
I think a lying snake like Boras can play mind games on ballplayers who are not necessarily the smartest people alive. From what Prince Fielder was saying when he signed with Detroit, Boras can make it almost seem as if there’s no alternative but to do what he says. He openly lies to everyone, and should be disbarred. Boras is a pimple on the buttocks of the game.
Prince Fielder made a lot of money playing the game he loved and is set for life (He got hurt doing his job). How is that a failure on the part of his agent?
Whoever said it was a failure on the part of his agent? It was anything but a failure. Boras got exactly what he wanted. Prince was made to feel that he had to be represented by Boras and no one else. That was my point
So Scott Boras is a hypnotist as well as a lawyer and agent? Triple-threat!
In other words…. nothing close
““We’re closer to deals than we were two weeks ago. Some of those things are only a phone call away.””
Let us interpret that in several ways:
1) “Teams have come up and met our price and we’re close to finalizing deals.”
2) “If I make a phone call and accept offers we’ve received (that we still believe are substandard) my guys can sign today.”
3) “We’re waiting for a phone call from GM’s to see if they’ll accept our latest terms.”
4) “It’s total BS and I’m just trying to stir up interest and get some team to move for fear of losing the player to someone else.”
Feel free to add your own interpretation.
2 in most cases, 4 with the rest.
I agree
These guys are 32, 29, 32, 32 respectively. MLB is turning younger, and the days of paying $$$$$$ Millions at the age of 32 are are gone.
Jake Arrieta turned 32 yesterday. Happy belated birthday Jake! Wonder what Boras got him? I’m guessing a turd sandwich.
A plate of humble pie
A picture of Yu Darvish’s contract
oh dude thats funny!!!
bwahahaha
When the bs runs out…lol oh moose you actually could of signed for 100 mil+ but no….lol
Boras can shove it.
Boras isn’t lying,. He probably never does. There probably are outstanding offers out there for “some of those things” that he could say yes to with a phone call. He hasn’t said there are offers for all, he hasn’t said there a deals basically in place with just contract language to hammer out, and he hasn’t said that he’s close. They are “closer” which is a relative term.
This is a guy, who most of the time, pulls rabbits out of hats. The Hosmer deal was good for his client. So was multiple opt-out JDM deal.
I’m not a fan of his. But he is smart.
3 weeks til opening day and these guys are without a team. If there was a deal to be had, they should have taken it by now. This is a ploy by Boras to place the blame on Ownership and push the collusion claim.
If there’s collusion going on (and that’s certainly not proven) it’s not with top tier FA. It’s with quality veterans who might have a smudge on them and can’t get a reasonable nibble even though they might offer a projected 2 or more WAR. The top guys are going to get paid–maybe not as much as Boras wants, but they are going to get paid.
Yes, the Hosmer deal WAS good for his client. Personally, I believe San Diego will regret it sooner rather than later.
Yeah when we trade him to the Yankees or Mets at the trade deadline for a enormous prospect package we sure are going to regret it.
Sorry but Boras lies all the time. He lied to cover up a failed drug test by Manny Ramirez…he lied to the Dodgers when he represented Kevin Brown saying there was a phantom offer for him from the Braves that was never made…he lied to the Mets saying that Alex Rodriguez would come to them for less money when it was never going to happen…I could go on
The Angels need Holland. This closer by comity doesn’t work. Blake Parker and Jim Johnson have both looked absolutely horrible this spring. And those are the Angels two best options going into the season as a closer. Come on sign him already.
The same can be said of STL who are clearly making a mistake with their their closer by committee strategy (Gregerson being committee chairman). I don’t know if that’s a smokescreen, but the Cards are gambling with nothing in their hand.
While 8 free agents remain unsigned in this top-50 list at this late stage of the offseason it’s even more startling that 5 of them are among the top-11 in Jake Arrieta #4, Mike Moustakas #6, Lance Lynn #9, Greg Holland #10 and Alex Cobb #11.
What’s less surprising is that each of those 5 carry the stigma of a qualifying offer. Only 9 had that tag this offseason that included signed FA’s Eric Hosmer #3, Lorenzo Cain #7, Wade Davis #8 and Carlos Santana #12.
Jut highlights how weak the FA class is this year.
Arrieta is probably looking at his last chance to max out, and that’s the reason he hired Boras in the first place – to max out. If reports are true he clearly wants more years than teams are willing to give him.
Moustakas? It looks like the high HR total (in a juiced ball record setting HR season) doesn’t make up for the low OBP and mediocre defense, and even teams that might have been interested early in the offseason didn’t think he was worth anywhere near his asking price. As the authors have asked here recently – what’s his market at this point?
Lynn and Cobb both want more than teams are willing to risk. Will that change?
Holland reportedly turned down a similar deal to the one Davis accepted. Was Boras asking for more years? Did he want 4/70? If so, it appears to have been a major error, but Boras has pulled rabbits out of the hat before, so you never know.
If we had a poll the public the majority would most likely say they despise Scott Boras.
He is a great agent and here is why:
1) He listens to his clients. He has had clients that didn’t want to shoot the moon but wanted a more ‘comfort’ contract and he got it done without much fanfare. Jason Varitek came to mind with his last contract with the Red Sox. If they want every last thing dime or comfort they can get he will fight until the very end. When was the last time he fired a client for being unreasonable?
2) A majority of his clients stay quiet during negotiations and let him drive and take all the heat. Boras takes the slings and arrows and keeps the heat on him in difficult negotiations while keeping it off his client.
3) When a deal is in the closing phase he doesn’t rock the boat. If something pops up he goes full ‘run silent, run deep’ mode. During the week with the JD Martinez signing announcement being delayed. you didn’t hear anything. He just hammered it out.
What people don’t like is that he’s the biggest loudmouth BS artist in the media. Some of the crap he says and does is transparent schtick… outside of the relative niche job of being a pro sports agent, a lot of this stuff would be considered disingenuous and unprofessional and people would avoid him like the plague.
That said… He is in the niche world of pro sports and and he’s obviously good at it.
Just the yearly game of chicken and Boros and the teams are waiting for the other one to move first. Boros is gonna have to be the one to lower demands if his players are to get a contract.
if a player signs a deal after the draft, for basically half of this year and say two more years, and gets less money for this year due to the half year, does the total value of the contract get divided by 3, lowering the AAV for luxury tax purposes?
if so, a team with higher payroll could add a fresh pitcher for the stretch run and the playoffs, not give up a draft pick, and with a lower AAV, that could be attractive to them and bring more teams into play?
Yes, if so it could work to the advantage of the team, but does the player get the total dollar value he would have gotten had he signed for the full year?
not for that year but over the course of the deal could end up as good or better than the lower offers they are getting now.
Yes, but that’s speculative on our part because we don’t really know what’s being offered right now.
Remember way back when Boras had Stephen Drew turn down a monstrous contract when Drew allegedly had 5-6 teams vying for his services? NOT.
I think Boras is gradually tarnishing his rep. or the executives have grown weary of his tactics!
Remember back when he got Prince Fielder $214 million when everyone thought the max would be $160 million?
That was pixie dust he sprinkled in Mike Ilitch’s coffee – because the guy knew he had a limited time left and wanted to win a WS. It was a great move by Boras, one that he repeated with Lerner.
The question remains whether that tactic is going to work going forward or whether it will even be allowed.
Reports are that my team’s owner, Middleton, will not talk to agents, saying that he hired guys to do it – so deal with them.
Imagine watching your inheritance get spent on the worst-bodied, bound-to-fail body combined with some of the violent mechanics in MLB history? Bye $54M, hope Prince invests it wisely….
Also, we all thinking Ilitch’s deathbed moves would keep going after he died was VERY naive. Big part of this free agent downturn is Detroit having a different direction than the last 10 years. Not anyone’s fault other than our expectations of what the market was going to be this offseason.
I highly doubt that any personal inheritance was tied to the LLC which is the Detroit Tigers business organization !
I’d imagine that being pretty sweet.
“Pops can blow money on his baseball toy, but I’ll still be mf’ing rich.”
Contracts like that are likely the reason for what we’ve seen this offseason
Drew never had a contract offer to turn down. He turned down a QO and nobody wanted to give up a draft pick. Had to wait till June.
Arrieta is going to be very disappointed…he’ll be lucky to get a 2 year deal. Same can be said for Holland. Cobb and Lynn can get 3 year deals but it won’t be the AAV they’re looking for. Kudos for baseball teams for not giving in.
Maybe he shouldn’t have mouthed off about how all the California liberals should be deported (or whatever he said) on election night, he’d have had some West Coast teams in on him (and he fits on a whole bunch if not all of them).
He didn’t mouth off about how all California liberals should be deported. That is not what he tweeted, so why do you post something that is in error?
What he tweeted was :
“”Time for Hollywood to pony up and head for the border #illhelpyoupack #beatit.””
He explains that here:
nbcsports.com/chicago/chicago-cubs/jake-arrieta-ex…
A quote from the piece:
“”I was simply calling out people who have a tremendous platform of millions of followers that said they were going to leave the country if Trump was elected. I was basically calling their bluff. If you don’t want to live here…then beat it.”
Last I checked not all California liberals said they were going to leave the country.
Let me be clear: I don’t want my team – the Phillies – anywhere near an Arrieta contract longer than 3 years, and I have reservations about the third year as it is.
But the guy is entitled to his opinions, and if you are going to represent what he said on a blog site, please be responsible and do it accurately. You expect the same from others.
He was speaking directly to the likes of Chelsea Handler,Rosie O’Donnell,Miley Cyrus,and that old stalwart Michael Moore…
Well, I agree that someone is entitled to their opinion, and their stated opinion shouldn’t be misstated or exaggerated. At the same time, when someone chooses, like Arrieta did, to align themselves with the toxic allies that Arrieta chose, he can hardly complain when others point out the smell.
Read the rest of the article I linked before you you make assumptions about with whom Arrieta is aligned.
Ok. I read the article. I don”t think there’s a lot of doubt about who Arrieta’s “#I’llhelpyoupack. #beatit’ tweet was intended for. I think the same as your allies here, who claim it was directed at “Chelsea Handler,Rosie O’Donnell,Miley Cyrus,and that old stalwart Michael Moore”. Pretty clear. I normally don’t see tweets like this, which usually come from either bots or far right accounts.
First off how is anyone allies here when just adding to a post. You failed to include “to the likes of” in your post. Yes those were some but there were many who went on similar tangents. “To align themselves with toxic allies” you’re going way overboard..Good God Man it’s 2018.
W
L
Eddie – I disagree. IMHO the tweet was more about who he was ridiculing for making idiotic statements with which they had no intent of following through.
Mocking their silly virtue signaling (it’s silly because they were never going to leave the country) is not aligning himself with anyone.
IT MUST BE TOUGH BEING A BORAS CLIENT AND SEEING THE SEASON STARTING WITHOUT A CONTRACT.
“We’re closer to deals than we were two weeks ago. Some of those things are only a phone call away.”
I WONDER WHAT THAT MEANS?
I GUESS THE CLOSER TO DEALS THAN WE WERE 2 WEEKS AGO IS ONLY SAYING WE ARE CLOSER TO OPENING DAY OR A PLAYER PANICKING. RIGHT?
HERE’S WHAT THE PHONE CALL AWAY SOUNDS LIKE:
MOOSE —- JUST GET THIS F-IN THING DONE SCOTT!
BORAS —– OK MOOSE, SOME OF THOSE THINGS ARE ONLY A PHONE CALL AWAY. I’LL GET TO IT WHEN I GET A CHANCE AFTER MY ROUND OF GOLF TODAY. SAY HI TO THE FAMILY.
CASHMAN —- HI SCOTT
BORAS —– MOOSE WANTS THE NYY. WHAT CAN YOU PAY?
Huh? Can’t hear you! Speak up!
I’m sure he’ll get his pitchers a 4 year deal with opt outs every 3 starts so they can enter the market every time it’ll net them a longer deal.
I see Moose waiting till after the draft to get signed.
I also see Holland waiting till after the draft and signing a one year deal and going back to the market next year.
The SPs will all get deals once someone gets hurt or they accept three year deals.
I think the situation you raise is entirely plausible. Guys who have draft picks and international pool money attached may well be looking at pro-rated 2018 deals signed after the draft.
A mystery team has a 225m offer out on Arrieta.
If that’s true that will the most stupid signing of the year.
That’s why it isn’t true.
Don’t worry. It’s in yen
“Some of those things are only a phone call away.”
What a moronic thing to say. So you just need to make a call to accept an offer from a team? He must be talking about a team calling him to say “hey we agree to pay your outrageous asking price” in which case any deal is always a phone call away
in other words, nothing has changed and my remaining clients are screwed.
Translation: my clients are just as unemployed today as they were 4 months ago.
Boras saying his players are closer to deals than 2 weeks ago means nothing. That’s the same as me saying I’m closer to my birthday than I was 2 weeks ago.
They may be close to deals, but none of them are gonna get what they thought they’d get just a few months ago.
MLBTR should have a TV station. We could call it ‘The Boras Network’.
Not much assessment here. Just same old Boras promo. How about instead we have “Mr. ‘Slow Play the Market’ Scott Boras, Slow Plays His Clients Out of Baseball”.
“The teams are coming, and Moose is going to be playing baseball,” said Boras to Mellinger. “But I don’t control time, and I don’t control competitiveness. The question is when do those teams want to commit to winning, and of course I think he’ll be playing, yes.”
A team that wants to win would overpay to sign an exceptionally overrated player…why?
The “if teams don’t want to spend big money to sign my mediocre players even though they can get the same production for far less elsewhere that means they don’t want to win” schtick is tired and pathetic.
Literally any deal could be a phone call away. Just depends how long the phone call is.
Boras is a squirmy rat and is at the MERCY of the Owners who he has been ruling for years …. LOVE to see him sucking it up !!!!
What’s so admirable about “the owners”?
Boras is so mistaken. June will come and go and maybe Boras and/or his clients will realize that cyber metrics tells all owners they are not worth the asking price,
Boras and his big paydays are history.
The question is when do those teams want to commit to winning, and of course I think he’ll be playing, yes.”
how would signing Moose show a commitment to winning?
Am I seriously supposed to seriously believe Moose is holding out until June
I just don’t understand how someone can sit out that long. I guess they truly love money more then the game…..sad
Your totally right there would really like to know what happened between Moore and Moose cause it sounds like the Totals want nothing to do with him. Plus one of these times a player is going to hold out till June just to try and get what 5 million more and 60 some hits they miss out on ends up costing them a HOF career!!!
Moose isn’t a hall of famer. Not now or ever
Boras is the worst thing that ever happened to Baseball
I’m two weeks closer to death too. That statement is spurious.
By the way, I’m also just a phone call away from being a millionaire. I’m just waiting for the call to tell me I won the lottery. smh
Til June!? Over a draft pick are you kidding
Moose is s Chatsworth High alumni like myself. He should be on a team right now. Part of the problem is all GM’s hate Boras and the games he plays. Wish Moose had a different agent and Moose does not get the same treatment Drew got. He hit a good amount of homers last year and can do the same for the right team.
No, the problem is, there isn’t a need for a third baseman, he was given a qo, and he turned down the qo, boras is a factor but not like everything else
He should have accepted
It has already been reported that Boras stated that Mike Moustakas is willing to wait to sign until after the draft so that there will not be a draft pick attached to him. This just might be the case with other free agents with draft picks attached to them. Stay tuned…
Yes, that seems likely.
If Moustakas is gonna wait til June, I’m going to have to draft a 3B to hold down the fort
Guarantee a few teams are hoping that these guys hold out until after the draft. Like the Phillies wouldn’t mind if Jake worked out and they snagged him for a 3 or 4 year deal, with no draft pick compensation.
Boras just needs to go away and retire.
Boras is the man!
A contending team would likely be a team that would sign a free agent rather than an out of contention team.
A contending team would likely give up a better draft pick to sign a QO free agent than a non contending team.
So the free agents likely wait until after the draft to sign and hopefully a change comes to this QO process.
It would be much fairer to the player to have the old team be required to make a QO of 3/$51M.
While I don’t know if I entirely agree with that … it’s a damn good idea that I haven’t heard anywhere else. Very interesting
He just looks like “sleazy”.
Coming off a breakout year in the prime of your career … missing the first two months of the season can’t possibly be the best option for someone who’s passionate about and loves baseball. I don’t know exactly where the blame belongs, but that’s just wrong.
I wonder if there’s just too many good hitters in the MLB now. With the rise in home runs … Hitting 30 isn’t what it once was. I know this last year Mous hit more than 30, but he doesn’t have a track record of consistently hitting 30+. He also doesn’t get on base a lot, doesn’t hit for avg and isn’t an RBI guy. He has some intangibles and he plays a decent not great 3B. Take away the 30 HR’d and he’s totally avg. But Boras will have you thinking he’s a superstar and if you don’t sign him, you don’t want to win. When in reality, how many teams thatvhave a realistic shot to make the playoffs have a 3B that Mous would produce a significantly higher WAR than? Plus 20 million a year and a great draft pick. I’m so tired of the Boras rhetoric, it’s been beyond ridiculous. Good for the owners who smartened up, after getting burned by a ton of long contracts for aging stars. Maybe next time the players negotiate a CBA they’ll be lead by lawyers and not a former player. You can’t expect Tony Clark to go up against Harvard law grads and come out on top of those negotiations. Boras really needs to shut up, the players need to shut up as well. The pendulum always swings and right now it’s in favor of the owners a little. Except when it was on the players side, you never heard the owners bitching and moaning about the bad money they handed out. So tired of hearing this crap, I wish we could just focus on the on field stuff. As a fan, this just isn’t any fun at all.
Good hitters, idk, it seems like those home runs are paired with sub .250 BA and low OBPs. They are just hitting more home runs when they do connect. There’s a drought of Good Hitters imo. Even the small ball guys that come up seem to have lower metrics than in the past.
Would he take a 2 year show me contract ? If so how much total? 25? 30?
Shout out to the late Lyman Bostock. Who after signing what was at the time a huge FA contract with the Angels in ‘78 played like crap that year and tried to give the money back for that season. He felt like he didn’t earn it. When the Angels of course declined … he literally donated it all to charity. Google it or YouTube it. I never got to watch you play Lyman, but you’ll always be one of my favorite players. People don’t have honor the way they used to. That’s a fact
.311 career hitter with a super bright future. Bostock was shot and killed with just a week left in the season. Horrible shame. I remember seeing the news on TV as a kid. Great player and a solid citizen.
Actually it was his salary for the month of April where he hit below .200. Which almost makes it even crazier. That’s how high his standards were of himself. Not even one month of failure was acceptable
Remember when Stephen Drew and Kendrys Morales waited til June and were rusty as hell when they returned? I remembered. Don’t do it!
Drew was always Always overvallued. His name was all that mattered, if his last name were different he’d have been a AAAA player.
Zzzzzz
He has 2 decent years out of a relatively bad career that’s why no one wants to sign him. He’s just 3 years from a career .220 avg.
Can you say desperate? Santana signing 1 year 20 mil contract with Indians very early in FA, that’s the agent I would want
Maybe the players just overvalue themselves as teams are realizing that giving hundreds of millions to people at or near the wrong side of 30.