In a recent interview with 94 WIP sports radio in Philadelphia, just-retired outfielder Jayson Werth was critical of agent Scott Boras, saying (via Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post): “I had offers in November, and I was advised by my former agent to wait. Ill-advised, I guess.” The 39-year-old Werth, who largely struggled with the Nationals from 2015-17 and ended up signing a minor league contract with the Mariners in late March, added that he personally “called every team [but one] and tried to get a job.” That one team? The Mets, whom Werth “wouldn’t play for” after spending his career with the division-rival Phillies and Nats. Boras issued a response to Werth’s comments Wednesday, saying (via Janes, on Twitter): “Unfortunately, it appears someone has misled Jayson. We contacted all 30 teams numerous times during the offseason on his behalf, and we have phone logs, emails, and other records to back it up. We received no offers for Jayson in November, or otherwise. We are always prepared to support our work against inaccuracies spread by third parties. We understand the frustration and disappointment players can face and wish Jayson all the best.”
More from around the game…
- Even though former Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright will turn 37 years old on Aug. 30 and is in his second straight injury-plagued season, he suggested Wednesday (via Joe Trezza of MLB.com) that he hopes to pitch in 2019. “I want to see how things end,” Wainwright said. “But it would be really surprising to me if I came out and said I’m retiring.” A free agent at season’s end, Wainwright has made three DL trips this year (two on account of elbow issues) and hasn’t pitched in the majors since May 13.
- It “remains highly doubtful” Braves righty Mike Soroka will pitch again this season, Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweets. Soroka has been out since June 19 with inflammation in his pitching shoulder, and he still hasn’t been cleared to begin throwing again, according to Bowman. The highly touted 21-year-old began his major league career in promising fashion earlier this season, with a 3.51 ERA and 7.4 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 in 25 2/3 innings, but it appears the Braves will have to make do without him for the remainder of 2018. They currently lead the Diamondbacks by half a game for the NL’s second wild-card spot.
- The Dodgers have placed reliever Daniel Hudson on the 10-day DL and recalled ambidextrous reliever Pat Venditte from Triple-A, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. Hudson’s dealing with right forearm tightness – a potentially ominous injury for the 31-year-old, especially considering he’s already a two-time Tommy John surgery recipient. To this point, the Dodgers have gotten a good return on their investment in Hudson, whom they signed to a minor league deal in the first week of April. Hudson has tossed 43 2/3 innings this year and posted a 3.92 ERA with 8.2 K/9 against 3.7 BB/9.
november or march, werth was at the end of the line either way
Werth is now all anti-Boras’ posters’ hero Lol.
Still, no guarantee Werth would have made the cut, had he accepted that “offer” in November.
Really cool to hear the Mets were the one team he refused to suit up for/play for. This Yankee fan salutes you, Mr. Werth!
With Boras as his agent… doubting he worked for the best interest of the player he represented. Snake
Can you name one other time he didn’t have his clients best interests in mind. Even in this situation there’s no guarantee he did anything wrong with Werth.
“Can you name one other time he didn’t have his clients best interests in mind. ”
Well there was the time he sued Beltran for $1.3 million of a contract he didn’t negotiate.
I remember that. Brought back eerie vibes of Edwin Jackson Cubs’ contract, after he fired Boras. I don’t think Boras sued him however.
Glad Boras lost that case against Beltran, and glad Jackson is doing great with the A’s today.
Beltran was a former client and had a provision that even though was in their agreement, the arbitrator found it unenforceable. I wouldn’t quite classify it as him not having a clients best interests in mind.
Yea he just had his own wallet in mind, trying to collect money on contract he didn’t negotiate after Beltran left him because he didn’t like his service. Boras was upset because in his words it made him an “at will” employee.
Yeah. When he didn’t strongly urge Arrieta to take the deal the Cubs offered to both Darvish and him…
Yeah.. List is long of players forgotten by Boras after the shine wore of and he simply abandoned them to their fate and simply gave them the same “never sign right away” motto when FA hit, never mind how badly some should have..
You really want names?
Jason Varitek.. Had to come crawling back for a job
Felipe Lopez Long time solid player for many teams.. finally grew tired of the Boras nonsense and dumped him to the curb.
Stephen Drew Everyone remember this one.. A cpl times how bad he shanked him.
Mid tier players? Better of with someone else. just toy soldiers in his “army” to be used as fodder.
Greg Holland was offered 3 years 52Mil.. Boras convinced him to turn it down.
Settled for 1 yr 14mil and likely wont recieve more than league min rest of his career.
There was also the time Varitek turned down around 12Mil Q/O and ended up signing for way less.
Sometimes it works out good, but for the most part Boras is willing to risk losing guarenteed money for a chance at a bigger contract.
Theres plenty of examples. Just listed 2 off top of the head.
I can name a few.
• Moustakas
• CarGo
• Ervin Santana
•Stephen Drew
• Mike Napoli
I could really go on and on. Boras is banking on driving the market up, or taking realistic assessments with his players. I’ll give you another. I’m calling it now.
Bryce Harper.
I doubt he gets his $300m, and the nationals WOULD have given it to him in extension, but Boras pumped him up to thinking $500m was possible.
How did he screw those player over? Why are you acting like Boras makes the final choice?
Check out the 2009 contract for Jason Varitek. He was offered $10M for a 1 year contract under arbitration. Boras advised to reject it. He ended up signing a 1 year deal for $5M and a $5M club option/$3M player option for the second year. Best he could do was get the arbitration paycheck for double the playing time. Doesn’t sound like it was in the player’s best interest to me.
No, but he fills their heads with a bunch of BS causing them to make poor final choices when his job is to do the exact opposite.
One of the most ridiculous things I’ve had the misfortune of reading.
Considering the 7/126M contract Boras got Werth via the Nationals, I’d say Werth should be kissing his a$$.
As a fan Boras is easy to hate. But for every guy mentioned as blemishes on his record there are an absolute ton that he knocked it out of the park for. He negotiated so many deals that blew projections out of the water and reset the market. I get it if I was one of the guys that he miscalculated the market on id be pissed. But overall there’s none better in baseball and a lot of players and agents not affiliated with him have him to thank for raising the bar on player salaries over the years
“Really cool to hear the Mets were the one team he refused to suit up/plat for.”
Hey, x. Do you happen to know how the great Jackie Robinson’s career ended?
Round-V…both participants look exhausted fight fans!!!
Not even curious, tgcf? Robinson was traded by the Dodgers to the hated Giants. He chose to retire rather than report.
I know. I was answering to “is this round 4”.
I know. I was just disappointed that nobody was curious, not even x. Have things gotten to so bad that folks just assume when I ask a question it’s a trap?
Nope, everyone already knew it or didn’t care to participate in your baiting.
Lol wouldn’t play for the Mets!
I don’t blame him.
Met’s are a joke of an organization.
But but but…They made the WS in 2015.!!
Sadly, they will be remembered more for losing.
Making the WS 3 years ago, does not make them, NOT a circus. It starts and end with the Wilpons. Mets fans… Please stop using that WS appearance to excuse every Wilpon incompetence cheapness.
I remain cautiously optimistic the franchise will be re-born when Cespedes comes back… Maybe he breathes life into the team. I’m not a hater.. Just feel Mets’ fans let Wilpons off the hook too easily. You can still support them… won’t ask you to boycott team like others.. but admit Wilpons are some of the worst owners in pro-sports, NOT deserve to own the Mets.
You guys deserve better!
I don’t know one Mets fan who doesn’t already know and admit Wilpons are the worst owners in baseball (I reserve worst owner in all sports for Dan Snyder).
Attendance drops, fans complain on the talk shows, hell, we’ve had fans buy billboards outside our stadium telling the Wilpons to sell! But they’re stubborn and league is just not going to force a sale.
I honestly think there should be protests out of the Wilpons’ corporate offices.
I’m not a Mets fan, but I have to disagree. How excactly are they a bad ownership? They have invested over $150 million in payroll each year for the past three years. Attendance has dropped because the team is playing bad, but what do you expect when your whole team is injury prone. The Mets are hesitant to trade all their top players because they want to compete, but they don’t have much space to add any more talented players (they are currently committed to $183 million). If they do a full rebuild, then the attendance will drop even more
Mets signed Cespedes to a monster contract after that.
Pirates wouldn’t even bring back Marlon Byrd or AJ Burnett to keep the team competetive…
List of guys Pirates have dumped/let go after a productive season:
Gerrit Cole
AJ Burnett
Neil Walker
Marlon Byrd
Edinson Volquez
JA Happ
Justin Morneau
Andrew McCutchen
Nyjer Morgan
Freddie Sanchez
– might not look great but never had much talent to begin with-
Players theyve resigned after a productive run:
(Crickets)
Ya I’ll take the Wilpons any day. You take Bob Nutting, fair?
Forgot Jason Bay dumped for Andy LaRoche too.
Left off Melancon cuz actually made sense and actually got a decent return.
Ps i hated Meadows for Archer when it happened, way before Archer stunk as expected.
Huntington might be the worst GM of all time, and was just rewarded witb an extension.
Nova resigned
If they called to offer a job, I bet his tune would’ve changed.
Talk about bad owners look no further than the rays
I don’t blame Wainwright. If someone is going to pay him to rehab, why retire?
The Dodger Stadium bullpen needs Venditte’s Vendetta!
Didn’t Boras get him that over priced deal with the Nats?
Where’s the gratitude?
I know, right? Werth alone is probably one of the big reasons teams are scared off of giving out big deals to aging players
The RF with the Cubs is on line one.
Jason Heyward is “aging?” Stop commenting and get a brain.
Oh I know. Every team except for maybe the Rays, A’s, and Pirates have a bad contract. It’s just that Werth was either bad or injured for over half of his 7 year deal.
“Jayson Heyward is “aging?” what in the world does that have to do with anything about my post? “Stop commenting and get a brain” Maybe explain your jibber-jabber and how it pertains to anything.
He was very obviously replying to the post before yours.
No he wasn’t. That makes you the dumbest one smh
If Werth is going to make bold claims in an attempt to bury someone else, he better be prepared to back it up. Boras Co snapped back pretty quickly offering up facts – does Jayson have anything to support his claims?
Either way, he should probably be thankful for the massive contract that he got but didn’t really deserve.
Exactly. I like werth. However, the contract boras got him with the nationals was astounding at the time
What was his contract?
Count down 3 posts after your post.
Hint: If u kno Barry Zito’s contract, you’ll kno
One of the worst contracts given out in MLB history. Werth should kiss Boras’s photo every time he checks his bank balance.
Werth got 7 years $126M.
EXACT yrs/sum as OF Vernon Wells, Barry Zito…
Seriously?
He was paid to deliver $18M/year worth of value (using $8M/win). He delivered $16.5M/year worth of value. The contract was upside down by $11M. Over 7 years that’s a negative value of $1.5M/year. Big freaking deal. 14.4 fWAR over 7 years isn’t awful.
All told, the Nats did pretty darn well with the signing. Normally 31 years old signed to 7 year deals end up horribly. The fact that this was a slight overpay hardly checks out as “one of the worst contracts given out in MLB history”.
By way of comparison – Zito was at $137M (with the option buyout). His 7 years netted a total of 6.7 fWAR (less than half of Werth’s deal). Wells was somehow even worse. $126M bought the Jays and Angels just 4.7 fWAR.
There are some really, really ugly contracts in the history of baseball. Werth’s was not one of them.
Thanks for the Zito correction! Buyouts 🙂
Dude you’re on the internet. double check what you say if you’re trying to make a point. LOL, some of this stuff you would know if you watched baseball….
Water is dry. oh wait it’s wet?! thanks for the correction!
Thank you. Contribute nothing but mindless criticism. (Your specialty)
“There are some really, really ugly contracts in the history of baseball. Werth’s was not one of them.”
Correct. Werth was brought in to bring a “winning” atmosphere to a perennial loser. He did that. He was expected to provide hands-on guidance for budding stars like Harper, and he did that too. He played all 3 OF positions and batted everywhere from first to sixth without protest or complaint. Reached the point where it didn’t make sense to keep him around as a player, but I don’t sense that the Nats have any regrets about signing him.
Are chats not a thing anymore?
Werth would’ve fit right in with the rest of the Mets. That would’ve been one hell of a 2012 All star team.
Are chats no longer a thing?
What a piece of garbage Scott Boras is/was/will always be.
Yea a guy who gets the best for his clients, what a scumbag.
Boras does what’s best for Boras
He is a scumbag. He also got Werth more cash than he deserved in the past
Boras is a scumbag
You’d think the players would realize this if it were actually true.
Bruh you have more issues then a corner newsstand…
oh gosh no….
DH says what?
Has society really degenerated to the point that “bruh” is a word?
Thought rest of his post was pretty clever. Don’t think society has “degenerated” to point you’re emphasizing.
Take the stick out bruh
+1
Boras is a scourge.
Wait, i thought Vendette was amphibious
Actually, he’s ambiguous and ambivalent — but also ambitious!
Sometimes abysmal
Gold.
You win the internet today. I’m gonna stop saying all those bad things about you.
Reading the article, Werth sounds like a jerk. I’m not a Boras fan but I’m inclined to believe him when he says there weren’t offers and especially if he keeps his logs. Protecting himself from malpractice is no joke. Then listening to him whine about “nerds” ruining baseball is pathetic. Intelligent data driven people are affecting everything, and with baseball it’s a lot of finding trends to help front offices and players achieve the best results. It’s not about stripping anything away from the game. There’s always going to be an important human element to baseball. It seems more like old guys who only knew something one way aren’t well equipped to learn that they had made some mistakes and that some new ways are better.
I think Boras made that comment more in an attempt to sell a client. He always goes 100% for his clients because when they make money, he makes money.
Yes, he says a lot of extreme statements, but I guarantee you that the next client he has who looks mediocre to traditional stats, but destroys it in more modern stats, he’ll be preaching the value of modern day baseball savants.
No, Werth was making the statements about the nerds ruining baseball. Not Boras. We know Boras has been using advanced statistics to sell clients to teams.
Agree 100%. Werth does not come off as believable. He either has his wires crossed or simply stated something that is not true. Leave your Boras opinions aside, what possible motivation does an agent have for not getting his player signed? You all realize that Boras only makes money when Werth gets a contract right? And I can’t believe that Boras would hold out knowing that simply getting Werth ANYTHING at this stage of his career would be nothing short of a modern miracle.
The comments about the stat stuff really irked me. It’s because of the stat minded front office that Werth landed such a good contract. Traditional clubs would have looked past his OBP. They wouldn’t have appreciated his baserunning (beyond just SB’s) or his fielding (no awards). Additionally, this stat minded front office took over a horrible organization and made them into one of the best teams in baseball over the past half decade. Finally, his old team remained mired in traditional management and look what happened to them. The Phillies are only just now turning a corner and that’s due to a more analytical front office approach.
All in all, Werth does not come off well.
wainwright wanted to pitch in 17 and 18, also. three peat
Yeah you fight the power Scotty B
someone needs to take boras behind woodshed for a good ole ass whoopin.
So Boras made you over $100M and at 39 you pull that stunt? Lol. How many 39 year olds still play(other than Bart)? I’m talking position players. Go ahead,I’ll wait. No kidding? None? No fooling?
Adrian Beltre
HOFer. Few cut out from the same cloth as Beltre.
Has to be the most immature, petty and obnoxious thing I have heard in sports in a long while. Dude had a good year hitting behind Howard and Utley and parlayed it into one of the most un-earned contracts in recent memory. Then again, Howard Eskin brings that out in a lot of folks. If only Werth had joined the Mets, the whole year would have been saved! You have to be wanted to turn someone down. And even the Mets didn’t want him…..
“We received no offers for Jayson in November, or otherwise.” – Scott Boras
I’m sure Jayson Werth had verbal commitments but they weren’t good enough for Scott Boras. So there were no official offer from an MLB team.
That’s unethical and he would lose his license.
My only question is then why did Jayson Werth say “I had offers in November.” So either Werth is lying or Boras is lying. Which makes me feel like the two had a different definition of what an “offer” is.
Hi Jayson, Mets fan here… We didn’t want your mediocre nonsense anyway
What happened, imo:
BorasCo: hey we spoke to INSERT-TEAM, and they’d be happy to have you in on a spring training contract, and looking at their OF, you definitely have a chance to at least back up, maybe start if INSERTYOUNGPLAYERNAME struggles. What do you think?
Werth: Spring training invite, can we do better?
BCo: Up to you bud. (This guy is difficult, he should retire)
Werth: Okay, let’s keep that one in mind but keep looking, ya?
BCo: Ok sure JW, you’re our favorite client!
Hangs up.
BCo: that guy is delusional, did you see his ’17 stats? He’s lucky to get that invite, I had to call in a favor… Hey, did TEAMX call back about BETTERCLIENT? Offer in?
Then nothing. BCo probably backburnered the hell of Werth’s file, and Werth rightfully questioned their activity level. Case closed
Lol
Werth was done 2 years ago
He should relax
Live the dream and shut up
He got a great contract with the Nats
I’m inclined to believe Werth over Boras. Boras has bigger clients to screw over. How did he also have time for a small paycheck like Werth?
That said, you make your bed at Boras’ corner of hell, you sleep in that bed. And don’t complain about the heat. There’s a reason a lot of these guys sign Boras for their big pay day negotiations and then fire him after.
Regardless, it shouldn’t be that hard to verify Werth’s statements. Not sure what third party Boras is referring to—29 GMs?
Like many agents Boras has a law degree. I am certain that is quite helpful. I am not sure how many other agents also have a Doctorate in Industrial Pharmacology though. I’m not sure if that is helpful. Maybe someone could as Barry, Manny, A-rod etc.
Werthless lol
Why? Because I’m werth it
Hasn’t Huston Street been his own agent for a while now? I mean, hell $68.8m is a pretty good deal if he did in fact do it himself. No commission.
Sorry Jayson Werth, but I think you are delusional about an offer in November.
You are on the wrong side of the prime years, and its not even close.
Numerous consecutive disappointing years, and will be age 39 in 2018 season.
Not many teams will be banking on a turn around, and would prefer to use younger players for the same role (especially since you are performing below replacement level much less average MLB level).
Hoping Soroka comes back strong next year and takes the next step in development. Really enjoyed seeing him pitch this season
I’m literally in tears that one of the douchiest players in MLB history didn’t want to play for the Mets. Get lost.
“They’ve got all these super nerds in the front office that know nothing about baseball but they like to project numbers and project players,” Werth said.
Guess he doesn’t realize alot of MLB fans, esp those involved in fantasy league use metrics too. A gazillionaire basically crapping on the fans. Good riddance
If Wainwriht wants to pitch in 2019,it will be as a reliever with the Cardinals,or a starter somewhere else. One more siginificant injury,he might call it a career but could be wrong.