Veteran catcher Martin Maldonado, who remains unsigned despite the fact that Opening Day is just three weeks away, has made a change in representation and hired Dan Lozano of the MVP Sports Group as his new agent, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports (via Twitter). Maldonado had previously been with the Boras Corporation after hiring them at the end of August.
That Maldonado remains unsigned has seemed an oddity in recent weeks; while he’s unequivocally a below-average hitter, the 32-year-old is also among the game’s premier defenders at his position. As I noted about three weeks ago when Maldonado was linked to the Mariners, the 2016 Gold Glover ranks third among all active catchers in Defensive Runs Saved dating back to the 2012 season, trailing only Buster Posey and Yadier Molina — each of whom has caught at least 2000 more innings than Maldonado in that span. He’s also a perennially strong pitch framer with a career 38 percent caught-stealing rate, including a ridiculous 49 percent mark in 2018 (17-for-35).
It’s true that Maldonado’s lifetime .220/.289/.350 batting line is unsightly, and his career 73 OPS+ lines up identically with the 73 OPS+ he’s posted over the past two seasons. Teams know that while Maldonado has a bit of pop, he’s generally going to be a weak spot in the lineup. Still, given his exceptional defensive prowess, that seems a worthwhile trade-off — at the very least in a backup role.
Maldonado’s recent asking price remains unclear, though the Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish reported in late February that the holdup between Maldonado and the Mariners was merely over a guaranteed MLB deal. If Maldonado has indeed struggled to so much as find a guaranteed contract this winter, that’d be a fairly stunning revelation. It’s possible, of course, that the initial ask was perceived to be steep, and many clubs throughout the league have now either addressed their catching situation in alternative fashion or have limited funds. That said, bringing Maldonado aboard as a backup at what figures to be a moderate price would seem an easy upgrade for many clubs.
Beyond the Mariners, Maldonado has been tied to the Royals since it became clear that Salvador Perez would require Tommy John surgery. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman linked Maldonado to the Rockies earlier this morning, as well.
Maldonado’s switch in representation will be reflected in MLBTR’s Agency Database. If you see any errors or omissions within that database, please let us know via email: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.
Looks like Boras’s reign might be on the downhill.
Does anybody else know about Scott’s problems at the poker table?
I’ve known for quite sometime, that he was a big gambler, I still think its crazy he has the reputation he has in baseball, guys a complete jerk.
Baseball is better suited with him out of the picture, his brother is an great guy….. Let him run the show.
Do you know Scott Boras and his brother personally, or are you an investigative reporter we should take seriously?
Lol idk what you’d call me.
I’ve played black jack in Vegas with him.
This is not breaking news to anyone within any little circle.
I just think Boras spent most of the offseason getting Bryce signed. Boras will be alright for at least the next 10 years. Then the Mets will hire him as their GM.
im sure Bryce took up all of focus this offseason, which will scare a lot of players off. Unless you are they are best of the best players will probably be more apprehensive being represented by him.
Even the Bryce deal fell short of expectations. I do feel like his ability to make something out of nothing is starting to get old and teams are catching on. The market is also changing so that is also a factor. He did have an era of dominance there for a bit.
Meh nobody says anything for all the guys he’s got deals for. And you can’t really blame him for not getting a great deal for a good defense first catcher when over half the league doesn’t give a care about winning baseball games.
its not just about Maldonado, but all his clients currently unemployed. I think this offseason makes some of his clients think he’s more focused on the very upper echelon of players, and that other agencies will take better care of them. I don’t know if he did indeed operate like this, but im sure some of his clients are thinking it right now.
As noted below — Boras Corp has gotten MLB deals for 11 non-Harper players this winter:
Brad Boxberger, Zach Britton, Marwin Gonzalez, Matt Harvey, Jeremy Hellickson, Greg Holland, Jordy Mercer, Mike Moustakas, Oliver Perez, Trevor Rosenthal and Yusei Kikuchi
Not making excuses for the guy and I have no personal interest in whether he looks good or bad (though I do find him entertaining), but the picture you’re painting doesn’t really line up with reality. He has a few prominent free agents unsigned, but that’s true of other agencies as well (Kimbrel, Adam Jones, etc.)
Does seem to have erred on Maldonado, but that’s not exactly uncommon, either. I think people want to dislike Boras and want him to fail because he’s vocal and perceived as “greedy” for trying to extract max dollars for players. But, the same mentality exists at virtually every other agency, and this type of thing happens elsewhere, as well.
Bud Norris dropped a major agency (Wasserman) for Ballengee Group mid-free agency this winter, for instance. Shrug. It happens.
I would just have to question how much of those signings had to do with Boras’s ability as an agent vs the fact that a lot of those deals were finalized earlier in the offseason. Early deals end up more commonly being overpays then deals later in the offseason, and many of these deals were still for only low AAV and low year numbers. Youd have to imagine if guys in the realm of Keuchel and Kimbrel would think they can do better elsewhere. again, im.not saying he has done a bad job, but that players in that echelon may see it that way.
Kimbrel isn’t a Boras client.
Thank you. The rabid animus of some towards Boras manifests itself too often as stupidity.
As the name implies, Boras Corporation is a group of lawyers and agents, not just Scott Boras doing everything by himself. They are perfectly capable of obtaining contracts for multiple players at one time. As was noted elsewhere, the delay at getting Machado and Harper placed seem to put most of the teams on hold, until they could figure out next steps. Failure of front offices to act doesn’t mean player agents are idle.
I love Machete, but sometimes a good player enters FA at the wrong time. It wasn’t that long ago Beltre couldn’t get a deal, took a 1-year contract with Red Sox, lit it up in Boston and got his big deal with Texas the following Winter. And yes, Scott Boras’ company wrote those deals, too.
Eh everyone thought Beltre was an averagish player due to his weaker offensive numbers in Seattle and he was coming off a horrible offensive year. He more that likely took a one year deal to prove it was the stadium that weaken his offensive numbers. He bet on himself rather than settling for what matket valued him at. I think the comparison here is a little off.
Losing a mediocre player doesn’t mean that at all
Boras had bigger fish to fry.
Classic big agency story. Top 1%, 5%, or 10% of clients get the bulk of the firm’s attention in exchange for generating the bulk of its revenues, bottom 10% or more get little to no attention from anyone.
The most dangerous place in some ways for a client to be is in the gray area between. Get complacent, figure your agency always has your best interests in mind, and risk finding out a year or two after it’s too late that you’d been largely ignored by your own representatives.
You can’t really make that argument in an offseason where Boras Corp got MLB deals for Brad Boxberger, Zach Britton, Marwin Gonzalez, Matt Harvey, Jeremy Hellickson, Greg Holland, Jordy Mercer, Mike Moustakas, Oliver Perez, Trevor Rosenthal and Yusei Kikuchi, though.
It seems quite possible that he aimed too high on Maldonado and on Keuchel, for that matter, but it’s not as if the company neglected its clientele and zeroed in solely on Harper. They did more than $100MM of guaranteed money for 11 other clients, before even factoring in Wieters and others who signed minor league contracts.
But if Jody Mercer found an MLB deal and Maldonado can’t, that’s pretty bad on Boras..
From what I heard, the Royals and other teams are very interested but Maldonado/Boras wants a guaranteed MLB deal, which is pretty silly considering he’s a career .220 hitter.
That’s probably the reason why Boras is no longer his agent. Manny might just want to get on the field at this point.
a lot of these players were signed earlier on the offseason and got only one year deals at limited value. A lot of teams jump and overpay for players right off the bat.
But Steve, he has blown it for Moustakas 2 years in a row. By declining the QO both years, Moose has left a TON of money on the table.
bigun…………..
“By declining the QO both years”……ummmmmm…sarcasm of some sort?
1)Players can only be offered a QO once
2)A player traded in the middle of the season can’t be offered a QO
Moose got hosed. He will now play 2 seasons for less than what he would have received for the qualifying offer.
Wieters was rumored not long ago to be in line for a crazy sum. Boras wanted him to hit free agency. He got hosed.
Not discounting the $325M for Harper as that is a massive sum of cash. But an entire offseason to get his client three years for $30M combined?
Remember the extension Dallas was offered a couple years ago? Looks to be another fail.
Publicly stating that Boras was wanting 6-7 years at $25-$30M annually is a joke.
Marwin Gonzalez signed for significantly less than anticipated. Once again Boras started off by asking for the moon, and fell flat.
Then you take into consideration that the Boras corporation is pulling down $105M annually with commission rates of 6%. He was the best of the best for decades. But one would be kidding themselves if they thought Boras has done a good job since the new CBA took place. He’s been outmaneuvered any way that you look at it.
He only had one Qualifying Offer to turn down, not two.
Any idiot can get Bryce Harper signed. Guys like this have no business hiring Boras.
Agreed that it wouldn’t take a brilliant agent to get Harper signed. Boras went through a soap opera with his client. All to get an additional 3 years at $25M. All but a joke
I think Bryce wanted to break a salary record as well and who do you hire when you want the most money possible… I do think he missed though as he wanted to break the yearly average too.
Maldanado’s in no-man’s land. Despite the defense, he’s basically “meh”, in a world where “meh”= AAA minimum wage player. Why pay anymore?
KC? Ya, so they win 70 games instead of 68. Dayton Moore will have a tough time defending to ownership spending 3M a year for that. More than one GM has been tossed out the door for that kind of move.
There’s an argument to be made that Maldonado’s defense would improve the development of the young pitching staff. Perhaps in the long term, those arms produce more because of learning from him. Stretch?
“I” don’t think it’s a stretch; I’m a big Maldonado fan. But “I” don’t have to face the suits with their pencils and laptops at the end of the year.
No reason the Royals cant spend a bit if only to flip him at the deadline and use him as a passable reciever for the staff, to say nothing of the council he can give to Gallagher and Viloria.
How do you flip a glove only catcher? There generally isn’t much of a market for backup catchers who can’t hit at the trade deadline.
Bora$$ may be a jerk, but he is probably the best agent in all of sports. But he honestly has totally missed the change in the free agent market and that has hurt some of his clients. Do not blame Maldonado one bit for firing him and finding a different agent. No reason he should not have a major league job somewhere.
Nah, the best agent in all of sport is whoever got Derek Carr the deal that made him the highest paid player in the NFL.
I don’t know why a player’s agency is news. Who cares?
In this instance, the broader appeal would be that Maldonado is a current free agent who is shifting representatives, which could obviously have an impact on his market.
In a broader sense, we’re also very cognizant of the fact that many in the industry track news on our site/app. Agency changes don’t matter to most readers, but they matter to the agents, teams, reporters etc. who follow along at MLBTR, and it’s the sort of thing that won’t be widely covered elsewhere.
Obviously, we know it won’t matter to a sizable portion of our readers, but generally speaking, it’s also not that hard to scroll past the post. It’s something we’ll largely continue to do — particularly in more prominent cases such as this one.
Then why didn’t you have a write up on the Mendoza hire?
What does that have to do with this?
We didn’t cover that because there is no indication at this point that she’s going to have a substantial decisionmaking role. For the most part we only cover higher-level front office hirings — everyday decisionmaker types. We do occasionally cover special advisor type hirings of notable former players, but typically end up facing gripes from some readers.
that’s hardly the case. representation has a lot to do with how much a player will sign with in some cases.
I’m guessing Boras went into free agency using Jason Castro as a comp. He probably wanted a raise on it since it’s a couple of years old. And he probably would have settled for no raise, and only two years since Maldonado is older. And he probably had a lot of people hang up on him when he put that out as being as low as he would go because that’s what Ramos went for and obviously no one is going to pay Ramos money for Maldonado.
It’s weird that he doesn’t have a deal. He is a major leaguer.
Yeah, and even though Maldonado has been a weak hitter throughout his career, the fact that Jeff Mathis has signed and he has not yet is mindboggling to me. Considering that Mathis is one of the worst hitters of all time and if he wasn’t so good defensively he would’ve been out of the league years ago because of how awful he is offensively.
Let’s say Agency A represents two catchers with very similar skillsets, “intangibles” and career numbers.
Is that agency legally required to put in the same amount of effort in securing them jobs? Does one player get preference over the other based on the structure of the Agent-Client contract? Are conflict of interest issues possible?
No way around the fact that Boras has badly served his Astro’s clients, as well as badly mis-read the free agent market. At the end of last season, per Buster O, Maldonado was offered 2 years/$12 M total – Boras wouldn’t even respond. At the same time, on good authority, Marwin G was offered 2 years/$9 M/year – opening offer. Boras again no response, Then before Diaz and Chirnos were signed, the team went back to Boras on both Maldonado/Gonzalez to see if they wished to engage – radio silence..
And Keuchel . is a much longer story, but he spurned multiple offers from the Stros..
And when Altuve negotiated his long term deal, he specifically told Boras he wanted to get a deal done with the team, and Jose did some of the negotiations himself.
I imagine Cole will have some strong input when his time comes at the end of this season. .