The most recent offseason was undoubtedly disappointing for the players on the whole. Many of them signed deals well south of expectations, with the most high-profile examples being the so-called “Boras Four”. Each of Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Matt Chapman and Cody Bellinger, who are all represented by the Boras Corporation, lingered on the market deep into the offseason and ultimately signed deals below industry forecasts, though with opt-outs that will allow them to retest free agency in the future.
The two pitchers in that foursome evidently have different feelings about how this played out, based both on their actions and their words. Montgomery landed a one-year, $25MM deal with the Diamondbacks that didn’t become official until March 29. The deal also contained a $20MM vesting player option that Montgomery could unlock with at least ten starts in 2024, with his 18th and 23rd starts also adding $2.5MM to the option. On April 11, less than two weeks after that deal was signed, it was reported that Montgomery had switched his representation from Scott Boras to Joel Wolfe and Nick Chanock of Wasserman.
“I don’t know, obviously Boras kind of butchered it,” Montgomery said last week, per Mac Cerullo of the Boston Herald, “so I’m just trying to move on from the offseason and try to forget it.” Montgomery adds that, to his knowledge, he didn’t receive an offer from the Red Sox in the winter.
“Yeah, for sure. Me and my wife loved it here. She was at Beth Israel for a year, love the area, love the fans,” Montgomery said when asked whether he would have considered an offer from the Sox. “It would have been awesome if it had worked out that way, but it didn’t.”
The Herald also received a comment from Boras himself in response. “I saw what Jordan said. I know what it is to be frustrated with this game. As a former player I feel for him. But I’m also a lawyer with obligations to my clients, including former ones. So I cannot discuss what happened or the decisions Jordan made unless he gives me permission,” Boras said. “If he gives me the green light I’ll be happy to talk about it. I’ve been doing this for over 35 years. I relay all offers and relevant information to all my clients and act at their direction. They make all decisions. We wish Jordan well.”
Montgomery was frequently connected to the Red Sox both because the club was in need of starting pitching and because his wife was working in the area, as he mentioned. Most reporting throughout the offseason suggested that the two sides weren’t close to agreeing on a deal. In early March, Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported that the two sides were in contact but that Montgomery was looking for a seven-year deal that the Sox didn’t want to give out.
We can’t know for sure what sorts of discussions were taking place between Boras and the Red Sox, or any other teams, but Montgomery is clearly not thrilled with the way it played out. Not everyone places the blame on Boras though, as Blake Snell is still a Boras guy and defended him when asked about the Montgomery comments.
“My experience with Scott has been great,” Snell said yesterday, per Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. “He told me everything that was happening, all the offers I got. So for him to just get bashed for what I believe is false, that’s not fair at all. I really strongly believe that.”
When asked about Montgomery’s tough time, Snell responded thusly: “He signed the deal that he ultimately wanted to sign,” Snell said. “He has the choice. I don’t know what other deals he was offered, but I know everything that was offered to me. It’s just sad that he thinks that way when I see Scott as a very honorable man.”
Boras has a lengthy track record of securing huge deals for his clients but it’s possible that he still could have whiffed on the recent offseason, which Snell was asked about. “Yeah, or it could just be a free agency where no one was really pushing to get anybody,” said Snell. “It sucks because that was … our year to get our deals that we worked so hard to get. But ultimately the market’s the market. You can’t control it. You can’t get upset about it the way it is. Just pitch better, find a way to do better, continue to compete. Whatever you believe you deserve, you go earn it.”
There is some logic to Snell’s framing of the winter, which was mostly defined by a lack of spending. Only four free agents got nine-figure deals in the winter, as shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, compared to nine in the previous offseason. Of the four from the most recent winter, three of them were fairly unique cases. One of those was the mega deal for Shohei Ohtani, who is an unprecedented talent. Two others were for 25-year-olds coming over from Asia: Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jung Hoo Lee. The fourth was for Aaron Nola. The rest of the market was modest, with solid regulars like Amed Rosario, Jurickson Profar, Randal Grichuk, Michael A. Taylor and others getting $4MM or less. It would appear that Montgomery believes Boras could have handled that environment better while Snell simply views it as something that was beyond his control.
In addition to their differing opinions about the past, both players now appear to have divergent future. Montgomery has struggled badly with the Snakes this year and was recently moved to the bullpen. As of today, he has a 6.44 earned run average through 95 innings and 19 starts. Unless he turns things around dramatically in the coming weeks, it would appear his best course of action is to take his player option and hope for better results in 2025. By making at least 18 starts this year, he has unlocked that option and raised the value to $22.5MM.
Snell, on the other hand, has been on fire after a slow start. By the end of June, he had two stints on the injured list, six starts and a 9.51 ERA. But he came off the IL in early July and has posted a 1.30 ERA in his nine most recent starts, including a no-hitter against the Reds earlier in August. The lefty signed a two-year, $62MM deal with the Giants that allows him to opt-out at season’s end. He could trigger a $30MM player option for 2025 but could also walk away with $32MM banked and then take another shot at free agency.
If he keeps putting up good numbers for the next few weeks, it’s highly likely that another trip to the open market is in the cards. Speaking of the rest of the season, Snell says that “I’ll enjoy those starts and make the most of them and we’ll figure out what happens after that later,” before adding that he has high confidence in Boras to handle whatever comes next. “Of course,” Snell said. “High confidence. Really high.”
Boras tends to be a polarizing figure in baseball circles, so the struggles of the “Boras Four” led to a lot of schadenfreude and declarations that he was “washed” or over the hill. However, Boras is well set up to be a key player in free agency again this winter. Snell, Chapman and Bellinger will all have chances to return to the open market, while Boras also represents big-name players slated for free agency this winter such as Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, Yusei Kikuchi, Sean Manaea, Tyler O’Neill, J.D. Martinez and many others. What those players will be entering another frosty market or not remains to be seen.
I’m sure Montgomery was disappointed with how it played out. There’s also the angle that perhaps front offices anticipated that his performance might drop off and therefore were less inclined to offer him a big deal. We’ll never know the full truth. I just doubt that in this case Boras deserves the primary blame. I’m sure he overplayed his hand, but that shouldn’t be the ultimate deciding factor for who is to blame.
I feel like Monty really wanted money right now and wasn’t willing to take a lower offer for a contending playoff team
well Monty managed to get a offer from the NL Champs so it worked out for him
Hard to believe 5/125m wasn’t on the table somewhere for a very good pitcher albeit one in his 30s.
A 7 year deal, though, for a player with all of one season, CAREER, better than a 117 ERA+, and only one season w better than 3.3 WAR?
He wasn’t thinking, and he could have hired independent evaluators to see what his likeliest deal was going to be instead of relying on Boras’s judgment. He could also have instructed Boras to aim for a 5/125m deal.
The thing was at the time Monty looked a lot better than his Yankees and even cardinals tenure after the WS run
Texas Monty looked like a strong #2 starter and he had a ton of hype
Good thing none of the teams caved in
Montgomery wasn’t asking for 5 / $125MM though. He wanted 7 years and more than the $172MM Nola got.
Snell turned down $150MM from the Yankees, and I’m sure Montgomery turned down some 9 figure offers. Montgomery was aggressive and gambled on the market. It didn’t work out, and he’s pitching poorly which is going to have a catastrophic impact on his future earnings. That’s the risk, and he should take responsibility and accept it.
Boras had so many clients waiting for a contract late in the offseason the media came up with a nickname the Boras four. I am pretty sure this is Boras’ fault.
I assume players sign waivers because there is a built in conflict when the agent represents multiple players that in some cases are going after the same team’s dollars. Boras has historically represented clients well as back in the day no one was more prepared. His use of stats I believe was even before Bill James (or around the same time). That said, having too many clients can be an issue as well. Bottom line is a player needs to in most cases look in the mirror and file a grievance or E & O claim if you believe the agent did you wrong
Or you can just fire your agent. Like Montgomery did……
It’s clear Boras attracts similarly motivated clients. Expectations are the selling point, and Boras’ reputation, inflexible negotiating style, and likely advice to his client left his now disgruntled client in the lurch. A lot of this deflecting blame by Boras is to protect this money factor he has cultivated where greedy players fall right into his lap.
The major problem is not with Boras, it’s when Boras controls so many high priced players lesser players get screwed.
So you’re saying it’s Boras that’s the problem.
padam – I think they’re also saying “the major problem isn’t guns, it’s when so many guns are used to shoot people”. LMAO!!
“Controls so many high priced players lesser players get screwed”…The interests of Scott Boras are direct contradiction to 95% of the players in the MLBPA. The fact that Scott Boras and players like Max Scherzer have so much influence on policy in the MLBPA is a conflict of interest and a complete disservice to 95% of the current(and many in the past)baseball players in the Major Leagues.
MLB – In a similar vein, I find it utterly hilarious that when multiple teams refuse to pay what Boras wants for a player because they know he’s not worth it, they are accused of “collusion” …… but yet Boras can instruct all 5 of his top clients to hold out past February and that’s somehow NOT collusion, even though technically it is.
yes, and the union has been overall solid for a few decades- focusing on raising the floor for the fringe guys- since they are the bulk of the league while not capping the top earners.
it really is a fine line they have to walk, since it is not as simple as many unions where you can just agree to a pay scale.
At this point, i am also not sure how much the lower tier guys care to push their pay. Even rookie contracts are life changing amounts of money. I could more realistically see the push to be raising the minor league pay scale- but that is tricky since they cannot get too much or the minor leagues becomes a bigger net loss for the club (and do you really need that many levels for that cost, or do you do shared AAA clubs and bring more guys in from the Mexican league when you need a guy)
Let’s assume Boras informs his clients of all offers made. I think it is fair to assume that Boras also advises his clients about whether or not to take each offer. So, I am guessing Montgomery thinks he got bad advice from Boras. It is interesting that Boras does not make any mention of advising clients in his comments. He makes it sound like he is a just a middleman between his clients and teams. I am guessing that Boras is misleading people with his comments. Boras didn’t lie, but I don’t think he told the whole truth either. That’s my speculation.
Every agent has to inform their clients about every single offer even if it’s a horrible one, we learned this from Freddie freeman’s situation
legitimate offer, but you are right. and when in doubt you take the offer to the client. It also really comes down to spin to your cleint too- ie do you tell them that this is the best they are likely to see, or do you tell them that you think there is more to get.
As a lawyer, when i start a case, i normally get parameters from my clients for settlement so i do not need to call them every 10 minutes. Normally it is a starting offer (the gold standard of what we want), and the floor of what is acceptable (and permission to decline anything short of that point). That way they only get maybe 2 calls while i am settling the case (ie “hey they offered above your floor, but i think there is meat on the bone still, can i decline and push for more” or “i know i could accept X, but they best offer i could get from them is Y, how do you want to proceed”)
note- lawyer but not an agent.
James123
i normally get parameters from my clients for settlement
==============================
I always assumed that would be the best approach for negotiating mid-season. If I were a player, I’d tell my agent and the GM that I had no interest in talking mid-season, but that I gave my agent a set of numbers that would get it done.
I see no reason for the players to get involved unless the contract was 90% final.
I highly doubt boras tells his client about every offer and I know for a fact he tells them not to sign certain contracts. He advises players to go to free agency. Boras is the best agent there’s no disputing that. But him whining and crying and screwing over his clients particularly the ones with draft picks attached and complaining about rules that have been in place for years gets old. He’s got his own agenda and risked Stephen Drew’s and morales and Jordan Montgomery and others financial futures.
TsIT
” I know for a fact he tells them not to sign certain contracts”
How so?
TsIT
I know for a fact he tells them not to sign certain contracts
How so?
even the means of how he communicates them matter. I am sure every one (or virtually every one) that ends a conversation is communicated (ie if he is floated X and then they bicker back and forth and the team goes to X+10, then he only needs to bring the x+10 to his client)
If the offer is a personal call from him- that is likely a good offer he wants you to take. If it is an email from his assistant- it is one you can likely ignore since the email is just the CYA that shows it was sent to you
I noticed that too, it’s weird how he framed himself as a secretary relaying messages with no additional agency in the decision.
Boras also puts a lot of players in the wrong cities, A-Rod in Texas
,Werth to Washington
Pope
Boras doesn’t put any players anywhere.
They choose where to put themselves based on the offers they receive
Boris clients on average end up way over paid verses there on field performance after the signing. Nobody likes listening to Boris’s player hype and crazy asking prices! Player greed is how he keeps getting more clients! Ohtani signed the largest deal in history and his agent did a great job of running the process! The players need to realise Boris is yesterdays news and in many cases having him as their agent is limiting their potential audience! Some clubs refuse to deal with him!
rotten – The most powerful always fall eventually, and Boras is no different.
Last offseason could very well be the start of his descent.
Boras has too many of the stars, so most teams feel the need to deal with him.
You are right though, as many of his deals turn terrible, they become an albatross, so some teams are unwilling to go that big for anyone since the risk is too high. If you give Soto 500m over the next 10, for about half the league- if he is not a superstar, that is half of their payroll in the garbage.
wood – Sorry but to ignore the fact that all 5 of Scott’s top free agents happened to be the ONLY ones who went into ST without a contract makes you a Boras apologist.
Players hire Boras because of his longtime reputation for getting far more money than is often expected, he’s the one that usually demands excessive contracts …. not the players. He is paid to give his advice, last offseason was totally on him. No player is going to pay him and then ignore his advice, that would be as dumb as hiring a financial advisor and then ignoring what they recommend.
you hire an attorney or agent to get their advice.
I think it was bonds back in the day that would hire a lawyer who was a friend of the family and would bill him by the hour to negotiate his contract. I am shocked this is not more common. Even a partner level lawyer is like 1000-1500 an hour (run of the mill lawyer is 250-500 an hour, my rate is 400-450 in my specialty with about 10 years of expertise)- which sounds like a lot until you see an agent get 5%. of tens of millions. I am not sure how boilerplate the MLB contract is, but the actual nuts and bolts are not all that complex, and virtually any lawyer can handle the legal side.
I am shocked that more players do not do this. If you have a value in mind and the team is within spitting distance, why not save 3-5% by just hiring a lawyer to handle the nuts and bolts and take the marginal cut.
James – Better yet, players sometimes are their own agents.
In fact Kenny Rogers fired Boras and became his own agent.
I’m not a Boras fan but I love how he took the high road here.
I think it’s obvious Montgomery was holding out for the big payday and the big years. Didn’t work out and now that he’s pitching like crap, he’s pissed off. Nothing like blaming someone else for poor decision making.
Not a Boras fan, but he didn’t take the ‘high road’. If he talks about how he didn’t get his client, coming off a career year a better offer, then he loses.
And how was Boras supposed to get Montgomery “a better offer” when no team was offering it? Boras can’t force teams to make better offers. I don’t think a different agent gets Montgomery a 6 year deal. or whatever long-term deal he was looking for. The agent gets the player the best deal he can, and that’s what Boras did for Montgomery.
I don’t think Montgomery was dictating the years or dollars he wanted in order to sign to Boras.
He could make phone calls, he could contact teams and make things happen
But I guess when you are worth hundreds of millions of dollars you don’t have to work very hard
And because Boras doesn’t want to do all that, since he doesn’t need to work hard, is the reason why he has so few clients, and those he does have aren’t big stars.
Blackpink, So why didn’t he sign earlier? If he didn’t have in mind the dollars and years he was looking for, why didn’t he just take best offer? He certainly must have gotten offers, and it was his decision not to accept them, since they weren’t what he was looking for.
Jean you don’t know how things went down. It’s not up to teams to make offers the agent can make offers top. It’s not like Montgomery was the only Boras client who waited to sign and got a less desirable contract because of it. That happened to Snell and Chapman and Bellinger too. You are a fan of the team that ended up signing 2 of those guys are you not?
In the end, as Snell says, Monty signed the deal. it’s ridiculous to blame Boras.
Neither one of us knows how things went down, but I do know that offers come from the team. The team might talk to the agent about what the player is looking for, but nothing happens beyond that until the team makes an offer. That’s SOP.
Boras isn’t the only agent to have his player sign for less. Boras is just more visible because he has so many big name clients. Sonny Gray signed for a year and $15M less than what was predicted. Shota Imanaga signed for 1 year and $23M less than predicted. Neither is a Boras client.
Yes I am, and I was glad that circumstances led to those signings. But the Giants don’t sign either one unless the team makes an offer. From what was quoted from Snell, he had offers similar to that of the Giants and he chose SF for a couple of reasons; the nearness to his home in Seattle, and the presence of Alex Cobb..
But the past offseason was a bit unique. In another year, Snell and Chapman could easily be playing for other teams.
“Ridiculous to blame Boras”…Yeah, guys never blame their lawyer when they lose in court, right?…They hire the most expensive lawyer(agent)in the game and then absolve him of all blame when things turn sour, right?
@Jean Matrac
“why didn’t he just take best offer?”
Because time is linear.
i am sure a different agent could have gotten a 6 year deal, but are you better offer with what he got vs. a 6 year 110m deal. That is like 18m per, he got 25m this year and a no risk 22.5m next year (and if he played well he would have gotten a lot more in another go of FA- but he flopped and still gets the 20m plus the bump for appearances next year to have another shot).
MAdMax has gone the interesting route- take 1 year deals for insane money- and he could end up with a ton, but he could get a 3 year deal, but when your options are 50m this year only and roll the dice, or 100m for the next 3, you are just gambling you will stay good enough and healthy enough to pass that…. and his floor short of TJS is inning eater (all velo goes and is just a junk ball thrower) and they still get 8-12m on 1 year deals.
No, if Boras puts out the word, ‘don’t bother to offer less than 7 years,’ then teams won’t call with 5/125m offers.
You think boris said take the offer to all 5 of his guys and you think all 5 told him to hold out for more then you don’t know a damn thing about boris
Boras took the legally ethical road. I.e., the route that will keep him from being sued. It was an easy decision for him.
“Legally ethical road”…You might give comedy a try, since it’s not often you hear “ethical” and “Boras” in the same sentence. How “ethical” was it when Scott Boras told teams that Kumar Rocker’s arm was “healthy” mere months before he required Tommy John surgery?
Vita – Ethics has nothing to do with it.
Legally he can’t discuss private conversations he had with his client unless the client gives permission.
It’s called attorney/client confidentiality, similar to doctor/patient confidentiality. And it’s basically spelled out in the above article.
Nothing like blaming someone else for poor decision making
================
Hi Gary. We don’t know what advice Boras gave Montgomery about offers received. Montgomery may have made a bad decision based on bad advice from Boras. Boras is pointing the finger at Montgomery saying clients make the final decisions, but Boras leaves out that he advises his clients before they make the decisions. I am speculating of course, but I have to believe Boras advises his clients about offers received.
He’s how it went down. Team Mr boras we want to offer Jordan 5 years 25 million per. Boras yeah that’s insulting I’m not even going to ask my client about this offer. Boras to Jordan they offered you a contract but they’re going to offer you more I do this every year don’t even ask about it. End of conversation that’s exactly how it happened. Boras fault
Hey that was the conversation I heard it. Boras is at fault take note all players
Boras would ask for $100M even if he knew the guy’s arm was about to fall off.
That is his and every other agents job. It is the job of every franchise to do their due diligence that said arn is bot about to fall off.
I’m curious to hear about the Boras ridiculous asking price regarding O’Neil this winter. Have a suspicion Tyler will be signing late ST, disapointed and one of the 1y deals after boras demands some crazy LT deal for a streaky and perpetually injured 30ish ballplayer.
ONeill is a great example of the kind of guy Boras will pretend is worth more than he actually is. There is a middleground with guys like that Boras needs to do a better job finding it.
Boras clearly had a strategy to wait until late in the offsesson to sign his top talent. Clearly. And it didn’t work. Guys settled for lame 1 or 2 year deals instead of getting the big contracts everyone expected them to get. He screwed up and it’s not the auers fault except for them hiring him which Montgomery fixed by firing him.
It didn’t work out last year, but I don’t think it’s fair to draw too many conclusions from that.
The late signings last year weren’t the first for Boras, and they won’t be the last. Sometimes walking away from a deal, or playing hardball works & sometimes it doesn’t. I’d bet good money every one of Boras’ clients is aware of the risks involved in chasing a big deal.
For every Snell, there is a Rendon or Strasburg.
john – While his constant mysterious injuries aren’t shocking, his drastic decline as an outfielder certainly is. Hard to believe a young former GG winner now has zero range, bobbles nearly every ball, and airmails nearly every throw.
He has basically played himself into a DH. If he’s smart, he will take a one-year pillow contract and try to re-establish his value.
It just amazes me that he cares more about bodybuilding than about being a good MLB player.
Montgomery = why were you expecting a big pay day? 9 digits? Really? Based on your 7 years in the league, only one season of more than 9 wins, never hitting 200 IP, never being in an all-star. But then you were #6 in ROY voting back in 2017.
Is that the resume of 9 digit deals?
Honestly – it’s crazy he got the deal he got.
…and crazy Snell didn’t get more – he’s a proven 2x CY Young award winner and the word WINNER is written all over him. He’s the guy to put 9 digits towards if you’re going to do it! Montgomery is smoking something if he thinks he should be in that range.
What exactly has he won?? And those 2 Cy seasons were sandwiched around several mediocre to ass seasons. The only time he tries is when there’s a new contract on the horizon
You can’t just glaze over 2 CY YOUNG SEASONS. Only 22 pitchers in the history of the award have won it twice. Blake Snell is an objectively good pitcher (Career: 1071 innings pitched, 3.24 ERA) outside of wins/awards too and I am so sick of the hate honestly. I really hope y’all get paid to hate or something.
He coasts until it’s time for a new contract, then once he’s signed he coasts until it’s time for the next one. It’s a trend.
Troll- No, I’ve read his statistics. He’s not worth 30 million per season
Snell has 2 wins in 15 starts this year. Now I am less of a fan of W/L record as a pitching barometer than most, but “WINNER is written all over him” is funny.
Only one season with 9 wins lol you think pitching wins is important. Can’t imagine going through life and thinking you know anything about modern baseball
“…with solid regulars like Amed Rosario, Jurickson Profar, Randal Grichuk, Michael A. Taylor and others getting $4MM or less.”
SOLID REGULARS!?! Aside from Profar, who is having a complete outlier of a season, these guys are NOT “solid regulars.” Two of them have been waived/released!
“…Profar, who is having a complete outlier of a season…”
Not really. This is Profar’s 5th season in SD, and he’s averaged a 114 OPS+ over that span, with only one of those being subpar. I agree that his career in SD is an outlier in regards to the rest of it, but this season isn’t an outlier from his career with the Padres.
He currently has a career high 147 WRC+ (previous high of 113+) with career highs in BA, OBP and SLG %.
I’ll stick to my earlier comment that he’s having a complete outlier of a season.
The context was “solid regular”. Your comment was in regard to the article referring to Profar as a solid regular. The implication, whether you intended it or not, was that short of his current season, he was not a solid regular.
Profar is inarguably having the best season of his career. But my point was, that over his 5 seasons in SD, he has been a solid regular. Whether this season is remarkably better than previous ones is irrelevant.
You quoted me only saying “Profar, who is having a complete outlier of a season” and then replied “Not really.”
If you were referring to him being a solid regular, that’s not how your comment presents itself.
I wrote this:
“This is Profar’s 5th season in SD, and he’s averaged a 114 OPS+ over that span…”
That looks to me like I’m saying that Profar has been a solid regular in SD.
Profar is having a, surprising, breakout, career year in his 30’s.
He was a top prospect for the Rangers drafted by AJ Preller when he worked in the Rangers Front Office.
Profar, until this year, had never lived up to his “top prospect status”.
Profar has been traded and released many times.
He was considered a 4th or 5th OF who would not even have started in LF for San Diego this year, but San Diego had an opening since trading its LF and CF.
San Diego would have been much better off if they had never traded for Juan Soto;
CJ Abrams would be playing LF or SS.
MacKenzie Gore would be in their pitching rotation
James Wood would be in CF, RF 1B or DH.
Profar may have fit as their #4 or #5 OF Utility INF and/ or DH.
Prior to 2024 Profar, with a total of 2.9 WAR in his previous FIVE seasons doesn’t remotely resemble a ‘solid regular.’
That’s not even a ‘solid bench guy.’
Per FanGraphs, Profar had 3.2 WAR in 1321 PA’s with SD prior to 2024.
That’s 1.5 WAR per 600 PA which is a fringe starter
81% of Profar’s production has come as a Padre. 45% of his PA’s have come as a Padre.
He’s been much better as a Padre and a valuable player
Which of these 5 OPS+ numbers is the outlier?:
113
87
110
78
147
I wrote this:
“Profar is inarguably having the best season of his career.”
You do know what ‘inarguably’ means, right? And, I was responding to this:
“SOLID REGULARS!?! ”
I admit to an unclear initial post, but my point was Profar has been a solid regular in SD. That’s why I wrote mostly about his 5 year career there.
vtaDave
“Which of these 5 OPS+ numbers is the outlier?”
None of them, really
The 147 is only 1.5 standard deviations away from the mean and 1.4 standard deviations away from the median.
And is only 1.3 times the 3rd quartile
It fails to meet any reasonable test for an outlier.
I would have to think that all the uncertainty regarding TV revenues had to have an adverse effect on last year’s free agent spending.
This likely played a hand. Teams or some teams have concerns about their tv futures and likely are scared of long term deals.
With that said this also reeks of we want a mega deal. Boras spend the entire offseason waiting for someone to cave and nobody does. So reverts to short term deals with opt outs.
One does have to wonder if they would have secured better deals if the asks for months wasn’t so high. How many teams did boras scare away and they even bothered to make an offer.
Most teams do not want to wait until March to set their teams up. It also didn’t help that all these guys had some warts that scared teams as well.
“Boras spend the entire offseason waiting for someone to cave and nobody does.”
I think this frames issue incorrectly. Teams make the offers. The agent might approach a team seeking an offer, but it still comes down to the team. If there is an offer, then the agent will try to negotiate up to a better one. But teams have budgets, will make the determination on high they’re willing to go for a player, or even whether to make an offer or not.
But the decision to accept or reject the best offer the agent can negotiate falls on the player. Clearly Montgomery thought Boras should have been getting better offers. But if the offers aren’t there, or not to the player’s liking, it’s again the player, by rejecting an offer, is making the decision to hold out. No agent can produce offers out of thin air.
If the team contacts the agent to get a sense of what kind of contract the player is looking for and the agent says 7/270 or whatever. Teams may very well move on without ever making an offer. There are conversations that happen well before an offer is submitted. Perhaps boras scared off other offers by having a high initial asking price. Heck some teams may not of even asked because the rumored asking price.
Those are good points. but I doubt that Boras would come up with something like 7/270 on his own. The player has to have some input about what he’s looking for. Players know what other guys have gotten, so they should know what’s possible. The idea that Boras would go to a team with a huge ask, to the ignorance of the player, isn’t the way anyone would go about it.
So if Boras did have a big initial ask, the response from teams would indicate lowering expectations. All that gets transmitted to the player, who is the decision maker.
And I’d say, not even making an effort because of a rumored high asking price, is a poor way to run a team. Nothing is possible until an effort is made. Simple do diligence would dictate that.
I’m sure boras shows his players comps and what he thinks they can get. He is great at setting high expectations. He is also known to way out the market for his price. Teams that may have had interest at a lower price may have moved on and field that hole with a lesser guy rather than waiting around to see if the price drops. The biggest issue for boras last year was all these dudes had warts. To go along with some fringe big spenders like the padres and rangers having tv contract issues that kept them from spending.
Yeah, that’s very true that teams will move on early and sign somebody, shrinking the market. But I think there’s more to it than the warts. Some big spenders were out of the market. The Dodgers weren’t going to spend big after their early signings. And the Padres, Mets and NYYs were all trying to trim, or limit salary. That and the TV revenue issue making teams wary of spending big, were factors in how the offseason played out. In a more normal season the Boras 4 perhaps get better deals.
Plus the Yankees added 30m with Soto. A lot of big spenders were over the Tax line and these salaries would have cost a ton more than just the salary itself.
Agents also have a legal obligation to present all offers to the client. All of them. Even if they are concurrently trying to negotiate a better deal. Its up to the player to make a decision to accept or reject each offer.
Agents cannot give teams “a sense” of what the players is looking for independently. An agent is required by law to consult with their client and provide potential suitors with the numbers provided by the client. In other words, all they can legally do is report to the team what the player has told them they want. That is how it works.
If teams were scared off by anything Boras told them, that is because the players gave Boras a number to shoot for and he relayed that information to interested teams.
It all comes back to the player and the teams. Agents are conduits and negotiators. They are not the sources or decision makers.
No GM is stupid enough to not even ask because of rumors. They may back off after asking and getting an answer, but they will ask first. normally they will continue to ask.
Look at Machado’s 1st deal with the Padres. AJ asked Lozano and the initial price he heard was too high. He moved on but when Machado was still not signed he circled back around and signed him for a price that worked for the Padres and Machado.
If Boras “way out the market for his price” then he would not be the most sought after agent in baseball.
The biggest issue for Boras last offseason is that all those players wanted to be paid top dollar and longest possible contract in a market that was struggling with the questions about the Bally’s/DSG bankruptcy and the future of TV money.
NONE of those players got a bad contract. They all had question marks and all got significant raises in FA. They all chose to hold out for more until late in the offseason and signed shorter deals with opt outs so they could be FA a year later. If they had performed up to their personal career averages, all would be in line for opting out of their deals and even larger raises.
ALL of that is on the players and the teams.
Pads – Please stop insulting the MLBTR staff and every other baseball analyst and writer by claiming their projections were idiotic.
MLBTR & everyone else: “Montgomery is projected to earn a $150M contract based on his excellent 3.20 ERA and 189 IP, his postseason heroics, his durability (94 starts in 3 years), his numbers across the board improving for 3 consecutive years, and his effectiveness as a LHP”
Pads Fan: “Montgomery got a great $25M contract which is a “significant raise” only in my brilliant mind. Everyone else were all idiots for projecting well over 9-figure contracts. He had lots of question marks, he ignored Scott’s recommendation to sign early, he wanted to be a free agent again next offseason, and I’m the only person on the planet smart enough to understand all this”.
Seriously man, thanks for the morning laugh! Only you could insist he deserved just the $25M contract while ignoring his performance and durability from 2021-2023. Would love to hear your “rationale” on the other four Boras clients!
@Fever Pitch Guy You can add to that, that the single most valuable thing Montgomery had to sell was the FIRST year of any new contract he might have signed this past offseason—and he only got $25m for that first year.
In a 5 year deal, usually the FA gives the acquiring team about 60% of the deal’s value in the first 2 years—35% in the first season, 25% in the second season.
Selling off the first year in 2024, his youngest year by age and going back on the market at age 32 projects to put him in line, instead of for something like 5/125m, a deal looking a lot like 4/80m.
5/125m was available, so in getting just 25m for 2024 he lost money. $25m is terrible, when you’re selling the most valuable thing you own.
Jack – Fantastic points, thank you!
Montgomery’s stuff has always been mid, results have always been mid, facial hair always been mid…not sure what this character was expecting
Boras the Butcher
Boras the Bullet Dodger
Monty should have been at 4/90 million, which I think the sox would have offered. If he was holding out for a mega deal, it was likely because the agent thought the money was there. I feel like if Boras presented an equal offer from BOS and AZ, he goes to boston.
Boras misread the market for both guys, and if the yankees offered snell the deal that was reported — he should have taken it. But then again, did scott advise not to?
We will never know the specifics of what happened, but Boras has misread the market before and been fired befor & Snell — we’ll he’s a self-centered bootlicker.
kscheer — I can’t speak to your other comments because I don’t know, but everything I’ve read about Blake Snell is that he is a thoughtful person and a great teammate. Not someone I would call “a self-centered bootlicker.”
Do you have knowledge that the rest of us and former teammates aren’t privy to?
Boras lost Montgomery, but has more clients today than he did at the start of the offseason. What does that tell you?
The Yankees never made that offer first reported by Jon Heyman. Cashman refuted the rumor after he had signed Marcus Stroman whose camp he had been talking to since last November. There was never room to sign both Snell and Stroman.
@kscheer It feels like Boras, 71 years old, got lazy—many of the teams that might have been in the mix for Montgomery in other years had already maxed out for 2024, or weren’t in position to sign yet another old player (the Mets qualify on both counts) to a longish deal.
Boras doesn’t seem to have adjusted to that market—and, yes, a star agent can rather easily lead his clients astray, through either greed or carelessness. Teams, too, aren’t eager to wait until February to find out whether a good player with warts wants to sign with them for big money.
It was a bad combination if you were a Boras client, but it still falls on the client to do their own due diligence including hiring professional contract evaluators to see what they might be in line for. Who are the most comparable guys, and what did they make? Are the teams with the revenues to go that high seriously in the mix, or do they have other commitments / problems? Early on it was clear LAD, NYY, NYM, PHI, SDP were all going to be out on signing a good, not great SP at age 31, with just one year better than 3.3 WAR in his career. That doesn’t leave much. Other rich teams were close to maxing out on payroll, making it a lousy time to play a waiting game well into the new year.
Pete Alonso is another older player who’s going to regret hiring Boras as his agent. It seems the Mets made a foolish offer to Alonso last offseason, something like 7/158m (or 6/136m for his FA years). Alonso may struggle to get 4/100m unless the Rockies save him from himself.
Alonso’s in clear decline, a 3 WAR player in 2023 and, if he’s good from here on out, in 2024. Perhaps some fool will sign the 1-D slugger for more than 4/100m, but I wouldn’t want to give him even that much. The Mets must have figured in merchandise to offer Pete anything close to 158m, but that’s not something that’s going to carry over to a new team where new fans will watch a 30 yo bad 1Bman hit 31 then 24, then 19 HR in 2025, 2026, and 2027.
That doesn’t sell jerseys when there’s no emotional attachment. Another example of Pete’s ten cent head getting in the way—did he really not bother to educate himself regarding what happens to bad fielding, 3-win, RHH 1Bmen in their 30s?
I think that the Diamond bankruptcy (and concerns over existing contracts will Bally) put revenue expectations in question for some markets. Perhaps teams would like to have a better understanding on how their regional broadcast deals are going to look before they are willing to commit to high dollar, long term player contracts.
The Boras monopoly is bad for the game. Too much power and influence centred in one individual, too many situations where Boras client is competing against Boras client. The monopoly also emboldens him to be acrimonious towards teams. He knows there will be no consequence. The sooner it changes the better the game will be.
I recall Othani and Judge among many others having non-Boras agents. What consequences and changes are you suggesting?
Just spread the influence. Gets some different mo’s and attitudes in there. Diversity is good. Is it 7 of the top 8 2025 free agents are Boras clients. Way too much free agency centred around one guy. Monopolies are bad.
Agreed monopolies are anti-American. That is why I am hoping Congress will remove MLB’s court-approved monopoly. One of the few (only?) allowed in the US.
The angst he spreads is farked up. Good for no one. A little top end competition might have him tone it down a bit. Like last year when the market and some savvy POBO’s took him down a peg. Be interesting to see how he plays this year.
Fair enough. It’ll be business as usual I predict. Juan Soto will hold up the market. Boras did overplay his hand bc some teams had RSN contract issues and chose not to spend as much. Those may have been resolved by now. Less of his clients will miss Spring Training entirely.
We hope so.
I think he will revert to his usual methods. Talk sh&t about teams to fire the fan base up, therefore putting teams under pressure. His Chapman/Giants comments indicate as much. The giants need Chapman because they can’t sign anyone else. Usual BS from the man. Looks like the enjoyment I got from the bully being bullied is over.
He GAINED clients since last offseason. Nothing will change.
Monopoly? In what way? Boras represents roughly 7% of the players that have taken the field in MLB this season.
As usual, you are completely and 100% wrong in your takes.
High end.
I’d much rather be wrong than run with your “I’m always right and you are a fwit if you don’t agree with me” approach.
Wrong is fine with me. Your approach sucks for everyone but you.
What is your definition of high end? What percentage of “high end” players does Boras represent? I will give you a hint, its less than 12% of those over $20 million AAV.
I like facts, so I actually do research BEFORE I comment. You like your opinion so you spout off only to be shown by people like me that you are wrong. Sorry that you don’t like the truth. If the truth hurts, that is on you.
And as usual, you refuse to answer the question.
Ha ha. It doesn’t hurt. Stop judging from me from your own “I’m so up myself I’m inside out” attitude.
I was running with the 7 of the top 8 2025 free agents and a general impression outside of that. Probably based on the fact that the majority of $250m plus deals seem to be Boras.
Thanks for correcting me with your usual arrogance.
Only 12% over 20m aav. That surprises me.
If it didn’t hurt, you would not have commented on it. that you are back, means it stung and you are trying to lie about it.
Arrogance = I am right most of the time and you don’t like that. That is cool. I accept that.
Ha ha. You just can’t stop yourself. I know what I feel, thankyou very much. Much better than you.
Arrogance = the most unpleasant trait a human can carry. You act like it oozes out of every pore of your body. How folks allow themselves to get like that is beyond me. Good luck with it.
Used car salesman. Stop dealing with him. Make him go away. That’s all.
But seriously, he is nothing more than a salesman. Some teams won’t deal with him unless they have to. And some teams won’t deal with him at all. Players have to decide who works in their best interest. Players have to be part of the process and have control over the outcome. Maybe some will go elsewhere. We’ll see.
Montgomery wanted to get paid like a great pitcher when he’s a good pitcher. Snell has his flaws but he’s won a CY in both the AL and NL. Both pitchers bet on themselves this year by taking similar short term deals after not getting what they wanted in free agency. Both pitchers struggled early but one pitcher is now in the bullpen and the other has a no-hitter under his belt this year and is posting great numbers. 2 difference pitchers on 2 different levels.
I hate to defend Scott Boras but at the end of the day his job is to get his clients the best possible deal. Montgomery is clearly frustrated but he’s the one who hired his agent.
We’ll never know WHAT Scott Boras advised these players, but it’s a safe bet ALL his clients are told before free agency starts what Boras expects to be able to get for them. If his advice was unrealistic or way off the mark, than he does indeed deserve the blame. A player can (and should) certainly express his preferences (West Coast, winning team, small or large market, current club, etc) but, again, it’s Boras duty to lay out what is realistic and achievable.
I believe Boras missed the mark this past offseason, drastically underestimating the effect the Diamond/Bally Sports financial woes would have on team’s planning.
What team would be insane enough to have a Scott Boras bobblehead day?
Snell should do well for himself but Montgomery will never see that type of money again. Just an all-time blunder from Boras.
Boras is “HONORABLE”? The same weasel who hid Manny Ramirez’s failed drug test? Who publicly claimed that Kevin Brown had a higher phantom offer from the Braves, to leverage against GMs? The same guy who kept lower contract offers for Prince Fielder and Alex Rodriguez away from them?
Links?
“The same guy”…The same Dr. Boras who told the Mets Kumar Rocker’s arm was “healthy” mere months before he required Tommy John surgery.
And filed a frivolous grievance against the Braves saying they didn’t offer Carter Stewart 40% of slot even though he knew all along that they did.
There’s also behaving like a distraught father at Jose Fernandez’ funeral while completely ignoring the real family and the financial situation they got left with. It was all about the camera’s.
Scott is about Scott. Period.
Wow! You have a way about being totally in the wrong Fop.
Not according to Samson. He was there. He organised to cover the funeral. He organised the trust fund. He saw what Boras didn’t do.
What really happened ?
It is on the record as they say. Lots and lots of articles about it. Try reading a few BEFORE you comment.
I didn’t have enough to. I got it from the horses mouth.
If you know better than Samson who was there, why not just me a give me a brief summary ?
It’s not like you are against the sound of your own voice.
Read the articles. There are literally dozens. The Miami Herald has several including interview with Barry Jackson where they quoted Samson’s critical words towards Boras LONG after he was gone as Marlins President and pretty much showed that he was full of it. Take your choice of articles. Samson is the same guy who lied to the people of Florida about the stadium over and over and over. I trust him as far as I can throw him.
Don’t agree. Listen to him everyday. Have learnt so much about baseball operations from that guy. Dude comes across as knowledgeable and honest as the day is long. Self deprecating, doesn’t BS. Good guy.
Can you at least recommend one of these articles.
Sorry. You did recommend one. My bad.
Read it. It says Boras refuted the claim. That’s it. I could have guessed that.
Bora$$ is an arrogant rectal outlet but he is also the best agent in baseball. That said he seriously misjudged the market for his players this past off season. All had red flags in their profiles. All but Bellinger on the wrong side of 30. And that is the problem facing these guys this off season. They will all be a year older. Analytics tells us that players start to decline at age 33. Teams are willing to pay for some decline if they are getting the bulk of the prime years of 28-32. If they are only going to get a little bit of those prime years then then teams are not willing to pay for a lot of those decline years. Add to that some of the red flags in each player’s profile and you get one year offers for good but not great players.
Now Montgomery has had a bad year, so he might pick up his player option. The rest probably don’t but they have all had solid seasons so there might be a chance for them to get a decent contract. But don’t expect teams to offer more than a 3-4 year contract. They are good but not great players. No Soto’s or Ohtani’s here.
” Analytics tells us that players start to decline at age 33.”
Oh, god, NO, NO, NO. Players on average begin to decline at AGE 28. We’ve known this since the Bill James studies from the early 1980s.
I could refer you to a dozen studies, but here’s the simplest refutation:
If ‘players only start to decline at age 33’ why is the average age of MLB players 28, and why does nearly every team have only 1 or 2 (if that) significant contributors who are 33 or older?
If players held their skills until age 32, why aren’t there more 32 yo regulars in baseball?
What is Jordan Montgomery complaining about? He got paid $25 mill. for this year and unlocked an option for $22.5 mill. for next year. That would be more than $1 mill. for each win so far in his career. Let that sink in! Perform, then you can look at 2026!
100%. He’s made over $45 million over his career, will make another $20 million next year. That’s nothing to sneeze at for a pitcher of his age with his numbers. Plus he could make much more if he’s able to get back on track.
“Jordan Montgomery complaining about…22.5 mil for next year”.
…I thought I read here just yesterday that Monty needs 4 more starts to unlock next year’s $22M+. I interpreted that as one of the reasons he was moved to the bullpen. That and terrible performance by Monty.
His base salary is $20 million. He earned an extra $2.5 million by making 18 starts. There is another $2.5 million he can trigger by making 24 starts, which he has yet to do.
He’s probably kicking himself for turning down a lengthier contract at a lower AAV now that he hasn’t performed in 2024. We have no idea though what that offer was and what advise was provided by Boras. You’d think that most players listen to their agents, so most likely Boras at fault here. But yeah, Montgomery should feel thankful that he’s at least getting paid quite a bit this year and next year.
Monty is entitled to express his opinions but it’s pretty dumb right now, given his recent performance, to burn bridges with someone who has such enormous influence within the game. You just potentially alienated yourself from owners who are friendly with Boras.
The number of owners/GM’s willing to deal with Boras is getting smaller which to an extent is pigeon holing his clients to specific teams where there is only so much money and so many roster spots to go around
Boras’s easiest client to market this offseason is going to be Soto, and maybe Chapman but he’s probably staying with the Giants on a new deal. The others, I have no idea how he markets them.
“Maybe Chapman”..If Chappy is smart he’ll have his agent negotiate an in season $4/100M extension right now. He’s doing well and by all accounts fitting in, so why wait? It’s a reasonable compromise for both sides and the Giants do have the money. A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush and in season deals have worked out extremely well for players like Aaron Nola & Zack Wheeler.
So you are telling a 6 WAR player to take a below market deal? A deal lower than any 6 WAR player in the last 2 decades? Seriously?
If Boras even advised that Chappy would fire him immediately.
“Take a below market deal”…That’s not “below mkt”. That’s his real market and trying to get considerably more is why he sat on the shelf most of the recent off-season. At Chappy’s age getting $25M × 4 is an excellent “get” in my honest opinion.
LMFAO. 25 teams have Boras clients on their 40 man rosters.
How many of them are big money deals?
Sounds to me like Boras does little to earn his massive pay
He sits around and waits for the phone to ring?
Absolutely pathetic
He knows every GM and many owners
A good agent hits the smart phone and makes things happen
Shouldn’t he be giving his clients reports every week or two with market analysis and discuss changing strategy ???
Don’t forget to read the portion regarding Blake Snell above, in addition to what you read regarding Jordan Montgomery above.
Montgomery probably won’t opt out based on this season’s performance, but I wish he would. I’d like to see how much better a deal his new agent can get him.
Is 4 years 72 million better than 1 year 22.5 million?
I am sure he can get more years.
More years is always preferable. Even with a lower AAV.
I could be wrong, but my doubting him opting out is the history of players coming off bad years is them not opting out. One more year to rebuild value might seem better than hitting the market off a subpar platform season.
I’ve noticed that Blake Snell seems to always speak respectfully of all people when interviewed. He’s a good guy that way. But it makes it difficult to glean his full feelings on a subject like this.
Not a typical article by mlbtr.
Boras’ approach to this offseason will probably be to make up for his failures last offseason. Hopefully this includes getting clients deals done quicker & def not lingering into Spring Training
Boras can’t afford a repeat of last offseason or possibly losing clients – and further hits to his reputation & abilities to get deals done
Biras could probably afford it if we are being honest.
ALL of the guys we are talking about that signed late in the offseason got HUGE raises. Raises that established a new base point for negotiations this offseason as long as they played well so they could opt out. If they stunk, like Montgomery has, they will STILL get paid much, much more than they had before. Why in the world would Boras change anything?
The problem with this Boras statement “I’ve been doing this for over 35 years. I relay all offers and relevant information to all my clients and act at their direction. They make all decisions.” There are expectations put forth by the agent and conversations between agents and team owners and team GM’s around and before real offers are made. Those conversations and effects on the negotiations are often not communicated to the players by the agents. That is the problem with someone like Boras who considers himself bigger than the game itself. Do not get me wrong, he is a very smart guy and will do things at the minimum legal standard to prevent backlash on his corporation. A comparison would be the conversations between two realtors, one for the buyer and one for the seller, when discussing the asking price on a house. There will be lots of talk about what someone would want to pay for it and what they can pay for it and the odds of the deal going through versus south as both realtors have a financial interest in the deal going for the highest price they buyer can pay and the seller can get for the house. That is Boras pushing for as much as he can get and the GM knowing what the owner of the team will pay.
That is just not true. An agent cannot relay a number to a team unless the client first approves it. They are not legally allowed to act independently. Everything must be communicated to the player by the agent and vice versa prior to conversations with a team.
All offers must be presented to the player by the agent. Even if the agent believes that the player will say no, he has to convey that offer to the player for a decision. Even if he is trying to negotiate a higher offer because the player has given him a number he will accept, the agent MUST convey all offers to the player. He doesn’t have an option not to. That is the law. If an agent doesn’t do that, he will lose his license to be an agent and could go to jail.
Do you really believe that someone as respected as an agent as Boras would do that and risk losing millions in fees each year?
Monty threw shade at the Sox when asked if he gotten a firm offer from from Bres, shortly after signing with the snakes. Said he only wanted to play for a winning team or something along those lines. Now he’s blaming Boras and says he loves Boston and he’s sorry for how it worked out. Okay then. Guess when you have ERA near infinity you don’t want to burn the bridges you’ve already burned or…something
First of all I dont know if he said that. And if he did so what? He was right. If the Red Sox hadn’t traded Sale they are probably making the playoffs this year.
I don’t care one way or the other how it played out but Snell should’ve just said I don’t know anything about the Montgomery negotiations. And let it go at that.
He’s defending his agent and also his choice to stay with the agent. And let’s also keep in mind Arizona and San Francisco are division rivals. He probably shouldn’t have said anything but it doesn’t really matter.
Any team that can stomach a $30mil/year player already has one, or more, on the books…
I’m sorry he’s only making $25m this year. Should we pass a hat?
BOOM! Boras called Montgomery on the carpet. Rubbed his face in Montgomery’s own decisions in the nicest lawyerly way.
Then Snell backed up every word Boras said.
MIC DROP!
“Mic drop”…”What’s the most surprising thing I’ve seen in my many years as a Major League general manager?..It’s almost certainly the way most players are oblivious and aloof to what’s going on in their own free agency..most of them had no idea what the offers were or exactly where we stood during the free agency process” – MLB Network’s former MLB general manager Dan O’Dowd”.
LMFAO. A player just told you that he knew every step of what was going on and you are quoting a former GM who hasn’t worked in the game for a decade? Give me a break.
“A player just told you..Give me a break”….And a different player, Jordan Montgomery, told us he had little idea what was going on so what’s your point, other than writing dozens and dozens of posts promoting your little legal super-hero, Scott Boras?
That is not what Montgomery said at all.
““I had a Zoom call with (the Red Sox), that’s really all I know. It went good,” Montgomery said.
I don’t know, obviously Boras kind of butchered it,” Montgomery said last week, per Mac Cerullo of the Boston Herald, “so I’m just trying to move on from the offseason and try to forget it.” Montgomery adds that, to his knowledge, he didn’t receive an offer from the Red Sox in the winter.
“Yeah, for sure. Me and my wife loved it here. She was at Beth Israel for a year, love the area, love the fans,” Montgomery said when asked whether he would have considered an offer from the Sox. “It would have been awesome if it had worked out that way, but it didn’t.”
Obviously Montgomery was on that zoom call. He knew exactly what was said. Boras cannot legally say anything that Montgomery did not authorize him to say.
Why even try to lie when its right there in black and white?
“That’s all I really know”…Exactly what part of “That’s all I really know” do you not understand?…You have the same quote in your own post and it strongly implies Jordan Montgomery was completely in the dark about contract negotiations. And when he says “it went good”, it suggests he wonders(and doesn’t exactly know)why he didn’t get signed by the Red Sox.
BTW, his wife is now in private practice in Missouri. Where she had said previously she wanted to go into practice after her residency was over earlier this year. So what he said about Beth Israel is a half truth. She was there for a residency and he knew at the time that she would not be there for most of this season.
Any offer the Red Sox made, Montgomery obviously knew about. He chose not to accept any offers they made. It was his decision.
It says specifically that Montgomery was on the call with the Red Sox.
What part of the fact that the agent cannot say anything to a team unless the player authorizes it do you not understand?
Based on Jordan’s year.
Teams were right to not offer him a long term contract.
Now he’ll have to take another one year “prove it” deal at 10-15 to even have another chance to get another one year deal.
I don’t see him getting anything over 1 year with a possible option.
He’s as good as all the GMS thought he was. Which is way worse than he thinks he his.
Actually he isn’t going to have settle for a 10-15 million prove it year since he’s already guaranteed 22.5/million next year by the Snakes. He will opt in to that one if makes four more starts he gets 25 million for 2025 but regardless he’s already guaranteed 22.5 million.
I don’t care who the agent is if you don’t have spring training you will struggle you just can’t preprepare for the season no matter how good a player you are
Scott Boras has too many clients, and he is willing to sacrifice one player’s contract if he thinks it would help others. All four of these players lost ridiculous amounts of money because Boras wanted to make the point that his players would rather wait than sign early.
This of course is unethical and illegal, because Scott has a fiduciary responsibility to every client. But that’s how he’s operated for years or decades, and nothing has been done about it.
too funny. He has the MOST clients for a reason. He actually gained clients since last offseason. All 4 of those players got tremendous raises that set a new bottom for new contracts as long as they performed this season. ALL of those clients made the decision to turn down longer term contracts. Montgomery got a 150% raise. Snell got a 100% raise. Chapman got a 60% raise. Bellinger for a 140% raise.
You really need to be your own everything. Your own doctor, attorney, accountant etc so yes your own agent. No one has your interest as more of a priority than you do.
If you have enough intelligence why do you want a agent anyways? You are just taking bids on your services. What can they do that you can’t? I would rather take the calls myself than end up like Freeman crying as I sign my contract.
Ok, Frank Abagnale, Jr.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Montgomery over-valued himself following his hot streak to the World Series and seeing Nola get a massive deal to start free agency. Can’t say I fault teams or Boras for Montgomery not getting the massive deal after a career full of more average than above average results
I didn’t even hear of any creative contract solutions…just 7 years and big money. Seems like Monty was stuck on years. I would have to hope that Boras was telling him to take less years and get in Spring training. That is where I find fault. Monty needs Jerry Maguire…
(1) by law, an attorney must relay any offer to a client which is within the parameters the client has set. If a client says, I won’t accept less than X, and an offer is way below X, then the agent need not relay it. But if it is above or close to X, then failure to tell the client is a breach of the lawyer’s duty and may be malpractice.
(2) a lawyer doesn’t just report offers. She also advises the client as to whether, in her professional judgment, the offer is a good one.
(3) a lawyer cannot publicly comment on a specific client’s case unless the client gives express authorization, or unless authorization is implied because it furthers the client’s interest.
With those three principles in mind, it seems likely that Boras advised Montgomery to accept this contract rather than a different one. Maybe there was $60m/3y or something, and Boras said he could do better and the opportunity passed. Montgomery may have been hesitant, but he accepted Boras’ advice and now regrets it.
Boras cannot tell us that without his client’s permission because disclosure is not in the client’s interest. Whether the advice was good (as Boras believes) or bad (as Montgomery believes) may be subjective. But we can’t know because Montgomery hasn’t told us and Boras cannot.
The Quick fix for Monty is do what the other dback’s pitchers are doing and that’s throw the Roger Beshens Football Slider. Monty did a few months ago, he struck out 4 of 6 hitters with a 000 batting average.
That should be the huge news. Why isn’t Monty throwing that RB Football Slider that Ginkel,Puk, Pfaadt, Martinez, Thompson, Pfaadt, Nelson, and others are throwing? That’s the truth, insiders know that.
As for Blake Snell he was nothing heading into the 2018 season. Snell only averaged 8.3 K’s per 9 and jumped to 11 k’s per 9 cause that’s when he learned the Roger Beshens Football Slider along with Glasnow, Flaherty, Fried and over 50 more.
Montgomery is far better than he’s pitched this year, and he had a roughly 18-month run where he was maybe a 2/3, but he’s not, nor has he ever been a TOR guy. You are talking about a pitcher who’s soon to turn 32, has about 11 career BWAR, and just isn’t at that level. Boras hay very well have overplayed his hand, but Montgomery didn’t merit the kind of bucks he was asking. If Monty wanted to go to Boston, he could have made that clear to Boras. What might have happened (might) is that Montgomery wanted to go to Boston–but only at his price.
Any part of the free agent discussion from last offseason that doesn’t mention the financial implications (and uncertainty) created by the bankruptcy and broadcast rights’ limbo that approx 40% of the league’s teams were subjected to is not worth the time to read.
It was not a normal offseason because the owners future finances were in serious doubt. The sure things flew off the board to deep pocketed teams unaffected by the rights’ bankruptcy, but otherwise, it was a quiet offseason because no responsible owner was going to take a significant long term financial risk on a player with any warts. The Boras 4 are all good to above average players – none are superstars or future hall of famers – and all had warts.
If they chose to bet on resolution of the bankruptcy issue and return to “normal” owner spending before the season began (and a corresponding long term pay day for the player), that was the player’s choice. If Boras midread the tea leaves in that regard (and gave that advice), then he’s in the same boat as all of the other prognosticators (including mlbtraderumors).
However, if he advised of the issue and the players ignored the advice and gambled on the resolution, resulting in lower value contracts because of their failed wager, that was the players choice.
This sounds like Monty’s problem.
1-I assume that Boras advised them to hold out as long as possible. I think this is counter-productive for the non-elite players, since teams have to address their needs, and cannot wait until March.
2-If a player is uncomfortable with that, they need to tell their agent.
3-And if a player likes a specific location, he needs to be prepared to accept a little less sometimes.
Just imho, Monty should’ve asked for regular updates and made a decision. Ask what the top offers were and decide. This is same for us commoners. If you get an ‘okay’ job offer, it’s okay to ask for more. If you get a good job offer, asking for more doesn’t make as much sense.
And if no one meets your asking price, maybe you are mis-pricing yourself.
How is representing two top pitchers not a conflict of interest?
Can the Giants put Blake Snell on waivers already?
Do you really think Zaidi would admit it was a mistake to keep him?
Though, I guess if I’m being fair, he admitted Soler was a mistake by trading away his contract.
Sunk cost fallacy. He can’t go back to July and trade Snell. Waiving him is the correct move at this present time.
You can say that about any team that is out of the playoffs. Just waive every player on an expiring contract.
@JoeBrady Not the ones where the QO is in play. But it obviously isn’t for Snell.
Get it? Snells future is in the cards! Snell opts out and signs the longestvever term deal for a pitcher with the St. Louis cardinals.
Rumor, not gonna happen.
From the phrasing of the headline, I was expecting a much saucier narrative.
I respect Boras and the job he has done getting his Clients/Players paid.
However, too much success by Boras and his Clients has lead to potential and real problems in representing so many clients @ once.
Boras cites his legal training and confidentiality of speaking out about present and past clients without their permission?!
What about the legal concept of CONFLICTS OF INTEREST in Client Representation?!
How can one person and his firm represent so many Clients simultaneously who are basically competing against each other for the same jobs and money from the same teams?!
Law firms and the legal profession have strict regulations and guidelines about law firms simultaneously representing competing Clients.
Boras and company have created a high end monopoly on the elite MLB talent market that almost completely shuts down the elite talent market for other talent, teams and available spendable money and budgets until many of the top end Boras Clients sign every free agent period.
It got so bad this past offseason that, finally, this year many teams started “going in other directions” instead of waiting for the Boras represented clients to finish their game of chicken with Boras and Ownership, break the free agent bottleneck and allow other players outside the Boras stable of Clients to “set their own market” for jobs and contracts.
Dragging the negotiations out for so many players really hurt the players, messed up their regular Spring Training schedules, lead many to not be ready for the season and get off to slow and/or below their norms productions etc.
And, what about the potential damage to teams and the game from sky rocketing prices to see games live with family and friends?!
I came across some MLB game ticket stubs from games attended over the last 15+ years and was amazed by stratospheric rise in MLB live game ticket prices over the years.
I am not sure that the continued huge rises in ticket prices and costs to attend live games with family and friends is sustainable long term.
At some point, we may be looking @ a “market correction” where fans pivot to other entertainment options.
Too much success may at some point lead to blowback from the fans.
I agree with everything you said. There is always a conflict of interest in my opinion with so many high clients and so few teams that are realistic places to go. His time and techniques seem to becoming outdated at best
SF0
“I came across some MLB game ticket stubs from games attended over the last 15+ years and was amazed by stratospheric rise in MLB live game ticket prices over the years.”
Another person who gets it totally backwards
People choose to spend billions of dollars on baseball. That trickles down into million dollar salaries for players
Businesses can’t just decide to raise prices to cover their costs
If people aren’t willing to spend X dollars on a product a business can’t charge it. If people are willing to spend X dollars on a product business will charge that much regardless of how much they pay their labor
Millionaires fighting about millionaires. Give me a break
It seems to me, Boras’ tactic of taking everyone year by year to free agency, will statistically work in his favour. It will loose some players money, but none of us have crystal balls to predict who.
For him it is about getting as much money out of the game for the top players and devil take the hindmost
I think what probably happened more than anything else is players bought into thinking Boras was a guaranteed bet to get them the maximum amount which could be pictured.
A lawyer and agent like Boras is never going to say “I will get you x dollars.” I’m sure he provided a general range of expectations and the logic behind the maximum he could potentially try to negotiate. Words like “We’ve been very successful with these types of negotiations in the past.” does not guarantee anything.