Welcome to Snyder's Soapbox! Here I pontificate about a matter related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is it's free and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you'll get smarter, though, that's a money-back guarantee. Let's get to it.
I don't see much reason to sugarcoat it, so let's just be straight up: This offseason has sucked. Yes, there have been splashy moves, but four of the top 10 free agents are still on the market, most of the signings have been pretty spread out (flurries are much more fun) and several of the big-name trade candidates haven't been moved.
Those four remaining free agents are Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell. Aside from being ranked in our top 10, they have something else in common: They are Scott Boras clients.
This means that the entire boring offseason is Boras' fault, we'll hear from some corners of the 'net. He's apparently operating in bad faith and he's definitely greedy, right? He won't let his clients sign until he can get the biggest commission check possible. Sure, to hear it from the chorus of his naysayers.
I'm not in that group. It's outrageous to get angry at an agent for doing his job. Why is there no collective angst at the owners who won't pony up for top-shelf talent instead of counting their billions? How is the agent the bad guy when he's simply working hard for his clients (again: Doing his job).
Why should Boras tailor his job performance -- read: Do it less effectively -- just to satisfy you? So ticket prices will be cheaper? Yeah, that's not how it works. We don't need to go over this again, do we? Look up "demand" in any economic context for more info.
The regular season still doesn't start until the last week of March and Boras is working to get his players the best possible deal. If there were a clock on the players needing to sign contracts, it hasn't run down close to zero just yet. His job is to get his clients what they want, not give the marketing department enough time to print up banners.
Boras can thrive in these situations for his players. Remember when Prince Fielder didn't sign until late January and Boras convinced the Tigers to move Miguel Cabrera to third base in order to accommodate the move? Remember when Bryce Harper didn't sign until March? That's a deal that couldn't have possibly aged better for both parties, either.
J.D. Martinez didn't sign with the Red Sox in 2018 until Feb. 26. How'd that one go?
If you want proof of Boras' magic working, we could discuss Eric Hosmer's eight-year, $144 million deal with the Padres on Feb. 19, 2018. Marwin González got a two-year deal with the Twins on Feb. 25, 2019. Jake Arrieta lasted until March 12 of 2018 before getting three years and $75 million from the Phillies.
It hasn't worked every time. There are examples of players with Boras not getting a deal heading into the season. Stephen Drew, Kendrys Morales, Dallas Keuchel all ended up unsigned going into the season in free-agent years with Boras.
Still, far more often than not, Boras ends up getting excellent deals for his clients. That means he's good at his job. How are people calling someone names and getting angry at someone for being good at his job? We'll see hate from fans who think Boras somehow forces his players to leave their teams instead of taking so-called hometown discounts. Agents work for the players, not the teams. Boras has had players sign extensions before, contrary to popular belief. If he's chasing the highest offer and doesn't care where it comes from, he's doing that at the behest of his clients.
Sure, he's cheesy and it could even be argued annoying (that would be my description, frankly) when he holds court in front of reporters at the General Manager Meetings and Winter Meetings, but there's no actual harm in that. If someone is good at their job and is actively making life worse for a number of people in the process, that isn't acceptable, but there's no evidence Boras is doing anything other than extracting more money from billionaires in order to pay millionaires. That's no crime against humanity. It's pro-labor, as the players are the workforce in baseball. Most of us are in the labor force, so the logic here is we should be more supportive.
Instead, there's hate. Hate that is just oozing through computer screens all over the continent.
Don't be a hater. Scott Boras owes you absolutely nothing. He owes his clients the best possible job he can do and the overwhelming majority of the time he comes through.
