When Scott Boras makes his pitch to represent players, they come away impressed with his knowledge, with how well-versed he is, with how well he speaks the baseball language. He is the Alistair Cooke of the agents.
For some, part of his pitch is a deal-breaker: If I represent you, he has told some players in so many words, only I do the negotiating. Their impression is that he wants 100 percent control.
"Why would I do that?" one player mused, looking back on the day that Boras tried to sign him as a high school senior. "It's my life."
When Boras negotiates, club executives sometimes wonder whether all the facts -- whether every piece of every offer -- gets through to the player. They never know, and it scares the hell out of them; Boras is the funnel through which all the information is channeled. This is why Theo Epstein and Larry Lucchino flew to California late, why they rode on John Henry's private plane, why they've become so open and outspoken about their negotiations.
They don't know for sure whether Daisuke Matsuzaka knows what they've offered; they don't have a sense of whether Matsuzaka understands that the clock is ticking, that this negotiation might all be playing out like a filibuster. They don't know whether Matsuzaka is on board with everything that is happening, or if this is a Scott Boras production, a possible Curt Flood-like challenge to the posting system between Major League Baseball and the teams in Japan.
They're hoping that Matsuzaka will read what they are saying on the Internet, or see them on television; they're hoping that friends start sending Matsuzaka text messages, or call him on the phone.
If Boras knows, deep down inside, that he ultimately will agree to a deal with the Red Sox, this is all about Boras playing the only negotiating card he possesses. The longer he waits, the more anxious the Red Sox become, because their entire offseason really is structured around this 26-year-old talent.
But it may be that Boras intends to get Matsuzaka the $100 million contract he's asking for, rather than the $40 million-to-$60 million deal Boston might be offering. It might be that Boras will take his client past Thursday's deadline without a deal, and lead him into the unknown.
And you'd have to wonder: For Scott Boras, when does this stop becoming a chase of dollars and start being about his clients doing what they love in their work and playing baseball?
The gist of what Boras has been saying about the inequity of the posting system is right. He could get more money for Matsuzaka if he plays this out. Matsuzaka could go back to Japan, back to Seibu, and hit the posting system again next year. Maybe the Mets and Yankees would offer $70 million the next time around, and maybe Matsuzaka would get offered another 10 percent, another 15 percent. Maybe the pitcher could wait until after the 2008 season, when he would become a pure free agent and -- if he stays healthy, if his performance doesn't decline -- he might get $120 million. Or more. There could always be another nickel to squeeze, more money to collect.
Here's another option for Matsuzaka: Accept Boston's solid offer, whatever that is, and just go out and realize his dream of pitching in the major leagues.
Boras is extraordinary at what he does, at extracting a volume of dollars from places that you never would've imagined. He is like a chess master, and every negotiation is a match to be won. But in this era, when players are now making more money than they can ever spend in their lifetimes, it's debatable whether the extra cash actually improves the quality of life of his players, and whether all this angst pays off, in the big picture.
Only the players would know that, for sure. Only they can tell you whether making that extra $1.5 million per year makes a huge difference in their lives when they're making $12 million already, and have $50 million in the bank.
A few months after Alex Rodriguez signed his $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers, a deal negotiated by Boras, A-Rod was quoted in a New York newspaper as saying that he had really hoped to sign with the Mets. That seemed utterly bizarre, and a little silly: A-Rod had more negotiating leverage than any player in the history of baseball and yet he wound up playing someplace other than where he wanted to play. He could've played for the Mets – maybe not for $252 million, but maybe for $200 million. The difference between his playing for the Mets or not playing for the Mets was a whole lot of numbers on bank statements.
Barry Zito could be facing the same kind of decision soon. Zito, who friends say is not someone who has a lot of material needs in his life so far, might take the highest offer to go play with the Rangers. Or maybe he'll take less money and go play for the Mets. We'll see. The history of the Boras clients is that they almost always take the highest offer. It's their choice. If A-Rod preferred to play for the Rangers and was willing to sacrifice his dream of playing for the Mets and make the extra money, more power to him.
But these are not the days of Curt Flood, who simply wanted to be able to decide where he could play, or the days of Jim Bunning, who fought for an increase in the pension fund. The players get the maximum pension allowed under law. The average salary will probably climb over $3 million annually this year. The minimum salary will be $380,000 in 2007.
This is what Roy Oswalt made in the first five seasons in his career: $300,000, $500,000, $3.25 million, $5.9 million, $11 million. For a young man from Weir, Miss., the son of a logger, that's pretty good. And, by the way, he just signed a $73 million contract.
Matsuzaka has never pitched a day in the major leagues, and it could be that when Boras is finished haggling, the pitcher could make $10 million in his first year in the majors, and more after that. Much more.
But with every passing day, with every delay, with every insistence upon more dollars, Boras is effectively placing more pressure on the shoulders of his client, who already is facing an enormous adjustment if he signs to play in Boston. And if Boras/Matsuzaka don't sign, if the agent's filibuster continues and they try to make the pitcher the Curt Flood of the Japanese posting system, you have to wonder whether it really will be worth it, in the end, for Matsuzaka.
The backbone of the peaceful labor negotiations that just concluded was the recognition, by the players and the owners, that the sport is flush, everybody is making money, and there's really no reason for fighting and threatening the health of the sport and there's much more incentive for working out an equitable deal.
We'll see whether Boras and Matsuzaka achieve that mind-set. I hope, at some point, Matsuzaka's desire to play baseball becomes a factor, because he's going to get paid a lot of money no matter what happens, and because he might have to sacrifice some of those days playing baseball to glean cash he may never spend
No comments:
Post a Comment