Toronto Blue Jays: Why Scott Boras’ comments shouldn’t be taken seriously
Boras has to make the most money for his clients
At the end of the day, Boras’ job is to get the best deal for the player he represents and it impacts the commission he receives as well. Many athletes will tell you that they prefer long-term security because of the unpredictability with injuries and the free agent market.
Sure Boras wants to build a good rapport with teams so that they come to him when they need a player to fulfill a particular need. The problem is that many teams with a long shopping list aren’t willing to throw money to fill their needs, they’ll try to do it by trading or using younger players.
In the end, there is a power struggle between teams and the players because when an individual player wants to get a big pay raise, a team has a tough choice to make the money work. This either leads to the player having to go somewhere else, or a trade to be made in order to accommodate the contract.
Players should get paid what they’re worth but there has to be some give and take because even though there isn’t a hard cap in baseball the luxury tax threshold is not something most teams can afford to reach. This year’s threshold was $197 million with the Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, Washington Nationals, and Los Angeles Dodgers going above it.
Of those teams, only two were in the playoffs and ironically enough the Red Sox and Dodgers made it to the World Series. Should every team go toe-to-toe with them and throw money at players and expect a similar result?
There is no guarantee and that’s why team’s budget their expenses for what they can afford to pay. Some are willing to increase it when they want to make a deal at the trade deadline but don’t expect teams to throw away money anymore because they want to take some of the power back from the players and this is their best option.