Boras Blog

Rejected

Multiple reports came out last night saying that the Dodgers offered Manny Ramirez a 1/25 contract.  Only a couple hours later, Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch said that GM Ned Colletti met with Scott Boras the previous day, and then sent out the following email:

"Hey guys, just a quick confirmation that Scott Boras and Ned spoke tonight and that Scott rejected the Dodgers' offer."

So, where does Scott Boras go from here?  The Dodgers seem to be a dead end.  I dont think Boras or Manny Ramirez are going to respond to Colletti drawing a line in the sand.  They need another team to step up.

We wrote about the Mets being a possibility,  but now they might be out $20m per year from the CitiGroup sponsorship, and CNBC is reporting that they may be forced to sell minority ownership.  Bad timing.

So who else might get involved?  According to the LA Times:

The New York Mets, San Francisco Giants and Washington Nationals are among the teams known to be monitoring Ramirez's situation but don't appear inclined to pay him more than $20 million a season. The Angels failed to re-sign All-Star first baseman Mark Teixeira, another Boras client, but have said they won't bid for Ramirez.

We heard about the Giants before.  To me, Ramirez swings the Giants over the Dodgers for the top team in the division.  The Nationals could make sense - they need a "draw", but I dont see them going long term.  I would bet that Boras is working now to stir up interest in Arizona, Colorado, Atlanta, Baltimore and both sides of Chicago.  30 teams is a large pool from which to find a match, and budget forecasting as well as performance forecasting is very much a moving target. 

Potential to Make Them a Winner

Mercury News looks at the Manny/Giants rumors through the perspective of would-be-expendable Fred Lewis, and includes the following nugget:

Scott Boras did not address the Giants' pursuit in the Ramirez sweepstakes during his nearly 15-minute interview on KNBR on Wednesday. But when asked if Ramirez would like to play for the Giants, Boras said, "I think Manny wants to win, and Manny wants to play for a team that wants him."

Boras went on to say "the Giants are a team that has just an extraordinarily young nucleus of pitching. They remind me a great deal of the 2003 Florida Marlins. ... There is a potential there to, if he were on that team, make it a winner. When we were looking for potential suitors, it was clear Manny felt that the Giants were a team that had a chance to go somewhere."

I dont know what can be added to that.  In terms of positioning, its just a brilliant way to go.  In one breath Boras is saying that Manny wants to play in San Francisco, and that the Giants are not a winning team without Manny Ramirez, but they can be the 2003 Marlins with him.  Perfect.

They won't be snookered again by agent Scott Boras

Bruce Jenkins' Blog at the SF Gate includes the following misled paragraph:

They won't be snookered again by agent Scott Boras, who rigged the scandalous Barry Zito deal, especially at a time in this country when extravagant spending seems callous and inappropriate. Boras is known for arranging free-agent contracts far more lucrative than the offers from competing teams, and the Giants won't go the four- or five-year route that Boras seeks for Ramirez.

Who was it that snookered the Giants?  Boras presented the case for Zito while the Giants evaluated the player.  Is he implying that the Giants are incapabale of their own due-dillignece process or that the Giants' scouting team is so pathetic that they are at the mercy of the agents who represent available players?

I am not sure that it was meant to be a compliment, but I agree when Jenkins asserts: Boras is known for arranging free-agent contracts far more lucrative than the offers from competing teams. That is, of course, the goal of any agent.  That Boras does it better than anyone else is a compliment of the highest order.