Trying Something Unusual

Last week, Ben McDonald mentioned that Boras said to him that they were going to try something unusual with the Strasburg negotiations.  We got some attention when we suggested that he might be looking for a way to create free agency for Strasburg.  Well, the Washington Post may have  nailed it more directly:

Boras was dropping hints privately that he is preparing to explore a new frontier in his ongoing draft-busting crusade: Japan.

"If a [contract agreement] does not happen," Boras said during a conference call with reporters following the draft, "obviously you then look to all the available resources that one would have to evaluate what the next step is, whether it's to re-enter the draft, or alternative choices."

[snip]

According to Major League Rule 4(a), draft eligibility is limited to players who are "resident[s] of the United States or Canada and who [have] not previously contracted with a Major League or minor league club." Under Rule 3, which governs contracts, a player is considered a resident of the United States if he "enrolls in a United States high school or college or establishes a legal residence in the U.S. on the date of the player's contract or within one year prior to that date."

However, there is enough gray area within the issue of "residency" -- a notion Boras first explored in Drew's case in 1997, threatening at one point to take him to Costa Rica to establish residency -- that baseball has seen fit to publish a handbook, distributed to scouting directors and other executives before each year's draft, that clarifies what residency means.

At worst, the threat of Japan should give (even) more leverage to Boras over the Nationals.  At best, he will be able to pull it off.  The Japanese teams stand to gain a tremendous amount themselves, but as the article notes, it may be a complicated issue:

"This will do more harm than good to the NPB club. [Strasburg] will not be welcomed, neither by the teammates or the media," Kobayashi said. "It is not easy to sympathize with a guy who comes to Japan just as [part of] a negotiation process to squeeze more millions out of [an MLB] club."

According to Kobayashi, NPB officials are still perturbed about the Boston Red Sox' signing last winter of amateur pitcher Junichi Tazawa, violating what is seen as a "gentlemen's agreement" between the leagues that neither would pluck away the best amateur talent from the other.

"We would not do what we do not want others to do to us," Kobayashi said, "unless we really have to do so."

At the end of the day, if this is the desired avenue of the Boras/Strasburg team, it will probably end up in the courts.  MLB has too much to loose by allowing this precedent, and I imagine they will fight Boras on this, even if they will ultimately lose.  The legal clean-up that will likely follow - from CBA amendments to an eventual agreement between MLB and their oversees counterparts - will be quite significant.

Similar to the tax code, it seems that the more restrictive rules that MLB tries to put in place, the larger the advantage to those clever enough to find ways to challenge the system.  The fact is, only a true free market economy will level the playing field among all players/agents and teams.