It’s official, Scott Boras has completely screwed up the start of two very promising careers. First off, if you haven’t heard the story yet, Boras represents a lot of high profile baseball players and in the June 2008 MLB draft two of them are Pedro Alvarez and Eric Hosmer. Both received deals worth $6 million on the night of the signing deadline. Hosmer even reported to his first team, the Idaho Falls Chukars. Alvarez has not reported anywhere. That’s because Boras contends that his contract is not valid, but Hosmer’s is.
MLB has said that Alvarez’s contract was settled before Hosmer’s, so if Alverez’s contract is invalid so it Hosmer’s. It gets better, Boras is contending that MLB extended the signing deadline, just so these two guys could sign. Then of course you have the MLB player’s union, which is pissed off because the collective bargaining agreement states that the deadline can’t be adjusted without approval from the player’s union. A hearing has been set for September 10th, but in the meantime, neither one of these players can do anything as far as playing professional baseball.
My take on it is this, Boras would only bring this up if he (or his client was unhappy with the contract negotiated). So basically, he is trying to squeeze, either more money out of the Pirates, an MLB deal, or a combination of both. In the process, he inadvertently derailed Hosmer’s career. Which, if I were Hosmer, would be grounds for dismissal. Right now Alvarez is on the restricted list, which means that he can not play or sign with any other team. It also means that he can not go back to college.
So what is the final take out of all this? We once again see how Scott Boras can single handedly become the center of attention in the baseball world. We see two potential superstar’s careers derailed, at least for a half of a season. What happens if it’s deemed that the two signed contracts after the deadline? Do they go back into the draft come June 2009? Hosmer has the Arizona State option and Alvarez the Vanderbilt option, but both would be missing classes right now. No in the end, MLB will get it’s hands slapped, Boras will get reprehended by the media, and these guys will play minor league ball come next spring. As far as what they are going to get paid, well I’m not really sure. I still think that if they signed a contract, they should be legally bound to that dollar figure, but I’m just a baseball card blogger so what do I know.
Leave some comments on your take of this.
Buster Posey at #5 got 200K more in his signing bonus than Avarez and Hosmer got at #2 and 3.
http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080816&content_id=3317450&vkey=news_sf&fext=.jsp&c_id=sf
So now Boras is throwing a shitfit because if he doesn’t get more money for his clients it hurts his “brand”. That’s what this thing is all about.
If I was commissioner for a day, I would ban Boras from baseball for life, and give all his clients one week to fire Boras as their agent or they could join him in exile. The league lost a World Series trying to hash out the collective bargaining agreements that govern these deals and Boras has tried to sabotage the entire process one too many times. Kick him out on his ear.