Scott Boras Learned His Lesson
The super agent is done playing chicken with teams this off-season.
Hi friends-
Before we dive in, I wanted to remind you all about our book club zoom tonight for our October/November selection, “The Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball’s Longest Game” by Dan Barry. I loved the book, and I’m thrilled that its author will be joining us tonight to discuss it and answer all your questions about his writing and reporting process, minor league baseball, and anything else you want to ask him about.
The zoom will take place tonight from 5:30-6:30 PM PT, and is open to all paid subscribers. I will send out the zoom link in a few hours. You don’t need to have read the book to join us and hear what Dan has to say tonight. Dan also won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for his work exposing corruption in the Rhode Island court system, so I’ll be asking him about that as well.
We’d love to have you join us!
Also, our Artist’s Way course will begin next Monday night (a week from today). I’ll send out more information on that this week so you can decide if it’s something you’d like to do.
And, as always, we will continue our Saturday zooms talking baseball from noon to 1 PM PT all through the off-season.
All these zooms are open to paid subscribers, and we are building a truly magical community of friends from all over the country who support all different MLB teams and convene regularly to chat. Thank you so much to all who have helped make the Long Game so fun! x
Last off-season was horrible for Scott Boras. In case you forgot, Boras entered the 2023 free agent szn riding high with clients Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Matt Chapman, and Cody Bellinger, and thought he could command mega yachts stuffed with Krugerrands for each other them. But teams weren’t willing to meet his asking prices. And so he waited them out through November, December, January, and February. And when spring training rolled around, none of the four had signed.
"I had a Zoom call with (the Boston Red Sox during free agency). That's really all I know. It went good," Montgomery told the Boston Herald last August. "I don't know. Obviously Boras kind of butchered it, so I'm just trying to move on from the offseason and try to forget it."
The Red Sox reportedly offered Montgomery a four-year deal that he rejected. And, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Montgomery also turned down a four-year deal with the Yankees for $72 million.
Montgomery ultimately signed a one-year deal with the Diamondbacks for $25 million with a player option for $22.5 million in 2025 on March 29, the day after MLB’s regular season started. The lack of spring training derailed his season. After posting a career-best 2.79 ERA with the Texas Rangers in 11 second half starts in 2023, he turned in the worst season of his career in 2024: a 6.23 ERA in 21 starts before he was banished to the bullpen.
He fired Boras, publicly groused about his former agent’s handling of his free agency, then endured the humiliation of DBacks owner Ken Kendrick calling his signing a “horrible decision.”
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