Latest news with #Boras
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Newport Beach's Boras, Gilchrist among honorees at inaugural OC Sports Awards
ANAHEIM — As high profile as he is, Newport Beach-based sports agent Scott Boras is often behind the scenes when he negotiates deals for his baseball player clients. Boras, sitting in the front row at Dodger Stadium, ended up on television during Sunday night's Dodgers game against the visiting New York Yankees after snagging a ninth-inning foul ball. 'I told ESPN, has your programming gotten to the level where you're going to interview some guy catching a foul ball?' Boras joked in an interview Tuesday night. 'You know, baseball has given me everything I have. It's frankly a very small community, when you think about it.' Two nights later, Boras was again in the spotlight about 30 miles south on the 5 Freeway. He was at Angel Stadium for the inaugural OC Sports Awards, where he received the Lifetime Achievement award. Boras, 72, has negotiated nearly $4 billion in contracts for his clients over the years and doesn't appear to be slowing down. Just last year, client Juan Soto signed a $765-million contract with the New York Mets, the largest in sports history. Longtime Boras client and Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux was on hand Tuesday to present Boras with his award at the event hosted by the Orange County Sports Commission. Boras seemed to appreciate Maddux being there, noting his extensive durability — 355 wins during a 23-year Major League Baseball career, including 17 straight seasons with at least 15 wins. He's also proud of his namesake Boras Baseball Classic, which has had more than 500 participants hear their names called in the Major League Baseball draft, including four No. 1 overall picks. '[Maddux] taught me how to manage greatness,' Boras said during his acceptance speech. 'Managing greatness is so difficult, because the athlete is invincible, and yet you have to give them advice and counsel to protect them. You have to have the courage to approach greatness and let them understand the word, 'No.'' Newport Beach's Kaleigh Gilchrist was another local honoree at the OC Sports Awards. The former Newport Harbor and USC women's water polo star, a three-time Olympian and two-time gold medalist, received the Evolution Award. Gilchrist, also a standout surfer, retired from water polo and married Tom Gehret last August, following the completion of the Paris Olympics, where Team USA placed fourth. Gehret also attended Tuesday's event. Gilchrist, 33, said she is trying to figure out what's next. She does have an opportunity to be the director of surf operations at the Snug Harbor Surf Park, which has been proposed at the Newport Beach Golf Course. 'We still have to get [the facility] passed by council, but hopefully, if all things go as planned, we'll be open by spring of 2028,' she said. 'It's obviously a dream job. Wave pools are popping up everywhere, and I think they're going to be the next best thing of surfing. To be involved from day one to when it's open would be really special.' Former Mater Dei High, USC and NFL quarterback Matt Leinart served as the night's host, with the ceremony starting on time despite lightning and thunder in the area that disrupted a planned red carpet. The OC Sports Awards were co-founded by Orange County Sports Commission executive director Anthony Brenneman and Revolver Sports Public Relations founder and chief executive Amanda Samaan. Brenneman said the sports commission separated from a larger tourism bureau into its own nonprofit last year. Other honorees included the Dodgers' Freddie Freeman, a Villa Park native, as the Male Pro Athlete of the Year. Professional surfer Caroline Marks, a San Clemente resident, was named Female Pro Athlete of the Year. Legendary surfer Kelly Slater was the ICON Honoree, late Angels founding owner Gene Autry was the Legacy Honoree and the Jessie Rees Foundation was honored as Philanthropist of the Year. High school and college athletes also earned awards for their excellence. 'We wanted to give an opportunity to honor everyone at every level,' Samaan said. 'We also wanted to honor those have come before us to even be here, like Gene Autry. To be able to do it in his house that he built was a full circle moment that we were really honored to be able to do our first year.' Freeman was not in attendance, as the Dodgers hosted the Mets on Tuesday night. He had a short video message for attendees and a memorable game on the field, hitting a walk-off double in the Dodgers' 6-5 win.
New York Times
28-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Astros mailbag: Hunter Brown extension talk, why Jose Altuve is in left field and more
HOUSTON — Hello, Houston Astros fans. This April might be more enjoyable than last one. Houston is guaranteed not to repeat last season's 12-24 start. Even after losing a series at Kauffman Stadium, the club is 14-13 and entered Sunday as one of five American League teams with a positive run differential. Advertisement The Astros offense remains powerless — only four teams have a lower slugging percentage, and just three have fewer home runs — but is being buoyed by a pitching staff that boasts baseball's lowest WHIP. Neither statistic feels sustainable, but such is life with small samples. Note: Submitted questions have been lightly edited for clarity and length. What is the likely path forward with Hunter Brown regarding a contract extension? — Gavin L. The path is narrow, if not nonexistent, Gavin. Brown is blossoming into one of the best pitchers in baseball, someone who would be better served to await a seven-figure payday in free agency than risk losing money on an in-season extension. According to multiple league sources, Brown was interested in an extension last spring, but talks with Houston's front office never materialized into anything substantial. Those discussions came while Brown left Wasserman for the Ballengee Group and boasted a 4.60 ERA across 176 major-league innings. Brown has a 3.09 ERA since then, and this winter, he hired Scott Boras to represent him. Both developments will make the Astros' pursuit of a long-term pact more difficult. Brown's value is higher than ever, and he clearly wants to seize that advantage. Players generally pick Boras with free agency in mind, and Boras often encourages his clients to test the open market in favor of signing an extension. The Astros employ two Boras clients who've bucked his trend. Jose Altuve and Lance McCullers Jr. signed extensions before reaching free agency — Altuve even got two of them — but both players also informed Boras that staying in Houston was their foremost priority. If Brown thinks the same way, it is perhaps the only realistic path for an extension with Houston. Another involves the Astros making Brown the sort of offer he can't refuse, one commensurate with his value on the open market and one that would force him to seriously consider forgoing free agency. Advertisement Nothing in owner Jim Crane's past suggests he's open to anything of the sort. Might the Astros consider letting Brendan Rodgers go within the 45-day advanced consent clause window in his contract to free up money and create more flexibility in the lineup? — Mark P. Offloading some of Rafael Montero's salary to the Atlanta Braves may have made this situation less likely, Mark, but for those wondering what an advanced consent form is, let's explain. Rodgers has five years of major-league service time, which means he can't be optioned to the minor leagues without approving the demotion. Signing an advanced consent form allows the Astros to either option him without approval or terminate Rodgers' contract altogether within the first 45 days of the season. Rodgers is making $2 million while on the major-league roster. Assessing that financial impact played a part in Houston's delayed decision to carry him on the roster. It likely isn't a coincidence, then, that the Atlanta Braves absorbed around $3 million of Montero's bloated salary. Dumping Montero's miserable contract leaves Houston about $5 million under the first luxury tax threshold, according to Cot's Contracts. Such financial flexibility should make Houston's choice to keep Rodgers pretty straightforward. Rodgers' contract also contains opt-out dates on May 1 and June 1, giving him at least some autonomy with his future. Given how much Rodgers is playing — he started on Sunday for the 14th time in 27 games — it would be a surprise to see him exercise it by Thursday. I realize Altuve's defense has slipped a bit, but to get more offensive punch in the lineup, why not move him back to second base and put Zach Dezenzo in left field? That would allow Dezenzo and Cam Smith to get regular at-bats. Are Rodgers and Mauricio Dubón that much better than Altuve defensively? — Jerry A. Major League Baseball banned the shift before the 2023 season, Jerry. In the two seasons that followed, no second baseman generated fewer defensive runs saved than Altuve's minus-26 mark. Only three were worth fewer outs above average than the minus-11 Altuve registered. In that same timeframe, Dubón generated seven defensive runs saved and two outs above average. Altuve had deteriorated into a defensive liability at a position where it is almost impossible to hide. Astros second basemen had 1,138 defensive chances between 2023 and 2024 — the fewest in the sport, but still far more than Altuve is confronting. Houston's left fielders received just 575 chances across that same timeframe. Getting Altuve away from the action became one of the Astros' offseason priorities, along with strengthening their infield defense. Playing Dezenzo, a college shortstop with 15 professional starts at second base, over Rodgers or Dubón would weaken it. Advertisement Dubón is viewed as the best defensive second baseman on the roster, but Rodgers offers more offensive upside that the Astros are trying to unlock. When Altuve accepted the move to left field this winter, the team reciprocated his selflessness by assuring Altuve he wouldn't be moved around constantly. So, no, Altuve isn't going to move back to second base permanently. Injuries elsewhere can always impact that plan, but it isn't something the Astros are contemplating. How much longer can Chas McCormick realistically stay on the roster? — Doug T. McCormick's spot on the major-league roster has never felt more tenuous, Doug, especially with the news that Smith will start taking fly balls in center field. The entire premise of carrying McCormick centered on his ability to back up Jake Meyers in center field and serve as a late-game defensive replacement for Smith or Altuve in the corners. Smith has exceeded almost all expectations with his defense in right field, inviting wonder about how much longer he'll need to be taken out late in games. At some point, Altuve will get comfortable enough to play left field late in a close game, too. Just the act of exposing Smith to center field accentuates how far McCormick has fallen in the organizational hierarchy. That he has taken 19 plate appearances since April 3 — and sacrifice-bunted during two of them — further demonstrates his standing. McCormick has minor-league options remaining, if the Astros decide it would be better for him to receive everyday at-bats. But at 30 years old and with 455 games of major-league experience, it's worth wondering what benefit being in the minor leagues would provide. Finishing Sunday's game 3-for-4 is encouraging for McCormick. Given that Dezenzo, Smith, Meyers and McCormick haven't separated themselves as must-start options, manager Joe Espada may play the hot hand until someone does. After Sunday, perhaps McCormick is among those hot hands. Advertisement If the injured starters return during the season as hoped, could the Astros move Framber Valdez at the trade deadline (regardless of the standings) to recoup some value before he leaves as a free agent in the offseason? — John K. The time to trade Valdez has passed, John, unless the Astros arrive at the deadline in dire straits and without any realistic possibility of a playoff berth. If the Astros were interested in 'recouping some value' for Valdez, he would've followed Kyle Tucker out the door this winter. Instead, according to multiple team sources, the club valued the volume of innings Valdez throws and didn't believe it could be replicated by internal options. But let's play along with your hypothetical — trading Valdez at the deadline regardless of record. Teams with an interest in Valdez would also be in contention. It stands to reason Dana Brown wouldn't dare trade Valdez to another American League contender and risk facing him in a potential Wild Card Series or Division Series matchup. That alone limits the market and leverage the Astros would have in any of these hypothetical discussions. And among the few suitors who would remain, another pertinent question should be asked: Why would the Astros risk trading Valdez to a club they could face in a potential World Series matchup? Yainer Diaz is disappointing at the plate. How are his defensive metrics stacking up? What is he bringing to the table if not a bat? — Russell G. Diaz is the definition of a bat-first catcher, Russell, even if nothing he has done this season suggests it. Diaz hit an opposite-field home run during Sunday's game but still boasts a .499 OPS after his first 83 at-bats. Only five qualified major-league hitters have a lower one. Diaz is nowhere near a finished product defensively. The Astros understand this but were willing to live with the growing pains as long as his offensive production remained. April has challenged that thought, but Diaz remains the starting catcher. Diaz has long been a poor pitch framer, which will be irrelevant if and when the automated balls and strikes system is adopted in the majors. According to Baseball Savant, Diaz finished last season worth minus-7 catcher framing runs and is already worth minus-1 this season. Between last season and this one, Diaz has been worth five blocks above average. Just 12 catchers are worth more. Advertisement Most will blame Diaz or backup Victor Caratini for the Astros' inability to control the running game, but it should be spread to a pitching staff that struggles to vary its delivery times to home plate. Still, what might be most concerning about Diaz's evolution is the decrease in his pop time — the time between a pitch hitting his mitt and when it arrives at an infielder's glove on a stolen-base attempt. Diaz averaged 1.97 seconds last season. The major-league average is two seconds. In his first 13 attempts this season, Diaz has a 2.03-second pop time. Caratini's is 2.05. Diaz still boasts great arm strength — his 82.4 mph average is the 11th hardest in the big leagues — but he isn't getting the quick releases seen last season. Some of that is on a pitching staff that's not giving him or Caratini much of a chance. (Top photo of Hunter Brown: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
Bloomberg
11-04-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Baseball's $10 Billion Man Won't Apologize for Soaring Salaries
Agent Scott Boras had another record offseason, reigniting calls for a salary cap — and threats of a lockout. On a Friday in December, baseball agent Scott Boras and his client Juan Soto paid a visit to New York Mets owner Steve Cohen at his home in Delray Beach, Florida. Soto, a 26-year-old lefty slugger, was the most sought-after free agent in baseball. It was the second meeting of the offseason between Cohen and Soto, who was also considering offers from the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers. In Delray, Boras peppered Cohen with questions. He posed different scenarios that might arise if Soto became a Met. Could the team surround him with enough talent? By the time it was over, the 68-year-old hedge fund manager was convinced he had little chance of landing Soto. Later, he'd call it one his worst meetings ever, no small thing for someone who oversees more than $35 billion in assets and endured a seven-year federal investigation into allegations of insider-trading at his former firm. For Boras, it was standard operating procedure. The 72-year-old has been making owners squirm since he began representing players four decades ago. He wanted Soto to see Cohen go off-script. 'I don't want a canned answer,' he says during an hourlong interview in March. 'Sometimes you need to know how they react and what they say they're going to do when they're challenged.' Two days later, Soto decided to join the Mets on a 15-year, $765 million contract, the largest in the history of professional sports. It was the showpiece in a blockbuster offseason for Boras, who also secured $210 million over six years for Corbin Burnes in Arizona; $182 million over five years for Blake Snell with the Dodgers; and $120 million over three years for Alex Bregman in Boston. By Opening Day, Boras had negotiated more than a dozen contracts with a combined lifetime value of nearly $1.7 billion, the largest haul for a single agent in one offseason, according to data from Baseball Prospectus. It also pushed Boras past the $10 billion mark in total free-agent deals for his clients since the publication began tracking, making him easily the most successful and influential agent in baseball, and arguably, in US sports. If you include every contract in his more than 40 years in the business, the total rises to nearly $15 billion. Boras Contracts Overshadow Industry Competitors MLB free agent contracts signed each season, by agency In that time, Boras has built a reputation as a fierce advocate for players, known for toting binders full of stats into negotiations to substantiate his demands, and as a pain in the side of owners, known for searching out loopholes in the league's collective bargaining agreement and pushing negotiations to the 11th hour. He's been called an 'extortionist' and the 'most hated man in baseball'. For some fans, he's an emblem of the creeping influence of money in the sport, a scapegoat for everything from the rising cost of hot dogs to ads on jerseys. With his record-setting offseason, Boras, and his clients, are again at the center of a debate about the lopsided economics of baseball. The Dodgers, Mets, Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies are each set to pay more than $300 million for their Major League rosters this year, while the 10 teams at the bottom of the table are slated to spend less than half that. Perhaps not coincidentally, only one team with a payroll in the bottom third has made it to the World Series in the last decade. 'I'm sympathetic to fans in smaller markets who go into the season feeling they don't have a chance in the world to win,' league Commissioner Rob Manfred told the New York Times earlier this month. 'If people don't believe there's competition, you've got a product problem, an existential problem for your business.' Sign up for Bloomberg's Business of Sports newsletter For owners, the answer appears to be a salary cap, a hard limit on player compensation such as those already in place in the National Football League and National Basketball Association. With the current collective bargaining agreement between players and the league set to expire at the end of next year, Manfred and a handful of owners have already begun the push for one in baseball, a move the players' union has successfully resisted for decades. The brewing conflict threatens to bring baseball to a halt, with many in the industry expecting owners to lock players out ahead of the 2027 season. The last big fight between players and owners over a salary cap, in 1994, led to the longest work stoppage in the game's history, the cancellation of that year's World Series and damage to the league's reputation that took decades to mend. For now, though, the game goes on. On a Wednesday evening in early April, Boras settles into his seat at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles about 40 minutes before first pitch for a game against the Atlanta Braves. As on most gamedays, he's already been at the ballpark for hours, watching the East Coast games in a private suite along with a few staffers from his agency, the Boras Corporation. During the season, the stadium serves as a makeshift office for the company, whose headquarters are about 50 miles south. Wearing a blue oxford, dark wash jeans and a navy Boras Corp. quarter-zip, Boras carries a 24-ounce Starbucks iced tea to his front-row seat, 10 down from home plate on the third-base side. Former Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak leans over to say hello from a few seats over. Boras has been a regular at Dodger Stadium for nearly three decades. As the officials huddle before the players take the field, the second-base ump flashes a wave. Snell is pitching for the Dodgers. It's his second start after signing the $182 million deal Boras negotiated in November. As the players finish their warmups, Boras' phone lights up. It's Cohen. Pete Alonso, another Boras client, has just hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning to bring the Mets level in Miami. 'That was cool,' reads Cohen's text. Boras says he and Cohen keep in touch regularly – despite a tortured back-and-forth over Alonso's two-year, $54 million deal signed in February. 'This has been an exhausting conversation,' Cohen told the crowd at an event for Mets fans as the negotiations dragged on. 'Soto was tough. This is worse.' In the end, Cohen later told longtime Mets radio announcer Howie Rose, he and Alonso hashed out the deal as Boras sat by wordlessly. Things are warmer now. 'Steve is an owner that calls all the time to ask questions,' says Boras. Their chumminess is a knock-on effect of MLB's lopsided economics. With a net worth of $17.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Cohen is the richest owner in the league by a wide margin. A lifelong Mets fan, he paid $2.4 billion for the team in 2020 and has shown a willingness to spend whatever it takes to bring the franchise its first title since 1986. With Soto, Cohen set a new standard not only for pay but for perks, agreeing to a $75 million signing bonus, a no-trade clause, an opt-out after five years, a luxury suite at Citi Field for home games, and a guarantee that Soto could keep his uniform number (22). The deal brought joy in Queens and shock and dismay in the Bronx, where Soto helped the Yankees to the World Series last season. Even the Yankees, long one of the league's top spenders, are beginning to feel left behind. 'It's difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they're doing,' Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said of the Dodgers in January, a couple of months after they defeated his team in the Series. A History of Swelling Salaries Scott Boras is behind many of baseball's biggest free-agent deals since 1991 In an effort to cool the free agent market, the league has tried increasing luxury taxes for teams that exceed payroll thresholds. In 2022, the league added a tier for repeat offenders, nicknamed the 'Cohen tax,' that taxes teams at a marginal rate of 110%. So far it hasn't worked. Last season, according to a memo obtained by ESPN, nine teams paid at least some luxury tax, with the Dodgers, Mets and Yankees all hitting the maximum rate. The next logical step, at least in the eyes of many team owners, is to limit pay. 'Owners are doing a lot of scheming right now about how to get a salary cap,' says Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist at Smith College. 'They're thinking that the only way that they could possibly get it is by doing a lockout that lasts really long, maybe a year or even longer.' As Boras sees it, the uproar over pay is a convenient way for league management to distract from its own unforced errors in failing to maximize revenue. 'We have great attendance. We're offering you content that is unbelievable,' he says. 'So why are you not optimizing it like other sports executives are?' TV deals, long a reliable source of billions in annual revenue for MLB, have suffered since the pandemic. Cash flows from regional sports networks, which carry local teams' games over cable, have withered as rampant cord-cutting has forced some into bankruptcy. And in February, ESPN, the league's biggest national broadcast partner, announced that it had decided to opt out of the final three years of its rights deal, making this season its last and leaving the league to look elsewhere for $550 million in annual revenue. Unlike peers such as the NBA, which used the growing appetite for streaming content to lock in high-value, long-term media deals, Boras says MLB both undersold its product and fumbled away hundreds of millions by granting ESPN the option to leave early. 'Why did you allow an opt-out in that?' he asks, noting that he might be MLB's foremost expert on such clauses: he practically invented them. A spokesperson for the league declined to comment. Boras has little patience for the complaints of small-market owners, who, as he sees it, shouldn't expect a level playing field after paying small-market prices for their teams. If the league wants more competitive balance, he says, it should set up a system to starve the owners of underperforming teams of revenue-sharing payments. Those that repeatedly miss the playoffs, have poor attendance or fail to invest in facilities, he argues, shouldn't be subsidized by the rest of the league. 'We have got a number of franchises that need to be reviewed,' he says. It's a radical, self-serving proposition with a miniscule shot at becoming reality. At the same time, it demonstrates both Boras' aggressive negotiating style and his abiding passion for the game. His bedrock convictions, as becomes clear over the course of spending a few hours with him, are that baseball is great and its best players always deserve more. Growing up on a dairy farm in California's Central Valley, Boras used to hand-wire a transistor radio into an oversized ballcap so he could listen to Giants and Athletics broadcasts while driving the tractor. He played four seasons of minor league baseball, rising as high as double-A, before knee injuries cut his career short in 1977. 'I made the Florida State League All-Star team and was hitting .290 and life was going good,' he says. Baseball has made Boras a wealthy man. He takes a standard 5% of all free agent deals, meaning his agency has taken in at least $400 million in pre-tax commissions since 1991, according to Baseball Prospectus data, and is guaranteed another $130 million over the next 15 years on top of that. Boras doesn't sit on his profits, though. He's long touted his staff of around 160, including a global network of scouts and a sports psychologist, and his Newport Beach training facility for players. And although he's been approached about selling his business, Boras says he's not interested in giving up control. 'I'm not a finance guy. I'm a baseball guy,' he says. 'I want to beat the game. And the way I do it is through the players I represent.' After the bottom of the second inning at Dodger Stadium, Atlanta is up 5-2. Snell is struggling. Boras leans over. 'I bet you six or seven runs will win this game,' he says. Boras has propped an iPad against the netting to keep an eye on the Yankees, who are playing at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Two seats to his right, his analysts are tracking Diamondbacks ace Zac Gallen, another client, and analyzing his pitch sequences. In Boras' lap is a blue folder filled with custom score sheets he uses to track his clients' pitches by hand. Boras' attention to detail is legendary: He gets an auto-generated email every half-hour with live stats for every one of his clients currently on the field, and has at least one employee watching every single game all season long to alert him in case he needs to tune in. After each night's slate of games, he reviews a condensed file of every single pitch, at-bat and defensive play by his clients. Boras sends multi-paragraph texts to his players after many of their games, giving them feedback on their performance and offering advice. During the Dodgers game, he uses a translation app to text Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz in Spanish; Elly texts him back – 'Thx big dog,' plus fire emojis. In the top of the fifth inning, Boras reaches into his briefcase. 'Want a prune?' he asks, pulling out a bag. 'Perfect middle-of-the-game meal.' At 72, Boras maintains his best years are ahead of him. 'I got another 30 years or so of this and I'm going to keep operating,' he says. He's turned down offers to become a general manager at a team or take a stake in ownership: 'I would never represent someone one day and turn around and negotiate against them the next,' he says. The long-term plan is to pass Boras Corp. down through a family trust. 'I've built a company that will go beyond me,' he says, 'We're always going to do this.' By the ninth inning, the Dodgers have pulled even at 5-5, and Shohei Ohtani comes to the plate. Prior to Soto's Mets deal, the Japanese superstar held the record for largest in baseball history with a 10-year, $700 million contract signed in 2023 that included $680 million in deferred payments. By league accounting, that structure made the deal worth $460 million in present value. Ohtani isn't one of Boras' clients, though not for lack of trying. Before Ohtani came to the US in 2018, Boras flew to Japan five times and met his parents in an effort to land him, only to lose out to CAA's Nez Balelo. During negotiations over Soto, Boras says, team owners set Ohtani's deal with the Dodgers as a benchmark. If Ohtani – an elite pitcher and a Soto-level slugger, as well as a household name in Japan and the US – got $460 million, they argued, surely Soto should get less. Boras insisted on a different valuation. 'We have a different algorithm and a different method of evaluating players because it includes so much about who they are, their learning aptitude and their psychology,' he says. At every meeting between Soto and his suitors, Boras had his client recount, pitch-by-pitch, his game-clinching at-bat against the Cleveland Guardians in last year's playoffs. As Soto described how, after six pitches, he got the one he wanted, everybody in the room 'sat there ablaze,' says Boras. 'Then you understood Juan Soto.' In the end, Soto got more than Ohtani, whose deal, in retrospect, looks like a bargain. A few yards away from Boras, Ohtani, the one that got away, connects on an 89-mile per hour changeup from Braves closer Raisel Iglesias and sends it sailing toward centerfield. 'There's your sixth run,' says Boras, already standing to leave as the ball clears the fence, giving the Dodgers a walk-off win.
New York Times
26-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Banking on Juan Soto: Mets star embraces $765 million worth of expectations
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — With a matter-of-fact tone, Juan Soto sounded confident. In his decision to pick the New York Mets. In his ability to perform at an elite level, starting with Thursday's season opener. In anything, really. Especially his contract. The pressure doesn't cloud his view of it. He sees the realization of an idea first introduced to him when he was 17 years old. Advertisement 'If it's not the best, it's gotta be one of the best contracts ever — and not because of the money but all the perks in the contract,' Soto said in a recent interview about the years-long process that ultimately made him supremely at ease playing against the backdrop of a 15-year, $765 million deal. 'I feel like there is no other like it.' That's because there isn't. It's the richest deal in sports history. It even contains special extras like luxury suites at home games, other premium seats and his customary No. 22 uniform. Soto said he didn't have to have any single one of the perks. He felt comfortable asking for them. 'When a player goes to free agency, he's allowed to ask for anything,' Soto said. 'So I asked. And they gave me everything I wanted. It was a big part of it. Anything I wanted in my contract — opt outs, season tickets — I got it.' Soto knows his worth. He is the 26-year-old who shuffles in the batter's box, stares down opposing pitchers. He owns the highest on-base percentage among active players. He might be the game's best hitter. Performing as the $765 million player requires more than just skill. A certain personality is necessary. Soto's past — rejecting hundreds of millions of dollars from the Washington Nationals, spending just one year with the New York Yankees, taking the Mets' monster offer — embodies his self-assurance. The number surprised 17-year-old Juan Soto. In a meeting with Soto and Soto's family, agent Scott Boras demonstratively raised his hand. 'I want you to know what this means,' Boras told Soto's parents. 'This is what I think your son is worth.' Five. As in, five hundred million dollars. Soto was merely a prospect in Class A, multiple steps away from the major leagues. A year earlier, the Washington Nationals signed him as an amateur international free agent for a then-lofty bonus of $1.5 million. Now, Boras, one of the most influential figures in the industry, was saying that someday he'd command a figure no one at the time had seen. Advertisement Soto's father laughed. His mother blurted out, 'Really?' And Soto thought to himself, 'You're crazy.' 'When you talk about a young kid who comes from the Dominican Republic — a dollar is 60 pesos in the DR — it's a different feeling,' Soto said in a recent interview. 'It's a different feeling when you're talking about millions of dollars. And when you're talking about 500 million dollars, it's just massive. When he was saying that, we didn't know what to say.' Sensing the stupefaction that day, Boras said, 'Juan, the first thing I'm going to do is get you to believe in yourself.' Boras met with Soto 68 times — Boras said he kept track — over the next several years leading up to the deal with the Mets. They discussed performance, mindset and value, and all the subcategories under each topic. Over time, Soto grew more comfortable with hearing about gargantuan dollar figures. His on-field success kept confirming Boras' vision. Soto reached the majors in 2018 as a 19-year-old and never looked back. By 2019, he had established himself as an elite hitter. That year, he helped the Nationals win the World Series. In the National League wild card winner-take-all game that year, Soto entered the batter's box in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Nationals trailed by two runs. Two outs. Bases loaded. Josh Hader, one of the game's best closers, was on the mound. Soto fouled a first-pitch fastball straight back. He stared at Hader. His eyes told a story about how much he knew he'd just missed it, how confident he was he'd still come through. The next pitch, a slider, sailed way beyond the strike zone. Soto performed his shuffle. He eyed Hader the whole time, challenging him, hyping himself up. Count: 1-1. Another high fastball. Soto connected for the game-winning hit. The moment left a lasting impression on then-Milwaukee Brewers GM David Stearns, now the Mets' president of baseball operations. 'It's one of the greatest at-bats I've ever seen,' Stearns said. From there, Soto kept adding to his lore. Over 850 plate appearances across 2020-21, Soto produced a 1.042 OPS. The Nationals wanted to keep him around. By July 2022, they beefed up their offer to 15 years, $440 million. Not enough. Boras' hand, the one representing those $500 million, stayed in the air. Soto rejected the offer. Advertisement At first, he said, walking away from the offer was tough; this was the only team he knew. But the Nationals hadn't come close to playing .500 since winning the World Series. Within months, Nationals owner Ted Lerner, with whom Soto grew close, died. Other stars no longer played in Washington. 'When you realize what they'd been doing for the past couple years, what the background was right after we won the World Series, it was like, do you want to keep playing that way? Are you willing to be on this rebuild with a new team and everything and make it harder for yourself?' Soto said. 'At the end of the day, we are not doing this for the money, we are doing this because I wanted to win, wanted to be a part of something special. When I looked around and everything, I thought, 'I don't think that's the right choice to take that money.' 'Definitely, I told them I was open about continuing to keep talking and keep getting to my number. They were saying that's all they had, they weren't going farther there and their mindset changed to go another way.' Soto declining the offer set in motion the kind of short stays uncommon for stars of his caliber. Soon after, the Nationals dealt him to the San Diego Padres. Ahead of the 2024 season, the Padres traded him to the Yankees. Around the time of the failed negotiations with Washington, Boras sat in his California office and wrote down on a sheet of paper a number he deemed more suitable. He placed the sheet of paper inside his drawer. Recently, he wouldn't say what the number was, only that in relation to what Soto ended up getting from the Mets, it was 'close.' Before Soto ever played a home game in the Bronx, he had decided to enter free agency at the end of the 2024 season. 'Right when I got to the Yankees, that was a mindset that I had,' Soto said. 'I thought to myself, 'You know what, now, I am in my last year. I am going to prove who I am. I am going to go out here and do my best.' I knew there was going to be a lot going on, there were going to be a lot of question marks. That was the point where I said, 'OK, I'll be focused on baseball and make sure I get the best free agency I can have.'' Advertisement Soto said he never wavered. 'There's a lot of temptations out there that were probably able to grab some of my mindset and try to change my mind,' Soto said. 'But right when I got to the last year, I was like, 'OK, I made it all the way here — I'm not going to waste it.'' Soto met with Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner last July. At some point, Soto told the Yankees brass that he didn't think signing an extension months before free agency made sense. 'In the middle of the season, we told them, look, we've been waiting six years for this moment,' Soto said. The confidence, again, paid off. Soto authored one of baseball's best platform seasons: 41 home runs, .288 batting average, .989 OPS. With a third-place finish for the Most Valuable Player, he helped the Yankees reach the World Series. Then, in an unprecedented move for baseball in New York, he left the Yankees for the Mets. Other players have changed jerseys. A star in his prime leaving a shot at Monument Park to play in Flushing? Never happened. Until Soto. 'Definitely, (the Yankees) were number one on my list,' Soto said. 'But they couldn't make it.' In his meetings with Stearns and Mets owner Steve Cohen, Soto wore an inscrutable expression. Cohen figured Soto would pick another club; the Yankees loomed as the favorite. But Soto absorbed all the information. In Cohen, Soto saw an owner willing to spend and invest to ensure his club stayed competitive. In the Mets, Soto saw the brightest long-term future. 'This was a serious process for him,' Stearns said. 'He understood he was making a very big decision. He treated it with the appropriate level of sincerity and due diligence.' In one of Soto's first meetings with Boras after the 2024 season, the agent insisted that teams would view the star as a special opportunity, a perennial MVP candidate in his mid-20s, someone worth investing in, in unmatched ways. Advertisement Soto asked Boras, 'Are you sure there's going to be a lot of teams fighting for me? They're going to be in the fight, in the race?' Boras told him, '100 percent.' Approximately two-thirds of the league ended up reaching out. 'What do you mean, 20 teams?' Soto asked Boras. Boras said, 'Yep. They all reached out.' Soto said, 'Oh, my God. That's a good start.' The wildest part for Soto was when teams started to share offers. He realized how much money they were willing to spend. He wondered how long he should wait before making a decision. For those steps, he leaned on Boras. 'When everything got crazy, it was the same thing; Every little thing that he was explaining to me was happening,' Soto said. 'That impressed me the most.' But when it came down to finally making a choice, Soto said the thoughts that ran through his brain belonged solely to himself. 'It wasn't his voice,' Soto said. 'My mind was full of my voice.' Soto's first spring training with the Mets offered a small taste of the ramifications of his decision. A dozen cameras followed his every step as he walked onto the field for his first batting practice. In his first at-bat of the first exhibition game, he hit a home run. The Mets drew 106,027 fans to Grapefruit League games at Clover Park, their highest attendance ever in Port St. Lucie. The Mets ended their spring training schedule with a game against the Yankees. When Soto walked to the plate for his first at-bat, the crowd at Clover Park greeted him with a vociferous mixed reaction. There were some boos. There were a lot of cheers. 'Yankees fans, they can surprise you with anything,' Soto said with a smile when asked after the game what he expected to happen in the regular-season Subway Series, 'so I am expecting the worst.' He is ready to deal with whatever may come from fans, like he is with everything else. The expectations. The contract. Hitting behind Francisco Lindor, in front of Pete Alonso, Soto is paid what he is being paid to help make the Mets not just the best team in New York, but a perennial power. The Mets want to ditch their old habit of losing in unimaginable ways. Last year's trip to the National League Championship Series was a big step. Soto's presence offers the promise of more. Advertisement He is different. Soto's level of confidence, those who know him well say, is what separates him even from other members of baseball's tiny group of inner-circle stars. Soto has done things others haven't (and likely never will). He rejected hundreds of millions of dollars years ago, only to agree to hundreds of millions of dollars more. 'There are likely very few humans on the planet,' Stearns said, 'who have the ability to turn down the type of contract that Juan turned down earlier in his career and then immediately go forward without ever looking back and wondering, 'What if?'' It's the kind of person who is ready for what's next. (Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic. Photos: Rich Storry, Mary DeCicco / Getty Images)
Los Angeles Times
26-03-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Huntington Beach baseball tops Aquinas to open Boras Classic South
SANTA ANA — Benji Medure says this is the most talented group he's fielded in 25 years in charge of Huntington Beach's powerhouse baseball program, that it could be the best of his teams, and let's see how that plays out. It's likely to be determined, among other things, over the course of three tournaments: the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship come May, next month's National High School Invitational in Cary, N.C., and this week's 16-team Boras Classic, Southern California's prestige event. The Oilers (7-0), boasting a booming lineup and unprecedented pitching depth, took an impressive first step along the path, riding Otto Espinoza's arm and Trevor Goldenetz's bat and glove to a 4-1 victory over Aquinas (5-1) in Tuesday morning's Boras opener at Mater Dei High School. They've got La Mirada (8-1) up next, on Wednesday at 3 p.m.— the first real meeting since last year's regional semifinal classic — and aim to be facing off in Friday evening's final at JSerra, where consensus national No. 1 Corona (8-0) could be waiting. 'I think we're the best team in the country,' said Goldenetz, an All-CIF center fielder whose two-out, two-run double in the fourth and crashing-into-the-wall catch in the sixth separated the sides. 'I think we can do everything we want to do, as long as we keep going and stay as a team. 'I think we'll do everything we want to do: win a CIF championship, win this, and win North Carolina. I think we can do it all.' The Oilers — No. 3 in the country, Sports Illustrated and MaxPreps agree — have it all written down. 'We have it written in the white board,' said Espinoza, a 6-foot-3, Cal-bound right-hander. 'We have everything on a check board, and they're all boxed and waiting to be checked.' Espinoza surrendered just two hits in five shutout innings against an Aquinas attack that had scored 67 runs in its first five outings, working a 92 mile-per-hour fastball, his signature slider and, to his surprise, a sharp changeup. He twice worked out of one-out, man-on-second situations, and limited Falcons stars Mason Greenhouse and Jacob Bitonti to a walk in a combined six plate appearances. 'He was aggressive with his fastball,' Medure said. 'He was working both sides of the plate. I love that he was throwing in to some guys that probably weren't expecting the ball to come in, especially Greenhouse and Bitonti, but then threw a good-enough changeup to keep the barrel off of [the ball].' The Oilers scored an unearned run in the third inning, as Ethan Porter doubled to the left-center gap with one out and came home on a two-out throwing error. Then, two more runs on Goldenetz's full-count double to right in the fourth, and another on Owen Bone's safety-squeeze bunt in the fifth. Goldenetz, headed to Long Beach State, delivered the key blow. It all happened with two out: Jared Grindlinger singled up the middle, and John Petrie ripped a pinch-hit double off the base of the wall in left-center. Porter worked a full-count walk to fill the bases, and Goldenetz poked a line drive over first baseman Trevor Busby's head and down the right-field line. 'That was huge [to] crack it open like that ...,' Medure said. 'It was a 3-2 count, so the runners were going, and when Goldie hits the ball hard, he usually hits it to right. And I'm, like, oh my God, I don't want to send [Matt Haidl, back in to run for Petrie] from second on [Miami-bound Aquinas right fielder Mason] Greenhouse, because he has an unbelievable arm. 'To be able to get to 3-2 and have the runners move, I'm, like, OK, he gets a base hit, we're going to get two out of this.' Bone's bunt in brought home Trenton Ramirez, pinch-running for Trent Grindlinger, who was hit by a pitch. Medure said Bone wasn't in the initial rotation of players when the Oilers began offseason preparations, but he's worked hard to get into that group. Goldenetz's big catch made sure the lead was enough. Estaban Orazaba was at second after his second single of the morning when Bitonti launched a fly ball to deep right-center with one out. Goldenetz raced 25 or 30 yards and — with Haidl guiding him — snagged it as he hit the wall. Medure called it 'the biggest play of the game.' Aquinas got its run in the seventh as Chase Davidson doubled and came home on Orlando Oakes' two-out single. The Oilers have something of a rivalry with La Mirada (8-1), No. 8 on MaxPreps' California list and a 7-0 winner over Birmingham. The last showdown was a wild one, with the Matadores hitting three homers and six doubles to overcome a five-run deficit for a 10-8 victory. They faced off again a month ago, in the final preseason scrimmage. 'You wouldn't have known that was a scrimmage,' Medure said. 'It was a war ... We always seem to match up in this tournament. We matched up in '23 and we matched up in '19, so why not? 'There's going to be some fireworks, for sure.'
