Scott Boras | |
---|---|
Born | Scott Dean Boras November 2, 1952 Sacramento, California, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Education | University of the Pacific (PharmD, JD) |
Occupation | Sports agent |
Years active | 1980–present |
Employer | Boras Corporation |
Website | www |
Scott Dean Boras (born November 2, 1952) is an American sports agent, specializing in baseball. He is the founder, owner and president of the Boras Corporation, a sports agency based in Newport Beach, California, that represents roughly 175 professional baseball clients.
Since 2013, Forbes magazine has named Boras the "Most Powerful Sports Agent in the World." [1] In 2019 and 2022, contracts signed by his clients totaled more than $1 billion in the month of December. [2]
Boras was born in Sacramento [3] and grew up in Elk Grove, California, the son of a dairy farmer. [4] He attended the University of the Pacific and made the baseball team as a walk on. He led the team with a .312 batting average in 1972. [5] As of 2009, Boras was in the top 10 in school history in multiple offensive categories. [5] Boras was inducted into the Pacific Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995, [6] and the baseball team's annual "Most Improved Player" award is named in his honor. [7] Following his college career, Boras played four years of minor league baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs organizations. [8] Boras made the Florida State League All-Star team in 1976, [9] but knee problems shortened his career and he retired with a career batting average of .288. [8] Boras received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of the Pacific in 1977. [10]
Following his playing career, Boras returned to the University of the Pacific, earning his Juris Doctor degree from the university's McGeorge School of Law in 1982. [11] After law school, Boras worked as an associate in the pharmaceutical defense department of the Chicago firm Rooks, Pitts & Poust (now Dykema Gossett), defending drug companies against class-action lawsuits. [12]
Boras's start as an agent came representing Manny Trillo, a former major league second baseman for the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, and other teams, and Bill Caudill, a former minor league teammate and closer for the Seattle Mariners, both of whom now work for Boras. [10] [13] By 1980, he had decided his calling was as a baseball agent. [14] In 1983, Boras negotiated one of the largest contracts in baseball history, $7.5 million for Caudill; and not long afterward, Boras left his law firm job to represent players full time. [15]
Today, Boras is the president and owner of the Boras Corporation, a baseball-only sports agency. [16] In 2014, the Boras Corporation was named by Forbes magazine as the most valuable single-sport agency in the world. [17]
Boras and his company Boras Corporation have become known for record-setting contracts for their free agent and amateur draft clients. [18] Boras was the first baseball agent to negotiate contracts in excess of $50 million: Greg Maddux, five years, $57.5 million in 1997; [19] $100 million Kevin Brown, seven years, $105 million in 1998; [20] and $200 million Alex Rodriguez, 10 years, $252 million in 2000. [21]
Boras has represented many of the elite players in each year's amateur draft and been a strong advocate for increasing player compensation. [18] Boras' first record-setting contract for a drafted player was $150,000 for Tim Belcher in 1983. [22] Since then, Boras clients regularly pushed draft compensation higher, starting with $247,500 for Andy Benes in 1988; a $1.01 million guarantee for Ben McDonald in 1989, including a $350,000 bonus; a $1.2 million guarantee, including a $500,000 bonus for Todd Van Poppel in 1990; $1.55 million for Brien Taylor in 1991; [10] [23] continuing through $8.5 million for J. D. Drew in 1998 and $9.5 million for Mark Teixeira in 2001. [24] In 2009, Boras clients broke several draft records, led by Stephen Strasburg, who surpassed the $15 million barrier with the largest contract in draft history at that time with $15.1 million; Donavan Tate, who received the largest signing bonus ever given to a high school player at $6.25 million; and Jacob Turner, who received the largest signing bonus ever given to a high school pitcher at $4.7 million. [25] [26]
The Boras Corporation operates out of a $20 million, 23,000-square-foot (2,100 m2), two-story, glass-and-steel building in Newport Beach, California. [27] Subsidiary companies include Boras Marketing, which does memorabilia, marketing, and endorsements; [28] and the Boras Sports Training Institute for strength/conditioning and sports psychology. [29] Many of the 75-person staff are former major leaguers, including Bob Brower, Don Carman, Bill Caudill, Scott Chiamparino, Mike Fischlin, Calvin Murray, Jeff Musselman, Domingo Ramos and Kurt Stillwell. The company has scouts across the United States, Asia and Latin America. [15] [27] [30] [31] Staff also includes an MIT-trained economist, former NASA computer engineer, three lawyers, five personal trainers, and an investment team, although the firm does not provide investment services for clients. Also on staff is a sports psychologist and a 14-person research staff charged with watching each day's games and reporting to Boras. [32] [33]
Here is a list of Boras Corp. notable active clients:
Over the course of his career, Boras has represented hundreds of players on all 30 major league teams and has participated in dozens of high-profile negotiations. Boras' specialty is the record-breaking contract, which he says is the most difficult to achieve because it then provides an "umbrella" from which other players can benefit. [18] Boras is well known for identifying sources of leverage for his clients and using them for the clients' advantage. This has included advising draft picks to return to school instead of signing, taking advantage of the right to go to salary arbitration hearings, and advising superstars to wait for free agency instead of taking "hometown discount" contracts. [38] [39] This does not endear him to fans, who regularly side with their favorite teams and not individual players. [40] Boras, however, has said his job is to represent his clients' interests, even if it means weathering public criticism. [41] [42] [43] Boras' innovative strategies have benefited his clients enough that Major League Baseball has changed its rules in response to his actions on multiple occasions. [44] This has led to descriptions of Boras ranging from "baseball's most hated man" and "baseball's answer to Lord Voldemort" to the man "players can't afford to live without." [45] [46] [47] [48]
Derek Christopher Lowe is an American former professional baseball pitcher. During his career, he played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, and Texas Rangers.
David Jonathan "J. D." Drew is an American former Major League Baseball right fielder. He began his major league career in 1998 with the St. Louis Cardinals, and also played for the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Boston Red Sox. He is the brother of two other major league players, Stephen and Tim.
Adrián Beltré Pérez is a Dominican former professional baseball third baseman. During his career, Beltré played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, and Texas Rangers in Major League Baseball (MLB). He is regarded as one of the greatest third basemen of all time.
Christopher Michael Woodward is an American former professional baseball utility player, coach and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, Seattle Mariners, and Boston Red Sox, from 1999 through 2012. He then served as a coach for the Mariners and Los Angeles Dodgers, from 2014 through 2018 and managed the Texas Rangers from 2019 to 2022. He is currently a special assistant and roving instructor for the Dodgers.
Manuel Arístides Ramírez Onelcida is a Dominican-American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for parts of 19 seasons. He played with the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays before playing one season at the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. Ramirez is recognized for having great batting skill and power. He was a nine-time Silver Slugger and was one of 28 players to hit 500 career home runs. His 21 grand slams are third all-time, and his 29 postseason home runs are the most in MLB history. He appeared in 12 All-Star Games, with a streak of eleven consecutive games beginning in 1998 that included every season that he played with the Red Sox.
The Major League Baseball draft is the primary mechanism of Major League Baseball (MLB) for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on a lottery where the teams who did not make the postseason in the past year participate in a state-lottery style process to determine the first six picks, starting in 2023. The team possessing the worst record receives the best odds of receiving the first pick. Until 2022, it was determined by the previous season's standings, with the worst team selecting first.
Bradley Wayne Penny is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Penny played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Florida / Miami Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, and Detroit Tigers, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He was an All Star in 2006 and 2007.
The posting system is a baseball player transfer system that operates between Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and Major League Baseball (MLB). Despite the drafting of the United States – Japanese Player Contract Agreement, unveiled in 1967 to regulate NPB players moving to MLB, problems began to arise in the late 1990s. Some NPB teams lost star players without compensation, an issue highlighted when NPB stars Hideo Nomo and Alfonso Soriano left to play in MLB after using loopholes to void their existing contracts. A further problem was that NPB players had very little negotiating power if their teams decided to deal them to MLB, as when pitcher Hideki Irabu was traded to an MLB team for which he had no desire to play. In 1998, the Agreement was rewritten to address both problems; the result was dubbed the "posting system".
Stephen Oris Drew is an American former professional baseball infielder. He played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Washington Nationals. His two brothers, outfielder J.D. and pitcher Tim, also played in MLB.
Arn Herschel Tellem is an American sports executive who is the vice chairman of the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). From 1981 to 2015, he was a sports agent best known for his representation of basketball and baseball players. Tellem was vice chairman of the Wasserman Media Group, a global sport and entertainment marketing agency headed by Casey Wasserman. From 2009 to 2010, he wrote a semi-weekly sports column for The Huffington Post. He has also written for Sports Illustrated, the op-ed page of The New York Times, Grantland, Detroit Free Press, The Hollywood Reporter, The Japan Times and The Detroit News.
Andrew Warren Brackman is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher who played for the New York Yankees in 2011.
Yusei Kikuchi is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Seattle Mariners in MLB and for the Saitama Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
Casey Richard Close is an American former baseball player and sports agent.
James Alston Paxton, nicknamed "Big Maple", is a Canadian professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox.
Hanser Joel Alberto Peña is a Dominican professional baseball infielder who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Chicago White Sox.
Matt Hannaford is an MLBPA certified player agent and the President and CEO of ALIGND Sports Agency, a boutique athlete management firm built to represent not only the best players in Major League Baseball but those inspired to make the biggest impact on society and future generations. Prior to forming ALIGND, Hannaford was the co-founder and Executive Vice President of MVP Sports Group where he was influential in building an agency that had negotiated over $1.7 Billion Dollars in contracts prior to his departure.
The 2019 Major League Baseball draft was held from June 3 to 5, 2019. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2018 MLB season standings. In addition, compensation picks were distributed for players who did not sign from the 2018 MLB Draft and for teams that lost qualifying free agents. The first 41 picks, including the first round and compensatory picks, were broadcast by MLB Network on June 3, and the second round was streamed on MLB.com directly following the first round. The remainder of the draft was streamed online from June 4 to 5.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)