Toronto, along with a pair of NL West teams, is still in the running for Roki Sasaki, who reportedly informed a swath of teams that he would note be signing with them.
For the first time in years, Scott Boras entered the MLB offseason under a thundercloud of skepticism and scrutiny.
Last winter, the game’s most notorious and most successful agent had himself an absolute stinker — that is, at least, by his supersonic standards. Boras’ four major free agents in 2023-24 — Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery — all emerged with deals well below expectations. The timing of their signings, too, was far from ideal. At the outset of spring training in mid-February, the entire so-called “Boras Four” remained free agents. That timeline seemed to negatively impact both Snell and Montgomery in the early going of the 2024 season.
It was, unequivocally, the worst free agency of the super-agent’s accomplished career. Equally revered and reviled around the game, Boras seemed to be losing his fastball. Whispers percolated around the industry about whether the 72-year-old could still hack it. Montgomery ditched Boras as his representation, publicly criticizing the agent for his handling of the starter’s disastrous experience on the open market.
One glance at Boras’ imposing, star-studded client list for free agency 2024-25 — Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Pete Alonso, Blake Snell, Alex Bregman — and the pressure was squarely on the agent to prove that he was still the game’s most influential powerbroker.
Well, so far this winter, Boras has proven that he’s still a force to be reckoned with. January is less than a week old, and thus far this offseason, Boras Corp. has earned its 12 already-signed clients a whopping $1.45 billion in combined guaranteed contract money. That, according to Jon Becker of FanGraphs, accounts for 57% of the total league spending so far this winter.
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