Baltimore Orioles should be wary off Scott Boras

Earlier this morning I wrote about Matt Wieters, who of course currently plays for the Baltimore Orioles but is represented by Scott Boras. Where will he end up after this season? Tough to say, but time will tell. But let’s continue that dialouge, albeit in a different manner.

I mentioned this morning that the Orioles aren’t Boras’ favorite people in the world, mainly because there’s an impression that they aren’t willing to pay for talent. And that’s very true – but with an asterik in a sense. They aren’t willing to pay the prices that BORAS expects for talent. Boras does very well for his clients in terms of getting them big money deals. But is he single-handedly hurting the sport in the process?

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And my answer to that would be a resounding YES. There are only a handful of teams that are willing to pay what Boras expects. Two of them are in the AL East (Boston and New York). The Washington Nationals are another one, so if you’re keeping score at home there’s three teams that compete directly with the O’s – albeit in various manners. And go figure, the teams with whom Boras has a “good relationship” are the ones who are willing to play ball in accordance to his inflated pricing structure.

Courtesy of Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

There will be some who read this that will say the inverse: if the Orioles aren’t willing to pay the going rate for players, that’s their fault and they can’t cry poor. There might be just a slight grain of truth to that – maybe. However who sets the market, Boras, the players, the teams, or all of the above? I can gaurantee you that it’s not teams like the Orioles, at least not in Scott Boras’ mind.

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So by sending his clients to the highest bidder and in some instances playing teams off of one another, Boras is ensuring that only specific teams are competing at a high level. Granted there are surprises out there such as the 2012 Orioles or 2014 Kansas City Royals. But if the best players are signing with Boras and they’re eventually ending up on a handful of teams, can we not saying that Boras is all but picking and choosing who competes and who struggles to compete?

Furthermore, his message is clear: loyalty is a bad thing. Many of the Boras clients that are currently on the Orioles might well be inclined to stay there if they have there way. However when your services are ultimately going to the highest bidder, the message is that you shouldn’t be loyal to one team. And granted the concept of a player staying with one team for his entire career is long gone, I think that if not for the amount of cash that a guy like Boras can mak for a player lots of guys might be inclined to consider it.

If free agency starts and guys such as Wieters are immediately going to other teams, that tells you that the Orioles never stood a chance. At that point it wouldn’t be so much about the O’s not being willing to pay as it would them not even having the opportunity to bid on their own players. Make no mistake about the fact that Dan Duquette has broached extensions with various players, and has probably been told by Scott Boras that they would talk after the season. But then if those same players start flying off the board right away, that means at the same time he was already negotiating with other teams.

I’m not saying that’s going to happen – but it’s not unheard of. And you really can’t prove it either way. You’re just led to believe that somehow over the course of 24 hours a contract was innocently hammered out between the player and another team. At the end of the day time will tell the story. But the Orioles need to at least make the effort on their side to keep their own players. And I have no doubt that they will, but hopefully those efforts are met with open arms on the other side.

Next: Baltimore Orioles: A look back at clinch-mas

Baltimore Orioles should be wary off Scott Boras

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