Pirates take on Boras to sign Pedro Alvarez

Dumpy · Sep 17, 2008

from the hardball times' John Brattain:

Malpractice makes defect?
by John Brattain
September 17, 2008

I really hope folks go easy on the kid.

I speak of Pedro Alvarez. I feel badly for him—so soon into what should be his professional career he has lost control of his destiny. Alvarez’s immediate future will be decided by others and possibly not for months. I cannot see anything short of being granted free agency that will compensate him for the difficulties he is currently going through.

I simply can’t envision Shyam Das awarding Alvarez free agency when it is clear that the remedy for not agreeing to sign before the midnight deadline is to return to the draft the following year. Free agency for a player because MLB unilaterally extended the deadline is penalizing the Pirates for the actions of others. The Pirates are supposed to ask for an extension; they should have asked the MLBPA as well, but the point is moot since chances are, by the time the request is granted it will be too late.

The timing is the fault of the Alvarez camp and not the Pirates—Scott Boras’ tactic of waiting until zero hour before getting down to the brass tacks is well documented. Boras is the one who kept the Pirates and Alvarez apart as much as possible. They should not be rewarded for a situation that arose because of that strategy.

Further, it seems both sides were in violation of the rule. According to Jeff Passan’s article on the subject:

"Boras said he never negotiated past midnight because he did not want to bend the rules and claims the assertion that he did so with another client, Eric Hosmer, selected by Kansas City with the No. 3 pick, is false."

And…

"The union allegedly has phone records that prove Boras spoke with the Pirates after midnight, and if so, the violation will be difficult to deny."

On the one hand, Boras contends he honored the deadline while on the other hand, the union has phone records that establish Boras and the team were talking after midnight. Somehow Boras has to convince Das that they were talking about the deal at 11:59:59 p.m. and something other than the deal at 12:00:01 a.m. while the Pirates will doubtlessly contend that they were discussing Alvarez’s contract.

Unless Boras has a tape of the conversation with an authenticated time stamp included I cannot see how Das can rule that Boras and Alvarez weren’t in violation as well. It would be a real stretch for Das to give Boras and Alvarez a major reward while penalizing the Pirates with extreme prejudice for the exact same violation.

The bottom line: it looks like Alvarez and quite possibly Hosmer might be headed back to the draft next season. I think the best the duo can hope for is for Das to rule that the contracts stand and simply fine both parties and further clarify what can and cannot happen at the deadline. Financially, it would be best for Alvarez to get his bonus from the Pirates since it’s money in hand. Plus it gets his career started as expeditiously as possible and gets him to arbitration and free agency rights that much sooner (and younger) when he can really cash in.

The simple fact of the matter is that the value of free agency rights is determined by talent and age—the more talented and young the player, the higher the value of the rights. Boras’ shenanigans are costing Alvarez some of the value of those rights by delaying his entry into organized baseball.

It’s easy to dump on Alvarez—greedy kid turns down millions saying it’s not enough. None of us would turn down that kind of jack to play baseball and since he hired the Sith Lord of Avarice in Scott Boras he too must be cut from the same cloth. It’s equally easy for us to say that Boras works for him and not the other way around and he should tell Boras what to do and if he really wants to play baseball he should give the agent the cleats-to-the-family-jewels experience and supplicate the Pittsburgh Pirates for a chance at redemption.

I think what often gets lost in all of this is the mismatch of experience. Folks like Alvarez have never been involved in a multi-million dollar negotiation with a major corporation—they do not know what something is worth, whether they’re being shafted or are getting the deal of a lifetime. They know (or have read) that Boras is the best in the business and their ignorance translates into trusting the person who has done this sort of thing many times before with a high rate of success.

On the other hand, Boras has dealt with hundreds of Pedro Alvarezes and their families and knows precisely what buttons to push to keep them placated and trusting in him. However, the Alvarezes have never encountered a Boras and have no point of comparison and zero experience in dealing with such an animal.

Think about it: would you settle for a $50,000 salary offer if somebody reputable (experience-wise) from the industry that you’re seeking employment in tells you your skill set is worth $400,000? It may not seem unreasonable to the Alvarez that his abilities are worth far more than $6 million in a business where some have inked deals well in excess of a quarter billion dollars—especially when the person advising you is the individual that brokered such deals in the past.

If we were to be honest with ourselves, we'd admit that we'd be thrilled with a job offer that paid $250,000; however, if we found out that somebody else who wasn't as talented was hired for the same position in the same company but was going to be paid $400,000 we'd be pretty ticked.

Why? Our circumstances have not changed one iota—we're making more money than we had ever dreamed possible are we not? We're not happy because even though our circumstances haven't changed, our information has, and that information tells us that the person who hired us shortchanged us, that our abilities are worth more than the $250,000.

Well, that's what is happening here—Boras has convinced Alvarez that he's being shortchanged by the Pirates and that other teams within the same company (MLB) are willing to pay a lot more for what Pedro has to offer.

In that context, surely $6 million-plus on top of a few years of minor league pay isn’t a lot when others are earning $22-30 million every year especially when you’ve been told by the experienced insider that you have the chance to one day be that type of player.

Who wouldn’t want to cling to that notion?

The choice becomes: do you trust your own judgment in waters in which you have never swum before or do you trust a smooth talking confident individual whom you’ve heard is incredibly successful in what he does?

It’s easy for us on the outside to pass judgment, but then again, we have no real stake in the outcome. Our lives will not change one iota regardless of how all this plays out.

Boras is a master at getting people to see things his way—Alvarez has little experience in resisting savvy individuals offering him a pot of gold for his trust with a glittering track record of delivering the goods.

I don’t blame Alvarez—I blame Boras. He has an agenda to overturn the draft to maximize his income, so he convinced somebody to be his pawn, disguising his intentions by saying he wanted to get the young man his market value/what he is worth. He overreached with a bluff that was called and suddenly he is in a situation where others will decide the outcome.

Boras and Alvarez cannot decide this, nor can the Pirates or MLB; it will be decided in arbitration. You can bet that Boras never intended to get the MLBPA involved since to do so would be to cede control of the situation to the union. He simply wanted to get the Pirates to capitulate to get the highest draft bonus, and when his bluff was called and the situation blew up, their short term future would be decided by a third party.

Sooner or later, those at the very top of their profession invariably fall victim to their own hubris. We saw it with Pete Rose, even more recently with Barry Bonds—they reach a point where they believe their own press clippings about their invulnerability due to their physical or mental gifts.

They get sloppy, they make assumptions based on their perceived bullet-proof status rather than the situation at hand and the lay of the land. They overreach, they wander too far into Russia in the winter, they get involved in land wars in Asia, they let their babies grow up to be cowboys and they let their bedbugs bite.

The thing is, after money started flowing to the players through free agency, the MLBPA found it had the same problems with unity as the owners—money splintered interests. Despite this, however, the union stayed strong after Don Fehr took over from Marvin Miller, not so much because they were still united but rather because the other side was more disunited; owners always caved first.

Once owners stopped caving in 1994-95, the splintering of the union became much more noticeable and the MLBPA started to lose ground. Similarly, Boras carved out a lot of success partly due to his own intelligence, but also due to his own patience. He knew, given enough time, that the other side would capitulate. He would bluff, the other side caved and cha-ching!

Now owners have started to call his bluff. They take him to salary arbitration, and they change the rules of the draft when negotiating with the players' union. When Boras announced Alex Rodriguez’s opt-out during the World Series, the Yankees said ciao and held firm until A-Rod built a bridge back to the Bronx.

They have started to say no and mean it, but Boras continues on like it’s 1999 when no meant not now but given enough time and pressure would become yes.

Yes, some owners still cave but not like they used to. He expected the Pirates to capitulate, and now he’s in a mess and it’s hurting his client.

However, he’s confused his patience with his intellect, seemingly not realizing that out-waiting the other side is not the same as outwitting them. To a degree Don Fehr made the same mistake with the MLBPA thinking that the disunity of the other side actually meant that the union was united rather than merely less disunited than the other side.

Now the other side is starting to clue in that as bonus money continues to rise that draftees may become more disinclined to gamble with it, especially if it means postponing their dreams of reaching the big leagues. It seems Alvarez ultimately didn’t want to gamble and agreed (precisely when is a point of dispute), and some time after the fact Boras managed to convince the young man to gamble it anyway, doubtless with a promise that greater (and deserved) riches awaited with a little more patience.

Or it could be, once Boras went public with the alleged violation Alvarez had little choice but to go along since the disputed contract was out in the open and the union became involved. Let’s not forget, had Boras and Alvarez gone and signed the contract shortly after it was agreed to, we wouldn’t be here at all, but their delay tactic to get the Pirates to up the contract before signing backfired.

What Alvarez failed to do (and can hardly be blamed for) is see the larger picture: Boras’ non-stop battle against the draft requires test cases, and he needs talented young men to test the system. To convince them to do so is to promise financial rewards, but Boras would never overtly state that to a prospective client. They’re interested in a nice bonus and getting started on a professional career and not being guinea pigs in the agent’s decades-long efforts at wrecking the draft.

I’m willing to bet that Alvarez and his family have serious misgivings about what they’ve gotten themselves in to—let’s face it, nobody willingly gives up control of his own future and circumstances. Had they been told by Boras from the get-go that Alvarez would have to put his career on hold, get the MLBPA involved and become involved in a lengthy arbitration proceeding that would delay his career for months or even a year or more with no guarantee of extra money or free agency there’s no way they would have signed on for that. They were hoping for a lucrative bonus to start what hopefully would turn out to be a successful major league career and the beginning of Alvarez's life in professional baseball.

Unfortunately for them, Boras had other ideas. Hopefully this will alert other young prospects that when they agree to be advised by Scott Boras, they might get more than they bargained for. They should be alerted to the fact that the agent will try to get them to agree to test the parameters of the draft by promising a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

As of right now, another agenting group got the top bonus for a client in this year’s draft and the player has begun his professional career—don’t think for a moment the threat Boras sees in that. After all, why sign on with Boras when you can get as much with someone else with far less hassle and heartache?

Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end of Scott Boras’ influence on the amateur draft. It’s about time the Napoleon of the agent business met his Waterloo.
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he has a few earlier articles on this situation as well, which I may post if you're interested

cpawfan · Sep 17, 2008

That is a good article Dumpy and I'd like to read his take on the situation from those other articles

Dumpy · Sep 17, 2008

cpawfan said: ↑

That is a good article Dumpy and I'd like to read his take on the situation from those other articles
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I remembered reading them, but I had trouble finding them at first. Brattain does a pretty good job--he has done a GREAT job all year bemoaning the way the Barry Bonds has been blackballed by MLB. Anyway:

this is from August 30

Hypnotism? Embarrassing photographs? (If there are, they'll be on Deadspin next week, so no biggie). Family member held hostage? Under the influence of potent pharmaceuticals? Not suffering from stupidity because he’s too busy enjoying the experience?

I speak of course of J.P. Ricciardi, I mean Barry Bonds … no, I mean Brad Wilkerson.

David Samson?

Jeffrey Loria?

Bud Selig?

Bennybeth? (Whoa … Fastball.com flashback—you kind of had to be there)

(scratches head)

Do I write about anybody else?

(rifles through notes)

Lessee … collusion, need a big bat, runners left in scoring position, random short jokes, wasted pitching gems.

Hmmm … Jack Kevorkian’s guide to being a Blue Jays fan (screw that—I ghostwrote that bad boy … heh—that “some people are alive only because it’s illegal to kill them” line was genius, sheer genius … best gag I ever plagiarized).

I’m out of my mind—be back in a minute.

Ah—here we are … Pedro Alvarez.

I don’t get why he’s letting Scott Boras dick (my word processor’s spell check wanted me to change that to “Boras’s dick" … hilarious—my computer has a potty mouth) around with his career like this—I can only assume Boras has told him that he can get him into free agency. There’s no way any rational human being not under the influence of street narcotics or bathtub gin would agree to this idiocy for $200,000 (or however much more he's seeking).

I mean—this is about three months of big league service; 90-odd games playing at the major league minimum.

Alvarez can double that by reaching the majors a year earlier than he would by holding out. Teams do everything using options to delay a player qualifying for arbitration and free agency rights and here Alvarez is letting Boras delay that even further.

The difference between reaching free agency before his 30th birthday is worth tens of millions of dollars. The more time before the big 3-0 and your first crack at free agency is the difference between the length of Alvarez’s first free market contract and the number of zeroes behind his annual salary.

This is why I have to think Boras has said he’s got a good shot at getting Alvarez his freedom. I cannot believe that nobody has explained to this kid the opportunity cost he is torching with this gambit.

The thing is—even if the Pirates negotiated past the deadline … so did Boras. The fact he didn’t stop negotiating (or inform his client the deadline had passed) as the clock struck midnight makes him complicit in the whole affair and implies consent. He cannot cry foul—especially when he did so much to keep his client away from speaking with the Pirates until the zero hour.

Boras states he wants to renegotiate the contract.

If they went past the deadline then there is no contract to renegotiate—either they have a deal or they do not. Either it’s a valid contract or it isn’t—if it isn’t, then I cannot see an arbitrator granting free agency for a mistake made by both sides of a negotiation.

There’s nothing in the collective bargaining agreement that stipulates that to be the penalty for going past the signing deadline. Were that the case, then why even negotiate? Just let the deadline come and go and claim free agency.

It cannot be Boras claiming bad-faith negotiating by the Pirates when there are all kinds of instances in the past where he delayed negotiations, stalled, kept the parties apart, gave addresses where his client would not be all in order to create a loophole to file for free agency.

He was as big an obstacle to having sufficient time to negotiate between the Pirates and Alvarez as the club was; Boras is notorious for leaving things until the last minute to create leverage. If negotiations went past the deadline, can he say he was completely innocent for that situation arising? It’s like a relief pitcher cannot create his own save situation—Boras cannot cause a set of circumstances and later cry foul when those circumstances cause a problem.

I can see an arbitrator (Shyam Das) possibly deciding to have the parties renegotiate, I can see him declaring the contract void and having Alvarez go back into the draft but I cannot see him granting a free agency award or striking down a collectively bargained provision (the draft signing deadline). The collective bargaining agreement stipulates the remedy to a situation where an amateur player doesn't sign by the deadline—he sits out until the following year's draft. Das has no authority to dictate a remedy not the result of collective bargaining.

An arbitrator can only interpret the collective bargaining agreement, decide if there's a violation and rule according to the remedies agreed to through arms' length, good faith bargaining. He cannot impose his own version of frontier justice. Unless there is a renegotiation provision in such instances, I cannot see how Das can order them to re-do the contract. Unless bad faith can be proven (and I'm sure the Pirates can make a case against Boras as well), I am not certain Das can award free agency in any event. A contract was tendered according to the rules—the only point of dispute is the timing of Alvarez's acceptance; that determines whether the contract is valid or not—not whether there was a good-faith negotiation.

Boras can request free agency, but this isn't Messersmith/McNally that revolved around the meaning of a phrase in the uniform players contract about the meaning of the option year—there is no phrase regarding a free agency claim being disputed; just whether the contract is binding or Alvarez returns to the draft next year.

The union could win its case, but Boras and Alvarez will likely lose the war in that they have lost $6 million and Alvarez will have to wait an extra year to begin his career in affiliated baseball and it will take that much longer to reach arbitration and free agency thresholds.

Even if Boras wins a renegotiation—why would the Pirates offer a nickel more? Alvarez is worth $6 million to them and there’s no need to pay any more than that. Why would another round of negotiations turn out any differently? Boras would take it down to the wire—there'd be another staredown and we'd have this drawn-out process leading back to square one. Even if they do, Alvarez is still the biggest loser in all this—he’s lost development time, delayed the time when he could qualify for arbitration and free agency, blown a lot of goodwill and already made himself out to look like a colossal jackass to baseball fans. I can't see how this would offset what has been lost—financially or otherwise.

Nice job by your agent there.

If this was a ploy by Boras to get a few extra dollars for his client by strong-arming the Pirates—and he never thought that the MLBPA would become involved since he expected the Bucs to capitulate—then it could fail in catastrophic mode. The union may have wished to let sleeping dogs lie, but this issue has made so much noise it is now impossible for Fehr and Co. to ignore an outright violation of the CBA.

If that's the case, Boras might win only in the sense that the club didn't get his client at a price acceptable to him but won't win in the sense that he gets another shot at negotiating the contract. If I had to hazard a guess, Das realizes this and will rule that going forward, the deadline is cast in stone and will more clearly define the obligations of the parties before the midnight hour arrives and uphold this year's signings simply because of the complications that would arise. After all, what about previous violations of the rule?

I assume Boras is doing this on the basis of he has nothing to lose (Alvarez being another matter) but if the contract is declared null and void, then Alvarez will probably seek out different representation.

In a sense, a victory by the MLBPA and a ruling that the deal is void—costing Alvarez big time—could be a major win for MLB in that it would make future prospects leery of being advised by Boras lest they see $6 million go up in smoke.

I honestly think Alvarez is a pawn in Boras’ ongoing war against the amateur draft and MLB in general. If he does get a little more for his client, he will still be a loser in the long run.

I realize these young men and their families have to bear a degree of responsibility in these negotiations, but it would be nice if the Scott Borases and the Tommy Tanzers (Matt Harrington’s advisor) would be held accountable when a young man loses a bunch of money from listening to a fast-talking adviser (agent). Perhaps if agents were required to compensate 75 percent of lost bonuses if a player fails to have a career that match compensation-wise what the agent, errr, adviser recommends he turn down they'd be less inclined to play poker with young men's careers.

That way, the agent isn’t just gambling with some naïve kid’s money; he’s got to lay down some chips of his own. After all, if this blows up and Alvarez becomes the next Harrington—well, Boras will still be rich and Alvarez is S.O.L. If the agent convinces somebody to gamble money in hand and his career promising/assuring that he can get him more and it doesn’t materialize—then there should be some recourse if for no other reason it might rein in the agendas of guys like Boras.

If he (or any agent) wants to challenge the system, he needs a pawn—we'll call it a service charge for hiring the prospect as a pawn. People like Boras are doing this for their own enrichment despite their lofty rhetoric. Were Boras doing this pro bono, then I might believe he has higher motives but make no mistake—he’s promising this kid a few extra thousand in hopes of making millions more in future drafts.

It’s clear that Boras is more concerned about his own future than he is about Alvarez’s (or for that matter, Eric Hosmer's)—I pray he and his family figure this out before much longer.
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Dumpy · Sep 17, 2008

this is an article by Brattain that was published at baseball digest daily on August 27

A message to Pedro Alvarez…

by John Brattain on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 5:41 pm EDT | Permanent Link

Somewhere, there is a bag of rocks that will be offended to be compared to Pedro Alvarez.

$6 million in the hand is worth $6.2 million in the bush.

Just ask Matt Harrington.

Mr. Alvarez, go talk to Alex Rodriguez, or Harrington–ask them to smack you upside the head several times until you reach epiphany.

You’re being used by Scott Boras.

The $200,000 you’re holding out for is about one-half the major league minimum–if it costs you a six months development time in reaching the major leagues then you’ve broken even. If it delays you any more, you’ve been ripped off.

A year or two difference in the age you reach free agency is literally worth tens of millions of dollars–you’re risking that for $200,000?

Do you know why it’s $200,000 for which your agent is asking? $6.2 million would make you tied for the largest bonus in the year’s draft–that means a lot to Boras; something he can sell to other young men like you.

However, the $200,000 you’re trying to get now can cost you millions, and possibly tens of millions, later.

Right now, it seems you’re in a precarious position–Boras’ actions now make him your agent and not your advisor so unless I’m missing something your NCAA eligibility is gone.

The thing is, Boras cannot renegotiate your contract–if you missed the deadline as Boras is maintaining, there is no contract to renegotiate. You simply go back into the draft. However, you have to play in the Independent Leagues and hope you play like a superstar and do not become injured. The fact that he wishes a renegotiation implies that there is a contractual link between yourself and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

You may get a better bonus next time round (and you may not) but if you have a successful major league career you will have still cost yourself a lot of money and goodwill.

However, your agent isn’t trying to get that–he is trying for an extra $200,000.

Scott Boras has been trying to find loopholes in the draft for over 20 years–he has been playing a cat and mouse game, or better still, a game of poker with MLB for self-enrichment.

Boras is a multi-millionaire but you’re the one spotting him chips for this particular hand–he is gambling with your money … with your career.

Boras has had a lot of setbacks in recent years–Alex Rodriguez dumped him last year, he has a losing record in arbitration cases and the new draft rules cramp his style and teams are able to handle him more effectively. This isn’t about you; it’s about Boras and his stature in MLB and the agent business.

Go online, Google your name and check out what folks are saying about you–it ain’t pretty. You have a good start at becoming the game’s next pariah–or at the very least the next favourite target of the boo-birds. All for the sake of half a season of the major league minimum; a total you can double by reaching the major league a year earlier by getting your career started as expeditiously as possible.

You’re a pawn in Boras’ game. It isn’t about the commission on the $200,000–it’s about his ability to say he got his client the largest bonus in the draft, it’s about testing the boundaries of the rules surrounding the draft, it’s about finding and/or creating a loophole that he can use for future clients.

Not you.

You’re just the sucker he’s duped into playing along in his little game.

Were you aware that the Pirates’ executive you’ve been negotiating with is the father of the slotting system (something Boras loathes) and was the enforcer of it? Do you think it might mean something to your agent to get the better of him?

Trust me, I do not like MLB ownership one bit–I’ve written articles dripping with vitriolic poison about them. I’m not writing this because I support management’s efforts to rein in the so-called “greedy players.” I’m generally on the side of the players in owner/player disputes–heck, I have been pounding the collusion drum all year for a player I do not particularly like.

I’m on your side in this instance too–one does not have to be a major league executive to exploit players.

Scott Boras has an agenda–he always has; despite his fancy words and his high sounding rhetoric he is a man looking to maximize his earnings. One of the ways he does this is by finding loopholes to get his clients extra money–sometimes he succeeds, sometimes he fails. Matt Harrington had a second shot at a million dollar payday and Boras told him to reject it.

Boras is still rich–Harrington is not.

What Boras needs is naïve young men like yourself willing to be used as he tests the system–if he wins, you win, if he loses, he’s still rich and it sucks to be you.

You agreed to a $6 million bonus to join the Pittsburgh Pirates organization–that’s a lot of money and nobody knows what tomorrow will bring (again, Matt Harrington might have a thought or two on the subject). There’s a lot more money to be made but the streets lined with gold begin by getting yourself into affiliated baseball and making the major leagues as quickly as possible. Every month of delay is money out your pocket–a lot more money than you stand to gain by following the advice of Scott Boras.

Take the money and run … from Scott Boras.

Fast.

Best Regards

John
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Pirates take on Boras to sign Pedro Alvarez

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Pirates take on Boras to sign Pedro Alvarez

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