The big winner this offseason? It's Scott Boras

The dizzying pace of this year’s MLB free-agent market is a departure from previous non-lockout winters, and no single person is a better embodiment of this wild cash grab than superagent Scott Boras.

In the past, with a few notable exceptions, Boras typically has tended to slow-play this process, drumming up interest in his clients and floating the dark horse “mystery team” to maybe rattle the favorites. In 2018, Bryce Harper didn’t sign his 13-year, $330 million contract with the Phillies until Feb. 28, weeks after spring training already had gotten underway.

Harper was an extreme example. The following December, when Boras controlled the top three free agents in the sport, he landed deals for Stephen Strasburg ($245M), Gerrit Cole ($324M) and Anthony Rendon ($245M) — in that order — during a three-day span during the 2019 winter meetings in San Diego.

If negotiating that trio of record-breaking AAVs (average annual value) was Boras’ Mona Lisa, then this offseason's handiwork must be his Sistine Chapel, as he’s already signed 10 players for a total of $1.172 billion.

The past week was a master class in Boras’ own art of the deal. Check out his travel itinerary during one 25-hour stretch: 

Thursday 10 a.m., Flushing — Citi Field for Brandon Nimmo’s reintroduction with the Mets on an eight-year, $162 million contract.    

Thursday 4 p.m., Boston — Fenway Park for Japanese outfielder Masataka Yoshida’s announcement of a five-year, $90 million deal.

Friday 11 a.m., Philadelphia — Citizens Bank Park for Taijuan Walker’s news conference involving his four-year, $72 million contract.

The Boras Tour of the East Coast was remarkable in itself for the agent, whose headquarters are based in Newport Beach, California. He also closed the Carlos Rodon deal with the Yankees on Thursday evening, shortly after snacking on the Red Sox’s buffet at the Yoshida event. Rodon got $162 million for six years after taking a two-year, $44 million “pillow contract” from the Giants designed to rebuild his value. As Boras hoped, Rodon simply opted out of that second year, using that one season in pitcher-friendly Oracle Park in San Francisco to springboard himself to a bigger payday.

Given the seemingly uncharacteristic speed at which Boras has completed most of his business this offseason — he also got Carlos Correa’s $350 million deal done late Wednesday night, on the eve of Nimmo’s news conference — I asked him during his Flushing stop if that was reflective of this year’s hyperactive marketplace, and why teams appeared to be so willing to throw money at these players so aggressively from the jump this offseason.

“In the market, there were like six 5-WAR players, and five of them are signed,” said Boras, who said this only hours before the sixth — Rodon — agreed to his deal with the Yankees. “It was a rare talent pool. One was an MVP premium [Aaron Judge], one was a centerfield premium [Nimmo] and a shortstop premium [Correa, Xander Bogaerts]. So it’s very hard to find middle-of-the-diamond players that provide great offense. It’s just a rarity.

“They’re also out there at fairly young ages in the shortstop market, and Brandon was perfectly timed, being a young centerfielder. We have such a demand for those positions, because the drop-off after that group is so great and they’re so meaningful to a team. They become immediate core players for the franchise that they sign with. And the leadership exponential among this group.”

That’s a taste of Boras’ sales pitch. Apparently, he didn’t have to spend all that much time selling. Neither did many of his colleagues in the agent business. Through Saturday, teams already had shelled out a total of $3.17 billion to free agents (according to Spotrac) for an industry-wide AAV of $18.4 million, and there’s still another two months before the start of spring training.

This year’s total payout will easily exceed last year’s record of $3.22 billion ($12.7M AAV), and that was sandwiched around MLB’s lockout, in the middle of a bitter labor battle between players and owners. Two years ago, the pandemic-influenced market resulted in $1.36 billion spent on free agents. The last pre-COVID shopping period, the winter of 2019-20, was $2.04 billion — the large chunk driven by Cole, Strasburg and Rendon.

Given this year’s trend, it was impossible to wipe the smile off Boras’ face during the past week. The owners’ repeated failures to impose any sort of hard salary cap has led to unimpeded riches for the sport’s elite talent, and luxury-tax thresholds have barely been even speed bumps for the New York teams.

With Mets owner Steve Cohen investing roughly $430 million (including luxury tax) in this year’s team, I asked Boras if this was a wake-up call for the industry, prompting other owners to open the checkbook.

“How good is it for the game? It’s really good for the game,” Boras said. “Why? Because you always want that earmark that’s different. We have analytic teams. We have clubs that are going to be in for three or four years and then not for six. And then we’re going to have those clubs that are going to be in it every year.

“I think that it sets a great tone. It also reflects on the fact of when we go back to do our next collective bargaining agreement, that the revenues of the game have to dictate what we do in managing our collective bargaining agreement. Not the fact that we want to create restraint. When you try to create restraint, you’re hurting the game and you’re hurting competitiveness.”

On that front, not surprisingly, Boras does believe what’s happening during this record-breaking shopping spree stems from more teams looking to party come October.  The expanded playoff format, installed during last spring’s CBA, opened the door  to the Phillies eventually becoming NL champs. And owner John Middleton went right back to the vault in signing Trea Turner to an 11-year, $300 million deal, giving the Phillies the fourth-highest payroll in baseball at $242 million (for luxury-tax purposes).

“Now competitiveness is something you can look at maybe a level where it includes almost 60 to 70% of the industry instead of 40%,” Boras said. “That’s what I noticed. The Phillies getting in, being that last playoff team and then doing what they did, it’s an invitation to understand that you have some flexibility to build a team and yet get into that playoff picture. If you’ve got certain components, you can achieve your objective.

“There’s more ways to win now than there was before, and I think there’s more belief among franchises and organizational staffs that they can build a club maybe that is not among the top two or three in the elite payrolls, but enough to get in to where they can possibly make an impact in the playoffs. There’s a definite change in belief where less clubs think that they have to rebuild at an earlier moment. They feel they can do more.”

On the December scoreboard, there’s no bigger winner than Boras. 

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.