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Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Matt Chapman, and J.D. Martinez all remain unsigned as pitchers and catchers soon report to spring training.
All five are represented by super agent Scott Boras, who is showing no signs of budging in contract discussions, per his new comments made to Sports Business Journal.
“Walking through the door requires someone to open it,” Boras told SBJ in an article published February 2. “I am not the person that runs the doorknob. I have to be invited. And so we stay ready.”
The Los Angeles Dodgers will become MLB’s first team to welcome pitchers and catchers to spring training on Friday, February 9. MLB’s offseason began as soon as the Texas Rangers won the World Series last November 1, and the Dodgers struck first by signing the top two free agents to historic deals by giving $700 million to Shohei Ohtani and $325 million to Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
But in CBS Sports’ ranking of this offseason’s top free agents, four of the top 10 players remain unsigned and they’re all Boras clients.
Bellinger is a former MVP coming off a monster year with the Chicago Cubs (.307 batting average, 26 home runs, 97 RBIs) and Snell is the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner. Some fans correlate MLB’s slow-moving free agency with Boras, whose star clients also include Pete Alonso, Juan Soto, Jose Altuve, Gerrit Cole, Bryce Harper, Luis Robert, Corey Seager, Alex Bregman, Carlos Rodon, Rhys Hoskins and many others.
“I know that fans and people say, well, [the pace of free agency] has to do with what I do in representation of these players,” Boras told Sports Business Journal.
MLB has previously tried to expedite free agent signings and potentially create frenzy similar to the action seen in an NBA or NFL offseason. According to SBJ, the league sent a proposal in 2019 to implement a multi-year contract signing deadline that would coincide with the Winter Meetings in December, but the MLB Players Association rejected that proposal.
Top Trade Target Dylan Cease Also Repped by Scott Boras
Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Dylan Cease is currently on the trade market with the Seattle Mariners reported as a potential destination. Cease, who finished second in the 2022 American League Cy Young Award voting, is a Boras client who will be eligible for free agency after the 2025 season so he marks a viable alternative to teams who don’t want to spend more money on current free agent starting pitchers such as Snell or Montgomery.
“At inception, teams try a whole number of alternative solutions to achieve their goals,” Boras told SBJ. “After those attempts, whether it be trade, whether it be other free agents, after they have a 100-day review of their circumstance, they often sit back with ownership and say, ‘We’re not there. And one player can make that much of a difference.’”
Boras also reps this offseason’s other biggest trade piece in ace pitcher Corbin Burnes, who was just traded by the Milwaukee Brewers to the Baltimore Orioles.
Regional Sports Networks Impacting MLB Free Agency
Teams across MLB and all major sports have had to deal with local media uncertainty since Diamond Sports Group filed for bankruptcy in March 2023. Diamond is the parent company of Bally Sports, which has locally broadcasted games for roughly a dozen MLB teams but missed rights fee payments last season to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, Cleveland Guardians, and Minnesota Twins. An unnamed agent repping MLB players told SBJ that the media rights situation has impacted team’s decision-making this offseason.
“It’s certainly had a big impact on this market. And teams have been pretty direct about it too. If there’s more than a dozen teams with uncertainty and owners dealing with that uncertainty and they’re less willing to participate in the free-agent market, you’re obviously limiting your potential suitors,” the agent told SBJ.
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