What about the report cards at the beginning of the season for ‘The Customers of Boras’?
Another ‘money feast’ was held in the FA market last offseason. Aaron Judge stayed with the New York Yankees and won the highest average annual contract for a fielder (9 years 360M / AAV 40M), and Trey Turner (PHI) joined the list of contracts totaling $ 300 million.
The ‘Scott Boras Division’, which stands at the center of the market every offseason, was the same last winter. Several of Boras’ clients entered the free agent market last winter and won some sizable contracts. There were three players who signed contracts totaling more than $100 million, and two of them signed contracts totaling more than $200 million. The highest amount was the judge, but at the center of the ‘money feast’ were Boras’ customers.
Are Boras’ customers getting their ‘value for money’ right in the beginning? The schedule for the first month of the opening is still underway, but it seems that not many of the clubs that traded with Boras are satisfied (based on 4/25 record below).
Among Boras’ clients, the player who won the biggest contract was Xander Bogarts. Bogaerts signed an 11-year, $280 million contract with the San Diego Padres. San Diego’s decision to give the 30-year-old shortstop an 11-year contract seemed like a high-risk venture. But at the start of this season, Bogarts is the most ‘worthy of the money’ player. Bogarts, San Diego’s starting shortstop, played 24 games, hitting .330/.417/.545 with 5 home runs, 12 RBIs and 1 stolen base. He is 10th in overall batting average in the major leagues and virtually leads the team’s batting average by alone. Among San Diego’s main fielders, Bogarts is the only player who maintains a batting average of 0.250 and an OPS of 0.800 or higher.
Another $200 million player, Carlos Correa (MIN), is having a disappointing start. Correa, who twice agreed to contracts worth more than $300 million in the free agent market (SF and NYM), but failed to sign the final due to health problems, signed a six-year, $200 million guaranteed contract with Minnesota, where he spent last season. And he is a figure that doesn’t get ‘value for money’ at all at the beginning of the season. He appeared in 19 games, posting only .213/.277/.360 with 2 home runs and 9 RBIs, while also taking a few games off due to a back problem. Correa, who showed a drop in his ability to cope with the fastball, plays a role in cutting the pulse of the team’s batting line.
Lefty Carlos Rodon, who signed a six-year, $162 million contract with the Yankees, is having a more serious start than Correa. Rodon, a “glass body” who only had two regular innings during his eighth big league debut season and never pitched 180 innings, was highly regarded in the market for his success in just two years in the 2021-2022 season. Rodon, which Boras originally pushed for a 7-year, $200 million or more super-large contract, saw the clubs coolly respond to Boras’ ‘hype’ to some extent and the contract size became somewhat smaller. But even that is a problem. Rodon, who was injured after one game in the spring training exhibition game, has yet to make his Yankees debut. 안전놀이터 The timing of his return is still undecided.
The players who came from Japan have a big contrast between the light and the dark. Both Masataka Yoshida (BOS) and Shintaro Fujinami (OAK), who crossed the Pacific ahead of this season, are Boras’ clients. Yoshida, who signed a five-year, $90 million contract with Boston, showed a disappointing performance by recording a batting average of 100 after the first three weeks of the opening season, but seems to have found some sense recently. With 10 hits in his last five games, Yoshida is hitting .265/.363/.426 with 3 homers, 15 RBIs and 2 steals in 18 games, getting closer to what Boston wants.