A match made in...?

Believe it or not, there is somebody on the players’ side of the baseball coin that has become almost indispensable to the New York Yankees.

Scott Boras.

To the casual observer it would seem it is the other way around--after all, with teams doing a lot of Selig-inspired belt tightening there appears to be only one club willing to break the bank with any kind of regularity and we all know who that is; that being the case how can it be said that the Yanks need Boras?

Glad you asked.

Revenue sharing has truly been a double edged sword to the fortunes of the Bronx Bombers: on the one hand, the amount of luxury taxes paid as well as baseball’s welfare program cost the Yankees a lot of coin (although they will pay less with the new yard since stadium costs can be deducted from their obligations), yet the other hand of the equation is what has harmed the Yanks.

This offseason has featured what has been the Yankees stereotypical modus operandi: look at free agent market, find highest profile player(s) on said market all culminating with massive amounts of money being thrown in the direction of said players. I forget who said/wrote it, but this offseason wasn’t so much a free agent spending binge as much as it was a simple restocking of the shelves since the club had so many expensive players with expired contracts. Their payroll will likely be lower this season than it was in 2008.

Regardless, it’s pretty clear that this is the Yankees primary approach to talent acquisition. The farm system isn’t where they look for raw materials and between high finishes and player purchases; they haven’t had optimal drafting positions for several years. All they can hope for is top amateurs falling in the draft due to signability issues and guess what kind of kids tend to be viewed as hard to sign in the draft?

Scott Boras clients.

However, this isn’t the main way Boras benefits the “Evil Empire.” After all, how many spots on the 25 man roster have been filled internally in recent seasons? There have been Melky Cabrera, Robbie Cano, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes and none of the latter trio has established themselves as rotation stalwarts. The Yankees look either to trades of other clubs’ superstar “buyers’ remorse” contracts (often negotiated by Boras) or the free agent market.

The thing is, a lot of teams have used revenue sharing funds--not as money spent in the free agent market, but--as a way of locking up their best young developed talent through the arbitration years and 1-3 free agent seasons. This trend, designed to give teams a degree of cost certainty, has (1) kept teams from trading away their best arbitration eligibles for fear of losing big time and (2) kept the best young potential free agents from even hitting the marketplace where the Bronx bankroll awaits.

There is one notable exception to this pattern: players represented by Boras.

Boras is a big believer in getting his players into free agency where competitive bidding takes place and it’s generally understood that a player that wishes to sign an extension absent testing the market is done so against Boras’s advice.

With the free agent market becoming an increasingly inefficient way to build a competitive roster (for example: I predicted that David Purcey will probably enjoy a better 2009 than A.J. Burnett) and teams realizing (at least this year) that a multi-tooled, albeit inexperienced, player from their own system has as good a chance at delivering comparable value than a 1-2 dimensional slugger that cannot run, field or throw well that wants eight figures and is hovering around his mid-30’s.

If a team has developed a stud, clubs are more frequently locking them up and in a lot of cases revenue sharing and equitable distribution of new revenue streams are giving clubs the capital to do just that.

Further, players seem more inclined to take the extension offered rather than wait a season or two for free agency figuring that the money is available now and there’s no guarantee they will not get injured before they reach the threshold.

A good example is Johan Santana--he’ll been in professional baseball almost two decades without ever becoming a free agent consistently taking the money when offered rather than trying to get out into the marketplace.

This offseason might exacerbate the trend as experienced veterans for the most part didn’t see the offers they envisioned when they declined arbitration. With clubs hoarding draft picks as never before and teams increasingly realizing what is replaceable talent and what is not (such as middle relievers) more and more players might be inclined to avoid the perils of the free agent market (now that clubs are using it to their advantages) and simply grab the extension when it becomes available.

This means fewer and fewer quality free agents available to the Yankees.

It looks as if Boras clients may be their best shot at top flight free agents in the coming years.

It’ll be interesting to see what occurs when the Bronx Bombers decide to building clubs more economically.

The latest…

I’ve done a “Five Questions” preview of the Toronto Blue Jays for the Hardball Times that should go up soon. I hope to do another article (or two) for THT before “the big day” and once I take a few days off to recover, get back into my regular slot there before they forget about me (they’ve been trying for years but I’m like the stench from a particularly noxious blast of flatus--I just don’t go away).

Who’s afraid of the big bad Yanks? (SMSN Sports): Hey, they signed some talent but there are more holes on that roster than in my memory after I turned 40.

Bringing the game back to baseball (SMSN Sports): Why I think the WBC rocks.

Best Regards

John