Great Scott

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 20 Januari 2013 | 18.18

Ah, January. New Year's resolutions, bad movies, NFL playoffs …

… and, in the baseball community, predictions of Scott Boras' demise.

Boras, 60, still the game's most influential player agent, just clocked yet another successful week, defying the conventional wisdom and pleasing the Yankees by signing Rafael Soriano to a two-year, $28 million deal with Washington. Since Soriano rejected the Yankees' $13.3 million qualifying offer back in November, his departure for another team gives his 2012 employers an extra pick (in the sandwich round, between the first and second rounds) in the 2013 amateur draft.

"I wasn't sweating it out," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said of Soriano's fate. "Washington added a quality arm to their bullpen."

Soriano easily will out-earn the $14.8 million he would've made by accepting the Yankees' qualifying offer and collecting a $1.5 million buyout (for opting out of his $14 million commitment to the Yankees in 2013), and he gets to close for a serious contender. Another high risk justified for Boras, as many folks thought Soriano should've simply accepted the qualifying offer and made closer's money to set up for Mariano Rivera.

Now, all Boras has to do is sign Michael Bourn, Kyle Lohse, Francisco Rodriguez and Jose Valverde, and he can rest. We're unlikely to see him sweat.

"Free agency, at a minimum, is like hockey, with three periods," Boras told The Post this past week in a telephone interview. "Maybe it's like basketball, with four quarters."

Boras uses the clock and the system like no other agent today. This is standard for him to still be working late and alone. Bourn and Lohse are the two remaining qualified free agents (those who rejected qualifying offers); the other seven have 2013 contracts.

"Every team is talking about the 120 days of the offseason," Boras said. "A lot of games are won late. Texas [which signed Adrian Beltre in January 2011] won in the third quarter. Detroit [which signed Prince Fielder last January] won in the third quarter. In the game of free agency, that last push, that last decision, put two teams in the World Series just recently."

Beltre found a deal with Texas even though the Rangers already had a third baseman, Michael Young, who became a super-utility player of sorts (and now is with Philadelphia). Fielder found a deal with Detroit even though the Tigers already had a first baseman, Miguel Cabrera, who agreed to shift over to third base and wound up winning the American League Most Valuable Player award.


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