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Are You Ready For Your Yankees Fix? Part 2

Honestly, I thought that I could post on the topic once and be over with it [Are You Ready For Your Yankees Fix?]. I was obviously wrong. While the Boston Red Sox have just overcome a 3-1 margin to beat the Cleveland Indians to make the World Series and while the Colorado Rockies have won 10000 of their last 10001 games (a little exaggeration), the only things on anyones mind are:

  1. Where will Joe Torre be managing next year?
  2. Who will be the manager for the Yankees next year?
  3. Where will Alex Rodriguez be playing next year?
  4. Is Scott Boras really smart or just full of himself?

I am not going to pretend to know the answer to any of those questions, but I will discuss them a bit.

Where will Torre be next year? I am not quite sure if he will even be managing a team. He has made quite a few bucks during his stint as manager for the Yankees. Plus, the deal that was offered to him was not all that bad. How many times have the Yankees made the playoffs in the past 10 years? Torre was guaranteed to make $5 million under a new contract, plus $1 million for every round of the playoffs that the Yankees reached. Was he that scared that the team with the largest salary cap (by far) would not at least make the playoffs next year? Ehh… By the way, where was Torre’s agent during this “negotiation”? I did a little research and could not come up with any person handling his representation. Reports say that Torre discussed the situation with team ownership in Tampa, Florida and made no mention of any agent. Did he really go into this whole thing all by himself?

So Mr. Steinbrenner takes a bad rap for offering a non-negotiable deal to Mr. Torre. Someone has to benefit from this all, though…right? Enter Scott Boras, who never lets an opportunity (even if there really is not one there) pass by. Why should “instability surrounding Torre’s departure” have anything to do with A-Rod’s decision to stay in NY or leave? Apparently, the re-signing of A-Rod is all about whether or not the Yankees are committed to winning, and after their recent dealing with Torre, Boras is no longer sure that NYY’s execs are committed to that pursuit [Boras: A-Rod contract hinges on Yankees’ decisions]. And so the spin-doctor spins things again.

But will A-Rod stay or go? Will Yankees exec stay true to their most recent claim?

“We want him to stay and I would think he would want to stay. We’ve made it clear if he opts out, goodbye.” – Hank Steinbrenner [Report: Yanks make plans for face-to-face meeting with A-Rod].

Will Boras be able to work his magic now? Will this be the final test to decide whether the man is truly smart or just really full of himself? Some think that he has advanced sports agency from the simple argument to statistical science. Others think that if you are a baseball player and Scott Boras is not your agent, you are flushing money down the toilet. Most hate him, but many students of baseball realize his power. A-Rod can live 20 lives on the money he has made thus far, largely due to Boras. Let’s see if he can tack on another 10 lives based on Boras’ next negotiation.

Maybe Torre should hire Boras for representation…

-Darren Heitner

p.s. – The New Yorker has a 10 page piece on Boras that I probably won’t get a chance to read until this weekend. If you are interested in reading it, though… [The Extortionist].

By Darren Heitner

Darren Heitner created Sports Agent Blog as a New Year's Resolution on December 31, 2005. Originally titled, "I Want To Be A Sports Agent," the website was founded with the intention of causing Heitner to learn more about the profession that he wanted to join, meet reputable individuals in the space and force himself to stay on top of the latest news and trends.

Heitner now runs Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., which is a law firm with many practice areas, including sports law and contract law. Heitner has represented numerous athletes and sports agents as legal counsel. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington from 2011-2014, where he created and taught a course titled, Sport Agency Management, which included subjects ranging from NCAA regulations to athlete agent certification and the rules governing the profession. Heitner serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he teaches a Sports Law class that includes case law surrounding athlete agents and the NCAA rules.

6 replies on “Are You Ready For Your Yankees Fix? Part 2”

I was disappointed to read how Hank lashed back at Torre. He obviously takes after his old man in the temper department (whereas Hal is supposedly more laid back). The Yankees lost a great manager. Lost in all the “incentives” talk in the deal Torre turned down is the fact that Levine and Cashman weren’t taking paycuts, obviously, nor will they ever–despite the fact that most pundits would argue it was their decisions–and not Torre’s–that have led to zero titles since 2000 (mediocre pitching, for starters).

Interesting point on the lack of mention of Joe Torre’s agent. I hadn’t even thought about that. If you Google any other manager, it’s easy to find who reps them. I’ve got Don Zimmer’s “The Zen of Zim” on my bookshelf, and at least at some point in time, Torre was represented by Maury Gostfrand from RLR Associates. No idea what the current relationship is.

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