This is classic. Scott Boras was on Sirius/XM with Jim Bowden yesterday and the subject of Jayson Werth’s gigantic contract came up. Bowden -- as is his admirable wont -- cut through the courtesy stuff and simply told Boras “I just can’t believe you pulled that off.”
Boras, however, gave a long and seemingly thoughtful explanation as to how the Jayson Werth deal fit into the greater theory of Nationals baseballology. Or something:“So, in doing that, and evaluating that, you have to say, ‘Is that player going to provide something to the franchise in addition to his performance?’ And I think this is where we look at major free agent signings, particularly with franchises like Washington, that in addition to the performance the player brings, which would probably be 23 to 25 HR’s, 90, 95 RBI’s, in addition to that, we have someone now that allows Bryce Harper’s arrival in the major leagues to be something that is more a function of his performance rather than a need to make sure the fanbase knows that we’re taking the next step. We also know that from the standpoint of attracting free agent pitchers, or attracting a closer, or attracting any other free agents, that we have an ownership that is now embedded in the market place as someone who is a destination that they know the ownership is committed…
“So, in addition to growing for the player’s performance, the brand in Washington is now a different brand. It is now an acknowledged brand. Their fans know it. Other players know it. And it provides a brand value to the franchise that did not exist prior to Jayson Werth signing.”I don’t know about you, but I was in a trance by the third sentence, and I’m a trained baloney-detector. The Nats’ brass likely had no hope in resisting. That is, if they even realized what was going on. Indeed, they probably woke up, saw Boras’ last demand and had some vague but urgent sense that they had to give Werth $126 million. Like this guy.
