Scott Boras Went On NBCS "White Sox Talk" Podcast And Dropped A Few Good Quotes

Thus far, it has been a REALLY weird offseason, not only for the White Sox, but for baseball as a whole.  We’ve grown accustomed to it dddrrrraaaggggiiinnnnggg on because X player won’t sign a contract until Y player does and Z player has a qualifying offer attached to his name and blah blah blah.  It’s sucked, and fans hated it.  But… not this winter.  This winter has been WAY different.  Shout out to Scott Boras for allowing that to happen, and I’m only being mildly sarcastic when I say that.

And Boras hopped on the White Sox talk podcast during the Winter Meetings last week and dropped a few interesting nuggets.  Before we get to said nuggets, let me state a few of the common assumptions regarding the White Sox relationship with Boras:

– the Sox won’t work with Boras
– Reinsdorf hates Boras
– Boras uses the White Sox for leverage and that’s it

And I’m sure there are a few more I’m missing, but Boras goes into that.  His interview basically starts by saying,

“Rick and I talk all the time.  He’s really, really trying to create a system inside the White Sox that is very advanced in many ways, and I’m going to tell you that watching their minor league players and things that they have a chance to really give Chicago some really elite players BUT ownership and the administration of the club, that time to be really aggressive and assertive has arrived.  If there is a common dynamic and goal, they have a chance to rise and especially in a division that’s the most starved in professional sports.”

A few things:

– Rick and Boras talk all of the time.  This goes against the grain of everything a lot of fans assume about the White Sox and Boras Corps.  That would make NO SENSE for either camp.  One, Boras controls a lot of the best players in baseball.  Two, taking a team off the plate for one of his players is stupid if he’s only worried about getting his players paid and nothing more.  That’s Economics 101 – less demand for a product lowers the product’s market value.  It’s mutually beneficial for both camps to have a symbiotic relationship, especially as the White Sox contention window opens and other team’s windows close

– Boras basically said the time for the White Sox to strike is NOW.  Now, I jumped to a LOT of conclusions last week after Rendon signed.  I was fucking pissed off because I thought he signed for a rate which the Sox should have been all over.  Turns out we just didn’t hear about their pursuit of him, but they were eventually told Arte Moreno would NOT be outbid for him.  With his track record of massive and dumb (?) contracts, we can take that as gospel I’d say.  But the point remains – the White Sox have to strike now.  Sox fans are freaking out because they didn’t major move during the winter meetings last week.  I was one of them.  But if they had signed Grandal last week instead of 3 weeks ago and then made the trade for Mazara a day or so later, we would have all been saying their offseason has been awesome thus far.

– Continuing on with the “time to strike is now” message, to me that was a subtle way of saying “Reinsdorf needs to open up his wallet”.  Hahn is doing everything he can to make this a perennial contender, but unless I’m paranoid, it doesn’t sound like Reinsdorf is

Yes, the Wheeler to Philly deal stung.  Fucking marriage ruins everything.  But there’s still two pitchers on the market they can and should be ALL OVER.  Not words, Boras’.  Keuchel and Ryu have their warts, yes, but at the same time they’d be major improvements over the incumbent options.

The interview was quick, but it was interesting nonetheless.  It’s clear the White Sox and Boras do work closely together, in spite of what the fan base’s resounding assumption of their relationship is.  Gio, Cease, Kopech, Rodon, Keuchel or Ryu, Dunning… that’s not half bad, especially when you add a swing man a la Alex Wood.  That’s a rotation you can win with in what is maybe the WORST division in North American sports.

So let’s go do it.