As things stand, there are zero agents in the Baseball Hall of Fame. It's likely to remain that way for a long time, if not forever. If there ever is a breakthrough, though, the first agent inducted into the Hall of Fame should be an easy pick: Scott Boras.
No, you don't have to like him. You don't even have to respect his tactics, but you damn sure have to respect the job he's done over the years, collectively, for Major League Baseball players.
This past winter, Boras landed his clients in the ballpark of a billion dollars and it wasn't even a surprise. That's just what he does. Even before the prolific offseason, Forbes called Boras the most powerful agent in all of sports (he's been named it every single year since 2013), even saying he's "in a league of his own." At the time, he had 106 MLB players as clients with $3.83 billion in contracts. And, again, that was before this past offseason.
This offseason, Boras landed four players nine-figure deals:
- Carlos Correa: Six years, $200 million
- Xander Bogaerts: 11 years, $280 million
- Carlos Rodón: Six years, $162 million
- Brandon Nimmo: Eight years, $162 million
Boras was also the first agent to get a player to $50 million, $100 million, $200 million, $250 million and $300 million. We could probably set pretty much any benchmark and he's done it first and most often.
He's been the most powerful agent for a while. In fact, given how young the existence of agents are relative to how long professional sports have been around, it's a pretty easy leap to call Boras the best sports agent of all time.
Owners might hate him, but union boss Marvin Miller, for obvious reasons, wasn't exactly the most popular person in owner circles for decades. Miller was the executive director of the MLBPA from 1966-82 and during that time there were major changes to baseball that benefitted the player, most notably the introduction of free agency. Miller didn't make the Hall of Fame until 2020, which is a nice illustration of how long it might take for Boras to ever have a shot at induction.
Now, I'm not comparing Miller and Boras. They did different things. It's a similar ballpark, though, as Miller's work is part of what paved the way for agents like Boras, who work toward making the the players more money from the owners.
Fans might hate him, but I'd submit it's misguided. Supply and demand control ticket prices -- not player salaries -- so anyone claiming Boras is somehow responsible for high ticket prices is misunderstanding the situation.
Boras holding court with all those planned-in-advance quotes that are pretty contrived, and, frankly, overplayed at this point, is pretty damn annoying. I'm not sure it actually makes his players more money. Then again, he's the best in the business, so who am I to question it? Plus, I'm arguing that he's a Hall of Famer, not that he's the most likable public figure in baseball. Also, he is the only agent in sports who can command such an audience.
So, sure, say you don't like him. Hell, say you loathe him. That's fine. You simply cannot argue with his results on the collective, though. There's no agent who wields his power as effectively as Boras and there probably won't ever be another.
My hunch is he would take the following as one of the greatest compliments he could ever receive. I once asked a scout if he liked Boras. The answer I got was something like "no, I can't stand him, but if I were a player I'd hire him in a heartbeat."
Yep. It totally lines up.
You aren't supposed to like him. He does the dirty work and takes heat for his players. That's part of the job. It's a job no one has ever mastered quite like Scott Boras.
It might not land him in the Baseball Hall of Fame someday, but it should.
