Scott Boras wouldn't say this is an important winter for him. He denied that he thinks he has to restore an image that was tarnished a year ago.
Sitting in his office in Newport Beach last week, baseball's most powerful agent turned questions about him into answers about what the presence of Manny Ramirez and Mark Teixeira will mean for their potential employers.
"I look at it as an extraordinary opportunity for franchises, because when you look at the number of franchise players that are normally available in free agency, you're not going to have that many that hit the market because they usually sign before they ever get there," he said. "The question is, how often do you have access to the player that can give you all the qualities that these players represent to facilitate the needs of your franchise?"
Behind Boras, outside the glass doors of his personal work space, were Gold Glove trophies and life-size images of his clients. Whatever statistics he wanted were at his disposal, courtesy of a computer in the basement operated by a former NASA engineer that has video of games and data dating to 1871.
The sun was setting outside, but several of the 70-plus employees of the Boras Corp. were still at work, briskly walking around the office and occasionally dropping by to deliver a quick message to the boss.
Preparations for the most important time of Boras' year had to be done.
Four days later, Boras shifted his base operations to the St. Regis Resort Monarch Beach, which is only a 10-minute drive from his office. The hotel is the site of the general managers' meetings, which started Monday and will run through Thursday.
Boras has players to sell.
He has 16 clients who are free agents this winter, a cast that includes pitcher Derek Lowe and catchers Jason Varitek and Ivan Rodriguez.
"We're going to do $300 [million]-$400 million in contracts like we did three or four years ago," Boras said, referring to the winter of 2004-05.
Teixeira alone is expected to command a deal worth more than $100 million. Ramirez also could get a nine-figure deal if Boras can convince teams that his age, 36, shouldn't diminish his value. If he can't, everyone will be forced to wait. At least that's the expectation.
Asked how soon he expected to learn where Ramirez would play baseball next season, Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti smiled and nearly started laughing. Colletti gathered himself and gave a measured response.
