CARLSBAD, Calif. — Scott Boras planned to meet with the Yankees on Wednesday afternoon, here at the general managers’ meetings. Before that occurred, baseball’s most famous agent tested out some of his sales-pitch material on the media.
Although the hunch is that he wouldn’t lean on such a high dad-joke ratio for the Yankees themselves.
In his annual “State of the Boras” address, Boras, who represents two of the five elite shortstops — Corey Seager and Marcus Semien — in this free-agent class, talked up how either one would fit the Yankees, who are on the look for a shortstop.
“I think we have Semien and Seager on the market, these people have character that is so understood by teams because of who they are, what they’ve achieved and what they’ve done,” Boras said “In Marcus’ case, he kind of brings a charge to the batter’s box. He insulates the middle infield. He’s truly a modern-day Semien-conductor and we all know there’s a shortage of chips worldwide, so you can imagine the people that come.”
As he read from notes composed on his cell phone, Boras continued, “When you think about Seager, the Seagers are used to being on big stages. And they have many hits. And you can think of all those Hollywood nights and postseason MVPs, oh yeah. I think when you go through all this and you say, well, you know, homers against the wind. Frankly he’s a guy that everybody knows. … He’s like a rock. Of course his parents knew this. That’s why they named him Corey.”
Seager has spent his entire career with the Dodgers, who could retain him even after acquiring shortstop Trey Turner from the Nationals last July; Turner played second base next to Seager. Semien, who excelled at shortstop with the A’s, pivoted to second base for the Blue Jays in 2021 and appears likely to finish third in the American League Most Valuable Player voting.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said on Tuesday that he had met with two representatives of free-agent shortstops, and one of those was Jon Rosen, who is here advocating for Carlos Correa.
“[Correa] is just a very talented player, obviously,” Cashman told The Houston Chronicle. “Puts up numbers with the best of them. He’s obviously had an incredible career thus far. Certainly not afraid. He’s pushed forward, regardless of the circumstances. He’s clearly not afraid because [the sign-stealing fallout] has not affected his play.”
Cashman added that concern about fans’ reaction to signing Correa, whose 2017 Astros illegally stole signs en route to eliminating the Yankees from the 2017 AL Championship Series, “is not going to enter my calculus right now.” Of course, there’s also potential animosity from the Yankees players themselves.
Boras and Cashman agreed on one issue: Gerrit Cole, his rough finish to the 2021 season notwithstanding, will be fine.
“If you look, there’s innings jumps, 80, 90 innings,” Boras said, referring to the 91 ¹/₃ innings (regular season and postseason) Cole threw in 2020 compared to the 183 ¹/₃ in 2021. “As much as you try, as competitive as Gerrit is, I mean, this guy worked so hard. You just can’t replicate pitching in games. You can be in the greatest amount of condition and do what you do. Once you pop that [left] hamstring a bit [on Sept. 7] … you just look at his numbers, it had an impact on him. And he did his best to fight through it.”
Said Cashman on Tuesday: “Clearly he had the hamstring that happened against Toronto. The load of the innings toward the end. He’s never going to say he was tired, but I’d say that’s possible. When you add it all up, he had a hell of a year. … For the most part, there’s not many downs when it came to him.”
As for Cole serving as the face of the sport when it came to the sticky-stuff crackdown, Boras said, “I don’t think he was the face of that at all. I just think he was the one articulate enough to talk about it. And the reality of it is, his performances post-that and the implementation of the new rules illustrated that Gerrit Cole is [still excellent].”
Cole’s overall numbers worsened after the crackdown, though he delivered in a number of individual games. Furthermore, there is expected to be progress on helping pitchers grip the ball in a legal way by next season.
— With Joel Sherman