CARLSBAD, Calif. – As agent Scott Boras concluded a press conference at the General Managers Meetings on Wednesday, where he faulted the league’s structure for incentivizing tanking, he said at most 17 teams were actively trying to construct a roster to win a World Series title.
“Many others are in transition where they’re trying to say we’re going to see if we have enough to take the next step,” Boras said. “Then by June, many of those teams revert to, ‘No, we have to retool, so we’re going to save money.”
Boras didn’t single out any clubs, but the National League Central may be the poster child. The Milwaukee Brewers won 95 games and the St. Louis Cardinals used a historic winning streak in September to reach 90 wins.
The Cincinnati Reds already have a weaker roster after they traded Tucker Barnhart, placed Wade Miley on waivers and saw Nick Castellanos opt out of his contract as they lower payroll. The Chicago Cubs are rebuilding after trading their core of star players at the trade deadline and the Pittsburgh Pirates lost 101 games.
“Now we have half the Major League teams,” Boras said, “at some time during the season being non-competitive, trading off their players, making the game and the season very different than what it was intended to be – and that was having an incentive to win every game that you play.
“We should never ever talk about payroll. What we have to talk about is revenues and we have to talk about the success of the game in its total.”
Boras attributed the trend of tanking – teams OK with losing because it meant a higher draft pick – to the sport’s collective bargaining agreement in 2012 when limits were implanted on how much teams could spend on MLB draft picks. It was a reason, Boras says, why the Atlanta Braves were able to win a World Series title.
“It’s not about the Atlanta Braves, their general manager or ownership; it’s really about the rules,” Boras said. “The rules allowed them to be a less than .500 team at August 1st and add five players from teams that no longer wanted to compete and for very little cost change the entirety of their team and season. We saw this unfold to the detriment of teams that created vast expense, planning and intellect and won over 100 games.”
