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CONFLICT OF INTEREST: PLAYER VS. AGENT |
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Written by Jimmy Scott
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Wednesday, 17 December 2008 |
 It may appear that I have a strange obsession with Brian Boehringer -
heck, he is a very nice guy - but no, he didn't offer me millions of
dollars to write about him again. So he'll stay in St. Louis with his
new sporting goods business and I'll stay here trying to write about
people other than him.
Except...
My wife's gonna kill me (she's the first to bring up this "unhealthy obsession"), but Brian did bring up one subject in our interview (hear it here: http://www.jimmyscottshighandtight.com/node/380) that I believe is worth further discussion. It revolves around the conflict of interest a baseball agent works under, relating directly to his/her roster of talent. Specifically, let's say you're an agent and you've got 2 or 3 Lenny Harris-type pinch hitting specialists who are free agents. That's 2 or 3 guys looking for the maximum payout for a position that may not be available for 2 or 3 teams, or at least available at the money that all 3 want. Get it?
I'll illustrate again to drive the point home like a stake through a vampire's chest.
You're a relief pitcher, not a closer and not an elite setup guy. You're a 6th or 7th inning guy, your ERA was 3.94 and you only allowed 70% of inherited runners to score (which is good). However, your agent has 4 other guys just like you looking for work.
If you're the player, how do you win?
Think about it: You just put up your numbers through a grueling 6-month season and now you have to not only have your agent prove to teams you're worthy of their big bucks, but you need to prove to your agent that you should be a priority above the other guys.
The competition isn't just on the field.
And that's where the conflict of interest lies. It's an agent's job to fulfill his fiduciary duty and put his client's needs above his own. But what if he has multiple clients who share the same need and there aren't multiple teams who can fulfill those needs? Does the agent sit down at the GM meetings, staple 4 pictures to a wall, cover a GM's eyes and have him pin the contract on the pitcher? Doubtful. So how does an agent deal with this? And, thinking this through, how does the player keep himself from signing with an agent who's going to be put into this situation?
As a player, you don't want to worry about it. I'm sure 9 out of 10 would say they don't. But should they? I bet the same 9 out of 10, or maybe 8 out of 10, would say they don't. They love their guy and put full trust in him. But does that make the player right? I mean, we throw squiggly balls down batter's throats and they hit them very straight over tall fences. Does that mean they understand this issue? Nope.
Which brings us back to Brian Boehringer. He had a number of gripes with his former agent, but one in particular was not specifically aimed that way. It was aimed at the system.
More on that in a moment.
What about the agent's point of view? You know they would say that one player sets the market for the others, so it's a good thing to have similar players who can fill similar positions on teams. And to a degree that is true. In this off season, there haven't been any major signings as of today, mainly because players, teams and agents are trying to figure out where the economy is headed in baseball and how much the best players are going to get. The Scott Boras clients are going to wait until the other players sign, but they're waiting for the Boras guys to sign because they know Boras gets top dollar. For example, you've got 2 similar shortstops left as free agents (since Edgar Rentaria is now a Giant): Rafael Furcal and Orlando Cabrera. Who’s going to sign first? Did Renteria set the market? If you're one of them, you might want to wait for the other guy to go first.
But...
What if you wait and that was your only opportunity for those bucks? If you're one of 8 pitchers on the market and there are only 2 teams willing to pay and your agent represents 3 of your breed, someone's going to lose out. The agent will say the team made the offer. Or the player didn't decide fast enough. And this may be true. But isn't the agent doing some talking? Isn't he putting his two cents into the team's decision? "Listen, make an offer to Furcal first. I think he'll go for it." Meanwhile, Cabrera's wife, unbeknownst to the agent, just told Orlando to take the first offer he gets. Furcal gets the offer, he takes it. Now Cabrera is left to sign for less from a lesser team.
The agent is human and he's going to put his stamp on the negotiations, whether he likes it or not. This doesn't make him a bad man. And in every case, the players don't necessarily get screwed. But the system is flawed, just as we humans are. How do you fix it? I asked Brian Boehringer that. He didn't have an answer. You can't limit an agent to one player per position. He'd only get to have 13 or 14 clients at a time (9 starters including a pitcher, 1 closer, 1 setup guy, 1 middling innings guy, and 1 bench guy - 1 DH too). So what do you do if you're an agent and you've got the 14 guys signed and some of your guys in the minors get called up? Are you now supposed to drop some clients because you've reached the maximum allowed? Then when some guys get sent back down, can you re-sign the guys you dropped? See? It just gets more and more complicated.
We're always going to have our Brian Boehringers, our Willie Bloomquists, our Darren Olivers, guys who are competing against each other on the field for victories and off the field for the money. And there will always be agents leading them down the path. But they won't all get the same riches. They won't all share in the same joy. Because just like there's only one World Series winner, there can sometimes be only one free agent winner. He who can avoid the most conflict can come out on top. You just have to know it's there to play.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 December 2008 )
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