Aug
12

Manny Being Influenced To Be Manny?

By | MLB Players, MLB Rules, MLB Teams, Sports Law

2 Comments

Should Boston fans really be upset with Manny Ramirez?  The guy sure bitched a lot about the city in the past few years, but was there another reason for Manny’s move to Los Angeles?  This other reason is so important that MLB has launched a full investigation into the background of the trade.

Manny Ramirez was eying the end of his contract with the Red Sox; an eight-year deal worth a total of $160 million.  The Red Sox had an option to hold onto the slugger for $20 million in 2009 and 2010, but Manny apparently wanted to test the free-agent market.  He fired his former agent, Greg Genske, who took over LS Legacy Sports Group when Jeff Moorad left to become CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Genske has a very impressive list of clients, including Pat Burrell, C.C. Sabathia, and Scott Kazmir, but Ramirez was not happy.  In February of this year, he dropped Genske and picked up Mr. Boras.

So why the investigation?  Maybe Manny was content playing in Boston, but Scott Boras was inconspicuously pushing him to move, putting money into Boras Corp sooner than later.  Had Manny stayed in Boston, Boras Corp could have been representing Ramirez for the next two years without any commission (if Boston chose to retain Manny’s services at $20 million per year).  Personally, this scenario is hard for me to believe.  I do not think that Scott Boras or his company would be interested in having Manny’s options dropped just so that they could rake some quick dough.  Would an agent ever tell his client to play at half speed just to have his club’s option dropped due to a trade?

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  • Jon

    I think a potential conflict of interest is always at hand when one agent respresents multiple athletes, especially when they play for the same team. It would be in an agents benefit to have players on different teams to maximize each of their earning potentials. The fact that Boras wasn’t recieving a commission on Manny’s current contract only fuels those assertions.

    It may be easier to get Manny more than $20 million in LA than it would have been in Boston, where he also has to try and work out a deal for Varitek after milking them for $70 million (J.D. Drew) and having Johnny Damon sign with the Yanks.

    Perhaps Boras was only one half of the equation – maybe the Red Sox didn’t want to re-sign Manny and didn’t want to just let him walk, fearing criticism from the fans. Maybe both sides wanted to split and worked together to make it seem logical rather than being based solely on financial reasons.

    At the end of the day we will probably never know, but I agree, it does seem very shady to say the least.

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