Shocker: Scott Boras Does Not Like New Draft Spending Limits

Get ready for some all-time shocking news: baseball super-agent Scott Boras is not a fan of the new draft spending limits in baseball’s recently signed collective bargaining agreement. Let’s all say it in unison, “poor Scott Boras.”

Major League Baseball’s new CBA has rules governing how much teams can spend on their entire pool of drafted players based on where they are picking. If teams exceed those limits they will lose future draft picks. Sounds reasonable, right?

In theory the new system will lower bonus demands of the top players in the draft, because if they fall deeper into the draft, other organizations will likely have to pass on them due the overall cap hit they would take by signing those top players to the big deals they demand. So it would stop players like Rick Porcello - who was arguably the top arm available in the 2007 MLB draft - from demanding a minimum $7 million signing bonus. That demand forced Porcello to drop from a sure top-five selection to 27th overall, where the Detroit Tigers took him and handed him a deal that could be worth more than $11 million by the time it’s over.

So basically the new rule is aimed at keeping the best players from holding out for money that only big market teams can give them. It should stop the rich from getting richer through the draft. Will it work? We shall see.

But Boras argues that the new rules will hurt teams trying to rebuild because they won’t be able to have full drafts as a result of being allowed to only pay out a certain amount of money to players. Therefore they could end up spending all their money at the top of the draft and not filling out their entire system by signing their later round picks. He also thinks that it will lessen the overall value of franchises.

Frankly the idea that Scott Boras would be worried about any baseball franchises makes me laugh. All he cares about is his bottom line, so his argument is automatically invalid. Sorry Scott, nice try but we live in reality where everyone knows you’re a complete scumbag.

Whether or not the draft spending caps will work has yet to be seen. But at least Major League Baseball is trying to address the problem of income inequality in some way when it comes to amateur scouting and drafting.