The unique marketing and operational strategies of Scott Boras
Working as an agent for many of Major League Baseball's top talent, Boras is selling more than just on-field talent to teams around the league.
Scott Boras is not your typical agent and Boras Corporation is not your average athlete representation agency. Boras and his team are known to represent some of the biggest names in professional baseball including Bryce Harper, Corey Seager, Gerrit Cole, Marcus Semien, Eric Hosmer and Anthony Rendon. Through Boras’ assistance, these players were able to sign some of the most lucrative contracts in the history of American sports, a combined 54 years for approximately $1.54 billion. Contracts of this magnitude have landed Boras Corp. at the top of Forbes Magazine’s list most valuable and successful sports agencies in the world.
Boras is expected to add a few more hundred million dollars to that figure once the current lockout concludes. On Jan. 18, free agent and longtime Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa announced through ESPN’s Jeff Passan that he had switched from William Morris Endeavor Agency (WME) to Boras Corp.
During his tenure with WME, Correa was unable to land a deal with any team prior to MLB’s work stoppage due to a lack of a new collective bargaining agreement between the league and the MLB Players Association. According to sources, Correa is aiming for a contract worth at least $330 million. Considering the success of other Boras clients in recent memory, it is difficult for anybody to think that a deal of that nature for Correa can’t get done whenever league-wide baseball operations resume.
But mega contracts like this don’t get offered to anybody on any day. Boras would be the first one to tell you that it takes endless hours of work. Boras Corp. has upwards of 80 employees consisting of researchers, statisticians, mathematicians, finance experts and legal professionals working at their Newport Beach, California headquarters. Together, the team calculates exactly how much they believe their clients are worth.
While his staff crunches the numbers and organizes the legal side of professional sports contracts, Boras uses his voice to gain leverage for his clients. Whether it’s at the annual GM Meetings, MLB Winter Meetings or through other media outlets, when the wealthiest agent in professional sports speaks, people listen.
One unique avenue of communication that Boras has used in recent years has been good old-fashioned radio. It’s not uncommon for player representatives and members of front offices to hop onto radio or television programming to discuss their clients or provide some insight into potential roster moves, but what makes Boras different is that he is going out of his way to reach diverse audiences, particularly those living outside of the United States residing in the home countries of some of his highest caliber clients. On Jan. 22, just days after becoming Carlos Correa’s official representative, Boras hopped onto San Juan, Puerto Rico’s WIPR-TV’s weekend sports show En La Cancha Radio to discuss the Puerto Rican-born Correa.
“Carlos Correa is not your normal free agent. He’s a true five-tool player who is still very young,” Boras said.
When asked by hosts Antonio Lebron and Jerry Gonzalez whether Correa will be valuing money or location more when making his final decision of where to play in 2022, Boras emphasized that the ultimate decision will have to be made by Correa and his wife, Daniela.
“This is a very personal process. My job is to give players choices and give them, Daniela and Carlos, opportunities to listen to and evaluate,” he said.
Boras could’ve easily given his seven minute interview anywhere, but choosing to speak on a latin radio show may be more revealing than any of the limited information he actually gave.
Boras realizes that players like Correa are viewed as heroes in their home countries. When a team signs a player like Correa, they will have new sets of eyes on their franchise and will welcome tons of new, passionate fans.
This wouldn’t be the first time Boras has used a player’s international popularity and marketability in contract negotiations either. Correa’s longtime Houston Astros teammate Jose Altuve, who is also represented by Boras, collaborated with Fox Sports and MLB Network in 2015 to release the documentary Big Dreams: The Jose Altuve Story. The documentary chronicled Altuve’s journey from Venezuela to the major leagues and was released in both English and Spanish. After helping lead the Astros to a World Series title and winning the American League MVP award in 2017, Boras was instrumental in having the wildly popular Altuve sign a seven year, $163.5 million contract to remain in Houston.
A more recent example of Boras’ appeal to player popularity came in the spring of 2019 when he used Sony Entertainment and Playstation’s MLB The Show 19 video game to help reveal client Bryce Harper’s 13-year, $330 million free agent signing with the Philadelphia Phillies. Before this particular video game campaign, Harper already had some of baseball’s most notable and high-paying endorsements and sponsorships, such as Under Armour, Gatorade, Topps, New Era, Rawlings and T-Mobile.
“[Harper] is the most recognizable and marketable player in the sport, a brand unto himself,” said Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Prior to landing the finalizing the deal between Harper and the Phillies, Boras made it clear in an interview with ESPN’s Jesse Rogers that teams should be valuing the marketability of his clients.
"[Bryce Harper’s brand] is fashionable. It's historical. It’s elite. Global, certainly. It has inspirations that deal with great shoes and great hair,” Boras said.
While Boras has already accomplished a lot as an agent, he won’t be stopping anytime soon.
In addition to Correa, he must still help clients Kris Bryant, Michael Conforto, Carlos Rodon and Yusei Kikuchi land new contracts once the current MLB lockout comes to an end. Looking further ahead, he will also be representing Washington Nationals superstar Juan Soto in future contract negotiations. According to sports payroll and salary database Spotrac, Soto is expected to be the first ever baseball player to sign a $500 million contract.
It remains to be seen whether Boras would be able to pull off a deal of that nature, but based off of what he has already accomplished through his unique focus on player marketing, it would be hard to doubt him.
Note: Author Christopher Correa is not related to and is in no way affiliated with Carlos Correa.