Scott Boras has long carved out a reputation for being baseball's premier super sports agent, maximizing players' earning capability with shrewd negotiating skills. After all, Boras was the one who guided Alex Rodriguez into signing a landmark 10-year, $252 million deal with the Texas Rangers in 2000.
Well, with A-Rod turning 40-years-old today, ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell took to his Twitter account and revealed one of the methods that Boras used to secure that deal 15 years ago.
Major League Baseball fans at the time will remember that A-Rod was always being compared to other star shortstops at the time—Derek Jeter and Nomar Garciaparra. Rodriguez was 25 at the time.
Well, one of Boras's selling points on Rodriguez over his competiton during those 2000 contract negotiations was his home run projections for the slugger by the time he was 40. Boras had projected Rodriguez's homer total to be 778 at 40, well more than those of Jeter and Garciaparra's.
A-Rod turns 40 today. In Scott Boras' negotiation w/teams in 2000, he projected A-Rod would have 778 HRs
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 27, 2015
Well, 15 years later and A-Rod is 40 sitting at 677 home runs, just over 100 shy of Boras's prediction.
Hey, Boras's projection was pretty spot on, considering Rodriguez could have been closer to the 778-homer mark had he not been suspended all of last year for performance-enhancing drug use and prior to that for games missed due to multiple injuries.
That and A-Rod has seemingly found the fountain of youth this season, hitting .277 with 23 home runs, including three in Saturday's game, and 58 RBI. He could have been much close to 778.
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