Boras opposes FA deadline: 'Death lines to the players'
MLB agent Scott Boras is strongly opposed to the idea of an offseason deadline for free agents to sign with teams.
"Deadlines are death lines to the players. It's a death of their right," Boras said Thursday, according to The Athletic's Evan Drellich. "Because a player goes all that time to earn that right (to become a free agent). It’s an artificial reason not to get your value."
Free agency has been slower than usual this offseason, with a number of marquee free agents still on the market with spring training underway.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday that the league prefers a signing deadline in December, but the players association rejected those overtures.
"Certainly from an aspirational perspective, we'd rather have two weeks of flurried activity in December, preferably around the winter meetings, where you’re all there to write about it, and you know, we all get excited about the upcoming year," Manfred said. "That'll be a project in the next go-around."
Boras believes a deadline would serve as an aid to teams and put players at a disadvantage.
"Teams cannibalize deadlines," Boras continued. "Everything they would do would be around the deadline. 'I'll wait and get this value at this time because I have a deadline,' rather than, 'What's the player worth?"
Boras clients Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, and Jordan Montgomery are still on the market.