CARLSBAD, Calif. — Scott Boras’ annual assessment of the Mets’ spending habits — a tradition like no other at the general managers’ meetings — brought the team’s owner and a discount retail chain together under one umbrella on Wednesday.
“Frankly, like always, the Mets will shop at Fred’s,” the mega-agent said.
Asked what was for sale at the store, Boras said: “It’s not what’s for sale, it’s where a man [Fred Wilpon] who wants to win, wants to win and he has the wherewithal to do it.”
Boras’ jab at the Mets came on the same day he met with GM Brodie Van Wagenen, a former rival agent from CAA whom he has targeted in recent weeks for an apparent conflict of interest in moving from representing players to leading a team’s front office.
Until last week, the 44-year-old Van Wagenen was agent to Jacob deGrom, Yoenis Cespedes, Todd Frazier, Brandon Nimmo and Tim Tebow, among Mets players. In addition, Van Wagenen’s former firm represents Noah Syndergaard, Jason Vargas and Robert Gsellman.
Van Wagenen said he and Boras introduced themselves to each other Wednesday. The Mets GM downplayed the idea of a rift between the two.
“I don’t have issue with his opinions at all,” Van Wagenen said. “A couple of things I have always respected about Scott: One, his work ethic and two his preparation. And if you work hard and you are prepared you are entitled to your opinion, and I reject the notion I am going to be in a conflict of interest or I am going to compromise my own reputation and my past behavior and my own integrity in my current role. I am going to value players. I am going to treat them with respect, and I hope that everybody on both sides of the aisle will continue to do that.”
Boras’ lone remaining Mets client is Michael Conforto, but in recent years he has represented Matt Harvey, Carlos Beltran and Mike Pelfrey, among others. Boras took a jab at CAA when asked if it would be difficult to sit across the table from a former rival in Van Wagenen.
“I don’t think any of my clients consider them a rival,” said Boras, whose top players include Bryce Harper, Max Scherzer, J.D. Martinez and Kris Bryant.
Boras has been outspoken about an agent switching sides and becoming a GM.
“Philosophically when I sit across from a player and I let them know that I’m your fiduciary and you can tell me things confidentially and probably being an attorney versus an agent you look at the ethic of this very differently,” Boras said. “When you have a client, you have somebody that trusts you and relies on you and tells you the most intimate details of his life, sometimes his relationships, his needs, sometimes his family’s needs. That is not something I would want on the other side when they are making their deliberations. For that reason philosophically I have always rejected the notion.”
Credit: NY Post</>
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