Scott Boras Expects Blue Jays to Spend Big, Calls for Prop-Bet Ban

Scott Boras is back with the dad jokes and hacky puns, but baseball’s most powerful player agent will again influence a significant portion of the overall free-agent market. 

Speaking to reporters at Major League Baseball’s GM meetings in Las Vegas, Boras again rolled out a series of puns around his stable of player clients—something that for years has existed as an offseason tradition in the sport. Among his latest quips:

• Alex Bregman: “No one wants a Breg-xit.”
• Cody Bellinger: “When it comes to Bellinger, there’s no question that the teams have a need. The need to Belli proceed.”
• Dylan Cease: “Unlike the other famous Dylan, this one is exclusively electric.” 
• Pete Alonso: “Pete’s pursuers are primed to pay the power piper. Pete picked a perfect period to play preeminently at a primary position. A playoff-parched plethora will pounce to participate in the Polar Plunge.”
• Tarik Skubal: “The fans in Detroit want the Tigers to build the Tarik barrack.”
• Ranger Suárez: “Suarez’s playoff quality is well, frankly, the Lone Ranger in that category.”
• Ha-Seong Kim: “I think Kim is a hot song on the shortstop charts.”
• Tatsuya Imai: “When most teams talk to me about Imai, they say, ‘Oh my!’”

All kidding aside, though, the players Boras represents will go a long way toward establishing what the player market looks like this winter. Despite rising labor worries as negotiations will begin next year in earnest between the league and MLB Players Association, Boras said he foresees plenty of activity among teams—though it’s certainly in his interest and that of his clients to suggest as much.

“It was really clear that there are many teams that are ramping up,” Boras said. “They’re adding. They’re not subtracting.”

Boras in particular predicted a strong statement this offseason by the Blue Jays, who made a run to Game 7 of the World Series as team owner Rogers Communications focuses more on its sports holdings.

“Toronto is one of the top four or five major markets, and I think we’ll see ownership commitment and every bit of behavior to support and advance that,” he said. 

Prop-Bet Concerns

Like MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark before, Boras also said he would support an outright ban of prop bets in baseball. Rigged pitches led to the recent federal indictments of two Guardians pitchers, quickly resulting in a move by MLB and most U.S. sportsbooks to limit pitch-specific prop bets to $200.

“You have to remove those prop bets to make sure that the integrity of the players is not questioned,” Boras said. “There’s going to be all forms of performance questions given now to pitchers and such when they throw certain pitches to the back of the screen, or situationally, and really, we don’t want any part of it. We want the players’ integrity never to be questioned.”