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MLB’s offseason hot-stove period, now giving way to spring training camps, contained plenty of big-dollar deals, and even a historic one with Juan Soto. In the eyes of some agents and stars, however, it’s still not enough.
Scott Boras, agent to Soto and many other MLB players, lamented the spending patterns over the winter that still have left five clubs with sub-$100 million payrolls for the 2025 season according to current luxury tax calculations.
“You’ve got a number of teams that are spending below $100 million,” Boras said on the Foul Territory podcast.“Last year, there were six teams spending below $100 million, and the money they get from the general fund is above that.”
Boras particularly has been on the frontlines of the spending patterns. After initial success with Soto’s $765 million contract with the Mets, a $182 million pact for pitcher Blake Snell with the Dodgers, and another for $210 million between the Diamondbacks and pitcher Corbin Burnes, he later saw Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso sign for far smaller deals than first envisioned.
It’s hardly a new scenario for Boras to push for MLB clubs to spend more on players. Rather, it’s been a big element of the mega-agent’s public profile for years. The roughly $330 million payroll gap between the ultra-powerful Dodgers and bottom-dwelling Marlins going into the new season, however, raises additional levels of questions about player spending.
“It’s not small market–large market. It’s how much of your revenues are you spending on a 40-man roster to show your fans you’re committed,” Boras said.
Angst in Toronto
Blue Jays superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr., meanwhile, has formally turned down a contract extension offer that would have kept him in Toronto, and he is now set to become a free agent in November. The 25-year-old (who is represented by Magnus Sports, not the Boras Corporation) is poised to be one of the leading available players after the 2025 season, but he failed to find common ground in initial contract talks with the Blue Jays.
“They have their numbers. I have my numbers,” Guerrero said Tuesday.
“I want to be here. I want to be a Blue Jay for the rest of my career. But it’s free agency. It’s business. So I’m going to have to listen to 29 more teams, and they’re going to have to compete for that,” he said.
Toronto GM Ross Atkins, however, defended the team’s efforts.
“I am confident that we exhausted the communication, the ideas, the thoughts, and communicated every dollar,” he said. “The offers that we made for Vlad would have been record-setting and would’ve made him one of the highest-paid players in the game.”
