The Man Fighting to Keep the Best Young Pitchers From Physical Ruin

The super agent is on a crusade to keep the game's best young pitchers, including client Jose Fernandez, from physical ruin. But is what's good for players bad for fans?

- Sam Miller

The math is simple enough, but Scott Boras likes to remind general managers of it. three percent of their time together is spent negotiating a contract.the math is simple enough, but Scott Boras likes to remind general managers of it. three percent of their time together is spent negotiating a contract.

The rest is spent, in the words of baseball’s most powerful agent, “working together to grow this player.” Keeping him healthy, keeping him happy, making him stronger, making him better. Executives don’t always appreciate the reminder.

“When you draft a pitcher represented by Scott Boras,” a GM tells me, “you know what you are signing up for. I wouldn’t say it’s a deal with the devil per se, but he’s going to be involved from the start, he’s going to have his medical people putting hands on the pitcher, and he’s likely going to take him to free agency.”

Five years ago, the Marlins avoided that scenario. Jose Fernandez, represented by a small Tampa-based agency, was a big-bodied 18-year-old Cuban immigrant. He had so dominated a travel-ball showcase the previous fall that some of the hundreds of scouts  in attendance wondered whether he could pitch in the majors right then. The Marlins drafted him 14th overall in June 2011 and negotiated a $2 million signing bonus.