Sports Illustrated: The 15 Most Influential Sports Agents

You know you've made it when teams' personnel decisions are shaped by whether players have you as their agent. And you know you've really made it when a league changes its draft rules because they don't know how to beat you in a free market. "He's a Boras client" is a phrase uttered by baseball executives with irritation, fear and admiration. It means the player is likely to test the market whenever he can become a free agent and will probably go to the highest bidder. It also means the player's advocate will make a sales pitch like no other. Scott Boras negotiated Alex Rodriguez's 10-year, $252 million deal with the Rangers, Barry Zito's 7-year, $126 million deal with the Giants and literally dozens of other free-agent contracts that seemed over-priced then and now. He also arranged for top draft picks -- including J.D. Drew and Jason Varitek -- to play in independent baseball leagues as a way of obtaining negotiation leverage. Baseball has instituted new rules capping how much teams can spend on drafted players, rules which Boras derided as "mockery" but were in fact a tribute to him.

 

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