Rare W here for Howard “The King” Eskin:

Agree 100% with King. Scott Boras doesn’t need to participate in the Nick Castellanos press conference. The only valid excuse is if Castellanos wanted him there, or the Phillies are just trying to throw a bone and maintain a positive working relationship.

This doesn’t really happen in other sports, though. If Ben Simmons signed a free agent deal with the Lakers, would Rich Paul be sitting next to Rob Pelinka at the introductory press conference? Would Drew Rosenhaus join Warren Sapp with Raiders front office personnel? Nah.

If we want to boil this down to the most simple thing, we could phrase it this way:

“Does any fan really give a shit what Scott Boras has to say?”


No, they do not. Of the four guys sitting at that table, I was most interested to hear from Castellanos, Dave Dombrowski, Joe Girardi, and then Boras as a distant fourth.

Boras represents about 100 MLB players. He is the most powerful agent in sports. More powerful than Paul and Rosenhaus and all of those guys. In the past, it’s resulted in some overreach, with Trevor Bauer warning Boras not to interfere with union business and essentially stay in his lane. Look at how much money Boras and his people rake:

Any baseball fan who loves the game will say they don’t give a shit about the agent and money-making side of it. We’re all for player empowerment, and taking care of guys like Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos, but when Boras is able to get these guys 20 million a year instead of 17 million a year, then woop-dee-fuckin’ doo. That doesn’t resonate with people working normal jobs who just wanna watch the sport. Boras can do his thing behind the scenes. We don’t need his dopey ass up there at the podium, taking questions.

The King is right! All hail the King.