Manny Switches Agents...Who Cares?

News out of Fort Myers is that Manny Ramirez switched agents to the much maligned (by the public) Scott Boras. Boras is arguably the best agent in baseball for players if we measure "best" as getting the biggest paycheck from MLB teams. The Sox have their share of Boras clients on the roster (Varitek, Drew, Cora, Ellsbury--although Ellsbury has not had the opportunity to negotiate a contract with Boras as his agent). No doubt this will cause some gnashing of teeth in Red Sox Nation but the development doesn't strike me as anything particularly problematic.

Boras doesn't seem to have as much leverage with Manny as he has had with other major players. Manny is reaching the autumn of the baseball years and, though quite productive, he isn't going to get a five year contract somewhere (unless a team loses its mind). Given that the Sox have a $20 million dollar option, they can essentially ask if they think they can negotiate the yearly output downward but be on the hook for longer. It makes some sense for both sides to agree to a $15-17 million deal over three years. The Sox will shave off three or four million dollars from the option and Manny will have the security of a large paycheck until he is 40.

Now, I have no idea whether either side is interested in such a scenario ($15 million may be low, especially if Manny has a good year) but the Sox are negotiating from a position of strength since they have an option at the end of the year. The one year option gets them a year closer to having power bats come through the system (Lars Anderson, Will Middlebrook, and/or, maybe, Jason Place although he has yet to catch fire in the minors). It also gets them one year closer to having a cheap rotation that will include Lester, Buchholz, and Masterson/Bowden, which enables the Sox to spend on established talent (e.g. Carl Crawford--although the Rays have an $8.5 million option, which I would think that even the cheap-ass Rays would exercise). The point is that the Sox are in a decent position to negotiate with Manny and Boras. If I'm a betting man, I'd say that, after a big year by Manny, the Sox exercise their option and have $20 million coming off the books for an impressive 2010 free agent market.