PHOENIX — Agent Scott Boras, who represents the two biggest free-agent MLB stars who still are unsigned, had to look only a few feet to his right Wednesday afternoon to illuminate his position this winter.
Spring training starts in just a month, and All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman and All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso remain on the outside looking in, having no idea where they’ll be playing in 2025.
Boras has argued all winter that plenty of teams have the money to meet Bregman’s and Alonso’s demands, and for proof, he had to look no further than starter Corbin Burnes, who was being introduced Wednesday after signing a six-year, $210 million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, the largest contract in franchise history.
And, the last anyone checked, no one has ever mistaken the Diamondbacks for a large-market club with massive TV rights.
So, if the Diamondbacks can afford to sign Burnes, Boras argues, there should be absolutely no excuses for others not to strongly pursue and sign Bregman and Alonso to lucrative contracts.
Follow every MLB game: Latest MLB scores, stats, schedules and standings.
Certainly, there’s plenty of interest in both players, but if anyone was actually offering a deal they believe is worth their true value, they would have been signed before the holidays.
Alonso, who has spent his entire career with the New York Mets and turned down a seven-year, $158 million contract in 2023, was seeking a deal bigger than Freddie Freeman’s six-year, $162 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Matt Olson’s eight-year, $168 million deal with Atlanta.
Now, he’s willing to take a three-year deal with opt-outs to stay with the Mets, but they’re still at an impasse.
Considering how the Mets have played hard-ball in these negotiations with Alonso, and are willing to let him walk if he doesn’t meet their price, the question now is just how much damage has been done in their relationship?
“I don’t want to address preemptive questions about it,’’ Boras said. “You’re going to have to ask Pete how he’s going to feel and what he’s going to do. He’s just in the marketplace listening right now.
“Teams are now getting a little more definition about their teams so I think things will move.’’
While Alonso may be willing to accept a short-term deal with the ability to opt out after the 2025 season, Bregman is not going down that path. He has no desire to accept a short-term contract, and remains engaged with several teams like the Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox.
“Bregman’s a championship player, teams know it,’’ Boras said. “It’s really a matter of his decision-making and theirs, about how you can close up that gap. There’s substantial interest (in long-term) deals.’’
The qualifying offer attached to Bregman and Alonso is certainly having an adverse effect, Boras said, but he also points out that teams haven’t spent this winter as they have in the past.
“You’re seeing so many teams that are actually not spending,’’ Boras said. “They’re making more, but they’re not spending. They’re spending far less than they did two, three years ago. There’s a quadrant as many as 10 to 12 teams that are in that position. …
“The graduation of being an owner has a different definition that it did 10, 15 years ago, ironically because of the appreciation of the franchise value.’’
There are only seven teams who have increased their payroll by more than $10 million from a year ago, according to FanGraphs.
And one of those teams happens to be the Diamondbacks, who have spent $22.5 million more than a year ago, with an estimated payroll of $193 million this season.
“We have the potential to be a championship team,’ Diamondbacks managing partner Ken Kendrick said. “Our job is to try and do everything we can to put the best team on the field possible that we can afford. We’re stretching the budget. It won’t be the last time we ever do it.
“But my view of investing money is you invest it when you have an opportunity to get a return. We’re making a significant investment in a great young player, and I’m hoping for our fans and me personally, I’d like to have some additional success before I go off into the sunset. So, we’ll see how it works out.’’
The Diamondbacks had no real interest in Burnes, the best pitcher on the market, when free agency began. They simply believed the price-tag would be too high, and there were several teams willing to pay Burnes at least $245 million.
Yet, Burnes asked Boras to make another call to the Diamondbacks the week before Christmas to convey how badly he wanted to pitch for them, enabling him to stay home in Phoenix where he has lived since 2018. He was willing to leave at least $35 million on the table to be home year-round with his wife, 3-year-old son, and 6-month-old twins.
He still vividly remembers the angst last summer of taking a private plane home after a start in Baltimore to be with his wife for the birth of their twins, only for the plane to have mechanical difficulties, leaving him stranded in Colorado Springs at 2:30 in the morning. He wound up driving to Denver, taking the first Southwest flight out of Denver to Phoenix, and had a car take him immediately from the airport to the hospital just 45 minutes before his wife gave birth.
“It was a really difficult time for him last year,’’ Boras said. “The travel was really wearing on him. For the Burnes family, it was very clear to me how strongly he wanted to be with his children, around his family, his grandparents. …
“It’s kind of hard to go to a player and say, ‘Let me do the best to help you make less,’ but the reality of it is that Corbin was going to do anything to be with his family.’
Said Burnes, who flew home to Phoenix six to eight times last summer to be with his family: “The family aspect was huge for us. When we heard that this was going to be an opportunity, we had to jump at it. This is something we dreamed about.’’
Just like that, the Diamondbacks are hoping to recreate the days when they had Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling atop their rotation leading them to the 2001 World Series championship — now with Burnes and Zac Gallen together.
“Our fans in this community support winning teams,’’ Kendrick said. “They don’t necessarily operate like maybe the Chicago Cubs’ fans — no disrespect. They support their team no matter what.
“In Arizona, they have a history of having winners. We’re going to continue to try to build revenue and reinvest that in the quality that we put on the field.’’
Follow Nightengale on X: @BNightengale
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
