Boras' track record suggests Bogaerts and Bradley likely to become free agents

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As far as Scott Boras is concerned, free agency is usually the best choice.

Asked about the possibility of reaching agreement with the Red Sox on contract extensions for two of his clients, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Xander Bogaerts, the agent didn’t make a pre-free agency deal sound likely.

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Possible? Sure, why not?

But, while speaking on CSNNE's Baseball Show podcast, he underscored that the value of deals signed outside the open market “is more often than not” less valuable to the player. The system, as Boras puts it, “has a track record.”

“When Stephen Strasburg received an extension prior to his free agency, everyone was shocked,” Boras said, referring to another of his clients. “I have a policy, and I think all the teams are aware of this, you know, we listen. We certainly listen to anything that a club wants to do . . . take it to our clients. We evaluate it. We have a rather extensive process of information that we give our clients about you know their options and choices, the market potentials and their performance. Risk factors. All those things go into it. We have value algorithms that we share with them. 

“So it’s something where with each proposal, we certainly let the athlete evaluate it and we always stay in communication with the teams about their intentions. And that process sometimes delivers the fruit of an agreement, and often it does not. Because the system has a track record whereby a lot of players who sign contracts prior to free agency have a value component that is, more often than not after a consideration by the player, not of the value he would receive by waiting. 

“That’s the deliberation that each athlete has to make, and each situation has its own individual characteristics and weights that are placed on each consideration by the athlete. You know, our job is to make sure they make an informed decision, and give them all information.”

Boras said Bradley’s early numbers don’t have him concerned. He started Friday hitting .189.

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