N.Y. Mets: The Confounding Michael Conforto Contract Crisis

From the desk: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

Steve Cohen 

vs. The Unknown Variable

Mighty Market Makers In Their Natural Habitat

It was the early 1990s, and baseball card fever was high.  I tried to get my hands on as many Todd Van Poppel and Ben McDonald cards as possible.  A kid named Chipper Jones and another pitcher named Darren Dreifort, in whom minor investments were also made.  Mining these prospects and others is how I first became familiar with super-agent Scott Boras.  I was lured in because whenever some highly touted amateur was about to go pro, Boras was on hand as lead and bold new principal on the scene establishing groundbreaking askings and making markets.  Therefore, I simply followed the money.

In the 2014 draft, the Mets selected one of Boris' clients with the tenth overall pick.  His name is Michael Conforto, who, after this upcoming season, becomes an unrestricted free agent.  Conforto is a huge fan favorite.  He is also the team's union representative.  This is to say Boras and Conforto potentially adhere to the same business model emphasizing player and salary advancement.  Chief among their negotiation articles is no retreat and no surrender along the salary front, only forward and upward movement.

As one of, if not the preeminent agent in the game, Boris has extracted billions of dollars out of MLB owner's bank accounts throughout this post-Marvin Miller era.  He firmly urges his clients to exercise their right to free agency.  In numerous instances, clients were encouraged to take the best offer available.  Robinson Cano is a recent example.  The Yankees made him quite the handsome offer, but Cano and his agent instead "settled" for Seattle's far more lucrative offer.  No need to revisit how that worked out, but it certainly speaks of standard operating procedures.

Boris, on occasion, has let clients dictate the location, meaning staying put in the only place they've known and grown to love.  A case in point is David Wright, who the Mets signed to the largest contract issued in team history.  Otherwise, Boris is agreeable only if the terms are relatively on par with current and projected market growth.

But whereas at least some measure of collective unity exists among (agents and) players, the MLB owner barons are their own worst enemy.  They've known this about themselves for 130 years.  This is nothing short of capitalism at work, wherein the open market is designed to set a worthy price.  If Team A is willing to compensate a player more than Team B, selling one's labor is simpler.  Hence, the extinct reserve clause.  Owners through the decades have often been suspected of colluding over certain collective bargaining issues, such as suppressing compensation.  Their problem is that one ever-present maverick owner refusing to play along and upends the buffet tables again and again.

And there's the rub ...

I am fearful of Scott Boris bringing Michael Conforto to the free-agent banquet and having some other organization sweeping in and making an offer they can't refuse (be it on a personal basis or for the betterment of players).  What will burn me more is if it's to a team that knowingly cannot afford him and will seek to trade said player within a few years - a scenario we've seen played out many times before.

Thus, there is no reason for debating Conforto's worth.  That's for Steve Cohen to decide.  He knows all about being a market maker.  But unlike Scott Boris, he lies on the bidder side of this transaction.  You or I could rationalize why Francisco Lindor deserves more money than Michael Conforto.  But Scott Boris can indeed convince some owners (sans Steve Cohen) why Michael Conforto is on the cusp of becoming the best baseball player.  You or I couldn't convince ourselves of that, I believe.

The questions beg to be asked: is Conforto a franchise player or someone who elevates the brand?  More importantly, what owner will value Michael Conforto in their uniform more?  This now seems more about needing to overpay if only to satisfy an increasingly itchy fanbase.

 

What I can say with some certainty is what the union has achieved for its past players laid the groundwork for today's players, which in turn benefits tomorrow's players, and so on.  

Michael Conforto shares an emotional connection with Flushing.  Francisco Lindor, not so much, or not yet.  And whereas Conforto has 2015 stamped on his Mets resume, Lindor's is yet to be written.

Unfortunately, hometown discounts under today's conditions are bad business.