Trevor Bauer went there. The Reds’ starting pitcher/provocateur often uses his Twitter account to voice sentiments that had been expressed only under the cloak of anonymity. On Wednesday, the right-hander touched a beach ball-sized nerve by exposing some tension within the players association as it tries to negotiate a 2020 restart plan with Major League …
Trevor Bauer went there.
The Reds’ starting pitcher/provocateur often uses his Twitter account to voice sentiments that had been expressed only under the cloak of anonymity. On Wednesday, the right-hander touched a beach ball-sized nerve by exposing some tension within the players association as it tries to negotiate a 2020 restart plan with Major League Baseball.
“Hearing a LOT of rumors about a certain player agent meddling in MLBPA affairs,” Bauer tweeted. “If true — and at this point, these are only rumors — I have one thing to say… Scott Boras, rep your clients however you want to, but keep your damn personal agenda out of union business.”
Whoo, boy. Suffice it to say that while Bauer doesn’t mind being a lone wolf, this did not represent an opinion exclusive to him. Not even close.
“Someone needed to say it,” an industry source said. “Even better when it’s a player.”
The chatter that Boras, easily the game’s most famous agent, exerts undue influence on the union, more than on the 50 or so players he represents, has been circulating around the game for most of Tony Clark’s time as the PA’s executive director and has intensified since Clark hired Bruce Meyer as the union’s chief negotiator in 2018. During that same time (Clark took over in late 2013), the players negotiated a Basic Agreement (in 2016) with which they have grown quite unhappy. Which means that, whether the rumors carry validity or don’t, they come attached with negativity.
Neither Boras nor the PA returned requests for comment. A second industry source contended Bauer’s tweet was “nonsense” distributed by Major League Baseball officials as well as some agents and that Meyer and Boras didn’t know each other until Clark tabbed the former. Boras opposed the agreement that the players and owners signed in March to protect both sides against cancelation of the 2020 season, the source offered as an example.
Ironically, Boras has been far more vocal about that pact than any of his competitors, repeatedly asserting publicly that the deal ensured that the players would receive their prorated salaries if the season could restart, regardless of whether the games were held in front of paying crowds. As The Post’s Joel Sherman reported last week, however, strong evidence exists that certain PA attorneys understood language covering “the economic feasibility of playing games in the absence of spectators or at appropriate substitute neutral sites” meant the owners could ask the players to take another haircut for games without fans, as would be the case for a season starting in July. On Tuesday, MLB proposed to the players an odious sliding-scale concept by which the highest-paid players would give up the most. The union did not take kindly to the suggestion.
Boras, because of his willingness to speak on the record and the megadeals he has signed for his clients — just this past winter, he landed over $1 billion for his free agents, including a record-shattering, nine-year, $324 million contract from the Yankees for ace Gerrit Cole — always wears a large target on his back. It looms larger now because of the general frustration, both internal and external, with the PA. Moreover, Boras’ clients possess power greater than their raw numbers because the agent represents so many high earners and superstars as well as PA movers and shakers. The union’s executive subcommittee features three Boras clients — Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus, Yankees pitcher James Paxton and Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer — among its eight members. No other agent has more than one.
In order for the PA to find common ground with MLB this coming week, it must get its own house sufficiently in order, too. As Bauer displayed, some work remains on that vital task.
