Scott Boras - Boras Corporation

Boras Corporation

Boras's start as an agent came representing Mike Fischlin, a former high school teammate and major league shortstop for the Cleveland Indians, and Bill Caudill, a former minor league teammate and closer for the Seattle Mariners, both of whom now work for Boras. By 1980, he had decided his calling was as a baseball agent. In 1983, Boras negotiated one of the largest contracts in baseball history for Caudill ($7.5 million), and not long afterward Boras left his law firm job to represent players full-time.

Today, Boras is the president and owner of the Boras Corporation, a baseball-only sports agency. Boras and the Boras Corporation have become known for record-setting contracts for their free agent and amateur draft clients. Boras was the first baseball agent to negotiate contracts in excess of $50 million (Greg Maddux, five years, $57.5 million in 1997), $100 million (Kevin Brown, seven years, $105 million in 1998) and $200 million (Alex Rodriguez, 10 years, $252 million in 2000). Alex Rodriguez's current contract with the New York Yankees, valued at 10 years for $275 million, could potentially become the first contract to be valued at over $300 million based on incentives listed in the contract that are linked to Rodriguez's home run totals.

Boras also represents many of the elite players in each year's amateur draft and has been a strong advocate for increasing the amount of money they receive. Boras's first record-setting contract for a drafted player was $150,000 for Tim Belcher in 1983. Since then, Boras's clients have regularly pushed draft compensation higher, starting with Andy Benes in 1988 ($247,500), Ben McDonald in 1989 ($1.01 million guarantee, including a $350,000 bonus), Todd Van Poppel in 1990 ($1.2 million guarantee, including a $500,000 bonus) and Brien Taylor in 1991 ($1.55 million) and continuing through J.D. Drew ($8.5 million in 1998) and Mark Teixeira ($9.5 million in 2001). In 2009, Boras's clients broke several draft records, led by Stephen Strasburg, who surpassed the $15 million barrier with the largest contract in draft history ($15.1 million), Donavan Tate, who received the largest signing bonus ever given to a high school player ($6.25 million), and Jacob Turner, who received the largest signing bonus ever given to a high school pitcher ($4.7 million).

The Boras Corporation operates out of a $20 million, 23,000-square-foot (2,100 m2), two-story, glass-and-steel building in Newport Beach, California The corporate headquarters includes a kitchen, laundry room, gym, shower, lounge, 70 flat-screen televisions and a large patio with a 15-foot (4.6 m) tall waterfall, fire pit and barbecue. Boras' subsidiary companies include Boras Marketing (memorabilia, marketing, and endorsements) and the Boras Sports Training Institute (strength/conditioning and sports psychology). Many of Boras's 75-person staff are former major leaguers, including Bob Brower, Don Carman, Bill Caudill, Scott Chiamparino, Mike Fischlin, Calvin Murray, Jeff Musselman, Domingo Ramos and Kurt Stillwell, and the company has scouts spread across the United States, Asia and Latin America. Boras's staff also includes an MIT-trained economist, a former NASA computer engineer, three lawyers, five personal trainers, an investment team (although Boras' firm does not provide investment services for clients), a sports psychologist, a 14-person research staff and an employee charged with watching each day's games and sending information to Boras.