Super-agent Scott Boras (John T. Greilick/Detroit News)
Not all teams are cut out to deal with Scott Boras . Somehave flat-out refused to try.
MLB's mega-agent is brash.
He perfectly plays the role of smartest guy in the room.
"He knows this team better than I do," Tigers owner Mike Ilitch quipped Thursday.
And he's the absolute master at setting a lofty market for his clients and refusing to give an inch — even if that means his deals often get finalized closer to the start of spring training than the end of the World Series.
In the end, of course, Boras usually gets what he wants. ( Jayson Werth ? Enough said.)
While Boras, 59, himself a former player, makes some teams skittish, the Tigers aren't one of them. They've rarely declined a dance in recent years. And the relationship between the two sides has brought one big name after another to Motown.
Here are the five biggest:
Pudge Rodriguez, 2004
Four years, $40 million
Knowing the team was desperate to make a statement after losing an AL-record 119 games, Boras got the Tigers to outbid all other suitors by millions for a 32-year-old catcher. It paid off, though. Just three years into Pudge's Tigers tenure, the team was in the World Series.
Magglio Ordonez, 2005
Five years, $75 million
A left knee injury and two surgeries wiped Ordonez out for two-thirds of the previous season with the White Sox. And he already was 31. Uh-oh, Scott? Nah. He got the Tigers to hand out what ended up being the richest contract in franchise history.
Kenny Rogers, 2006
Two years, $16 million
The previous season in Texas, the lefty's reputation was rubbish after he shoved a cameraman. He even was roundly booed at that year's All-Star Game in Detroit. All Boras did was more than double the salary for Rogers, then 41.
Johnny Damon, 2010
One year, $8 million
Boras even pitched Damon, then 37, to Detroit fans, through the media, quipping how much the veteran outfielder enjoyed octopus (a nod to Ilitch's Wings). Soon after, Damon was in Detroit.
Prince Fielder, 2012
Nine years, $214 million
Victor Martinez went down. Boras saw an opening for a client who wasn't getting the expected bets, and reeled in the fourth-largest contract in MLB history.
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