Sure, fair. Not a ton of those would qualify as industry sources, though, and of course some of them would have opinions that are reflexive, influenced by the broader reporting (that the Red Sox are cheap now) than direct knowledge of the negotiations.
I don't know the guy. My impression has always been that he's extremely particular with the way local and national media describe his clients. Rosenthal made a little comment to this regard a few weeks ago.
This is the scenario I imagine. Scott Boras has two top-of-the-market starters. He sees a restive Boston fan base and a brand new CBO, whose implicit mandate is to
not do what his predecessor did (not sign premium starting pitching, for one thing). He also sees the comments at Breslow's hiring, the full throttle thing, but also Warner's comment about "having no built-in restrictions."
The only thing I'm speculating is that Boras is pouring a little salt into that. He knows they were booed last Winter Weekend. There's no doubt in my mind that he (or someone on his behalf) would talk to the local press corps and say
it doesn't sound like the Red Sox are going to do what it takes to acquire top of the market players. Does that seem far-fetched?
It's not. Boras is absolutely known for rousing teams' local media to pay up for his clients.
Here's a story about how he went on a Chicago radio station this winter to put the screws to the Cubs front office. They've been calling the GM "Hibernation Hoyer" in Chicago, at least until the Imanaga signing.
And here's
another piece (written during the Carlos Correa negotiations) about Boras's practice of going on local radio and other media.
Look at it the other way. Do you think the throughline of Cotillo and McAdam's reporting this offseason could be credible
without sources from either the Red Sox front office or Boras Corp?
I'm not sure what you mean by conspiracy here. I'm not sure we have a ton of hard evidence as much as we do
affective evidence. A lot of people are angry, that's 100 percent true.
Masslive's done a good job of generating discussion, starting with that McAdam Christmas Eve op-ed that prompted its own thread on this board. That was right after the Yamamoto sweepstakes concluded, and a lot of people sure were disappointed! McAdam gave us this:
See how McAdam massages "one industry official's" opinion into fact? And then speculates that there's pressure and organizational strife between Werner, Henry, and Breslow? I'm not sure who that official is, but McAdam's argument here is purely rhetorical. And it got translated onto this board as "Full-throttle may be business as usual."
Since then, they continue to "read between the lines" (Cotillo) that the Sox are cutting payroll because they traded three players on bulky salaries with one year left on their contracts (two years in Urias's case). They've found it impossible to cover these as good baseball trades; they're simply cost-cutting measures. Breslow says
this on January 18th...
“I would hate to think that in some way, there’s a perception that the last two months are indicative or predictive of how we intend to operate going forward."
...and no one remembers it.
I have no idea if the Sox will sign Jordan Montgomery. I think there's enough smoke at this point to assume that they're legitimately interested. If I'm Craig Breslow, I'm wondering whether Chris Young decides it's better to sign Clayton Kershaw — who will pretty much only play for the Dodgers or Rangers — for like 1/$15 to join the rotation midsummer rather than add another huge contract.
I think the story is a whole lot more boring than what we've been given. The Red Sox lost Yamamoto to L.A. for reasons mostly out of their control. They for various reasons declined to dramatically outbid the winning teams for Nola, Gray, E-Rod and Imanaga, and all the while have been legitimately interested in Montgomery, a guy with an agent known for
But if the Sox don't sign Montgomery, their basic thesis is true. The Sox aren't just not spending, they're
conspiratorially not spending, secretly, by decree, which will remain true until John Henry
shows us the team's official budget. If they do land Montgomery or Snell, or add someone else substantial, it'll be widely considered a
reaction, a response to the public pressure.