Who makes the most money in professional baseball?
A-Rod? Nope.
CC Sabathia? Try again.
Mark Teixeira ? Give up, you aren’t even close.
The man who makes the most money in professional baseball would have to be agent Scott Boras.
Good agents haul in between three to five percent of a player’s salary. So, if you would look at some of the horses in his stable, you may see for yourself. Barry Zito had his contract negotiated by Boras for $121 million. If you take the low end (three percent) you can see that he made $3.6 M on that one deal.
“Dice K” of the Boston Red Sox was paid $56M of which Boras would have received at least $1.6M. Is it beginning to become a little clearer now?
Mark Teixeira of the New York Yankees was given a deal of $180M, in which Boras would have netted at least $5.4 M. The money just rolls right on up in here.
Some of the other big names he has in his camp are Manny Ramirez, Matt Holliday, Magglio Ordóñez, “Pudge” Rodriguez, Adrián Beltré, Carlos Beltrán, Johnny Damon, J.D. Drew, Derek Lowe, Ryan Madsen, Kendry Morales and the list just goes on and on.
With approximately 175 professional baseball players on his scrolls, it doesn’t take a mathematician to see the kind of money Boras brings down.
To my surprise, Scott Boras actually played baseball. In 1972, he led the University of the Pacific in batting with a .312 average. Although he never made it to the biggies, he still holds 10 offensive records at the school.
Boras started working as an agent in 1983 brokering deals for former teammates Mike Fischlin and Bill Caudill who now work for him. He has worked on most of the big money deal that have been negotiated.
He received a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and later went on to graduate with a degree in law from McGeorge School of Law in 1982.
It sounds like a ton of money for little work on the surface. After you take the peeling off you begin to see some of the intricacies of the profession. Tax loopholes, umbrella clauses, incentive bonuses, and performance bonuses are just a few of the terms an agent has to be knowledgeable about.
The Boras Corporation is an agency which employs 75 and is located in California. His employees range from an economist, a computer engineer, three attorneys, five personal trainers, a sports psychologist and one person who must look at all of the days games and supply a report to Boras.
Although to look at A-Rod and Teixeira and the other big-time money spenders at $20-30M yearly is impressive, I believe it pales in comparison to the income of Mr. Boras.
SOURCES
The Wikipedia
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