(AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Paul Bersebach)
Angels pitcher Jared Weaver smiles at the start of a news conference to announce his new five-year, $85 million contract Tuesday.
Jered Weaver has a soul.
“I don’t need the biggest contract on the planet,” he said.
Scott Boras probably had a different goal.
But the bottom line Tuesday afternoon when the Angels officially gave the former Simi Valley High and Long Beach State star pitcher a spankin’ new five-year, $85 million, no-trade contract extension, super-agent Boras wasn’t there for the press conference just outside Angel Stadium.
Fox Sports West arrived to televise the event live. About a hundred Angels fans magically appeared to chant Weaver’s name. Former Angels Bobby Grich and Chuck Finley sat in the front row with Weaver’s parents and fiance.
Don’t bore us with why Boras was a no-show. Officially, he was “traveling” and unavailable.
All that did was give the impression that Boras, so frustrated with his client stealing his thunder, bolted out of town.
And the reason should be pretty obvious — Weaver sold himself short.
If the 28-year-old two-time All Star could have just been patient and waited until the end of the 2012 season when his free agent status kicked in.
Boras would not have jinxed it. Fact is, he could have Brinks’d it. Meaning, there’d be an armored truck backing into the driveway of Weaver’s new home in Newport Beach and dropping gold bricks onto his cement pond.
Dang it, Boras could have even yanked a deal for Weaver that was even more fantabulous than the seven-year, $152 million heist he pulled from from the Yankees just two years ago for CC Sabathia.
Not this time. Not with Weaver’s comfort zone as risk of being compromised.
“How much money do you possibly need?” Weaver exclaimed Thursday when asked point blank why he seemed perfectly content with the Angels’ deal today rather than something even more ridiculous that could materialize down the road.
(AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Paul Bersebach)
Kristin Travis, left, fiancee of Angels pitcher Jared Weaver, and Weaver’s parents, Gail and Dave Weaver, listen during a news conference to announce Weaver’s new five-year, $85 million contract on Tuesday.
Jered’s father, Dave, was just as mind boggled.
“That’s a ‘home-team discount’?” Dave asked about his son’s guaranteed future earnings. “Eighty-five million? I can’t relate to those numbers.”
These dreaming Weavers think alike.
A month ago, when the Angels approached Boras and Weaver to ask if they’d be interested in expanding a deal that would bring an average of $17 million a season through 2016, rather than go through that dance of trying to see how much any of the other 28 teams (Dodgers excluded) would be willing to cough up for his services, the decision was made.
This is the greener side of the fence, Weaver decided. So do the deal now.
And Boras did.
What else do you need to know?
“I’ve never liked the business side of all this,” said Weaver, harkening back to May of 2005 when Boras’ negotiation tactics nearly led to the Angels balking at signing him after they used a first-round pick for him in June, 2004.
“When I knew the Angels wanted to get this done, I told Scott that I wanted to be in Southern California. There wasn’t any conflict between me and him. He just wants what’s best for his clients. You can’t hate him for that.”
You could, on the other hand, be miffed that Boras couldn’t make this event a priority.
Plenty of other things had to factor into Weaver’s decision.
He probably knows that his lifetime ERA in Anaheim is 2.69, more than a run less than it is on the road.
His friend, John Lackey, has had a rough go of after taking the money and running to Boston with a five-year, $82.5 million deal through 2014.
And then there’s older brother, Jeff, who toured the rosters of the Tigers, Yankees, Dodgers, Angels, Cardinals, Mariners, Brewers, Indians and back to the Dodgers from 1999 to 2010.
“I know (Jeff) got the brunt of it and the media ripped him up (during his Yankee days),” said Jered. ” I’d rather face seven reporters in a locker room instead of 750. I like to be more under the radar.”
Jeff, semi-retired having just turned 35 on Monday and now living in North Ranch, pulled down some $40 million total in his career. But he says you can’t put a price on spending time with a team that’s in your neighborhood.
“Jered is much more equipped than I am to deal with those kind of issues,” Jeff said Tuesday from his home. “He’s got a great mental approach to go with his physical approach to get it done anywhere. As someone who played with a bunch of different teams, I know when you’re feeling comfortable in one place, and then you switch, it has an effect.”
The bottom line: Jered Weaver wanted to stay put. And Scott Boras heard the message.
“He’s a grown man and can make his own choices,” Jeff Weaver said. “I think he’s done enough to prove he’s in the driver’s seat.”
Hear that, Boras?
The fact one his clients appears to have the guts to push back and make his priorities more important than Boras’ residual checks goes against all natural order in the agent universe.
Boras is the hired gun to give a player the ultimate chance to seek out his maximum value, if not way more. Right?
“Is that wrong?” asked Jeff, then answered quickly: “I don’t think that’s wrong at all.”
But Jeff adds that one of the reasons Boras is “the best in the business” is that this time, “Scott understood Jered’s prerogatives and he worked with that. I think he gets a bad rep a little bit for everyone thinking he does things on his own terms.”
In terms of this scenario, then, we’re led to believe that Scott Boras should be congratulated as much as Jered Weaver.
Because when Weaver goes to the mound Wednedsay against the White Sox, he’ll be looking for his team-best 15th victory, trying to lower his league-best ERA to under 2.00, and his team closer to the AL West lead. He hasn’t changed the number on his back to 85.
Boras and Weaver achieved their goal. And neither sold their soul.
And that, apparently, is now how they roll.