Boras: MLB cancer of trading veterans helped Braves win

CARLSBAD, Calif. (AP) — Baseball’s most influential agent said the sport was the victim of a “competitive cancer” caused by teams unloading veterans to accumulate draft picks and said the Atlanta Braves’ World Series title was a direct result of others' tanking.

Speaking Wednesday at the general managers' meetings, Scott Boras backed the demands of the players’ association for changes in the collective bargaining agreement that expires Dec. 1. The sport is braced for a lockout that would be baseball’s ninth work stoppage but first since 1995.

“This is the Easter Bunny delivering rotten eggs,” he said in front of Bob's Steak & Chop House at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.

“Every team says, ‘I need to do this because it’s my only option, knowing I can’t reach a divisional crest, I can’t get in the playoffs.’"

Atlanta was 51-53 when it obtained outfielders Eddie Rosario, Adam Duvall and Jorge Soler along with reliever Richard Rodriguez in four swaps in the hours before the July 30 trade deadline. It also added outfielder Joc Pederson from the free-falling Cubs on July 15.

“We have seen the championship in 60 days,” Boras said. “The rules allow them to be a less-than-.500 team at Aug. 1 and add four players, five players from teams that no longer wanted to compete, and for very little cost change the entirety of their team and season.

"And we saw this unfold to the detriment of teams that create at vast expense, planning and intellect and won over 100 games. In doing all this, we have now created an understanding that a fan would not know who the true team is until, frankly, the trading deadline.”

Rosario was NL Championship Series MVP and Soler became World Series MVP as the Braves won their first title since 1995.

“The Atlanta Braves are the Atlanta Braves...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Boras-MLB-cancer-of-trading-veterans-helped-16610337.php