According to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, Scott Boras said his client Willie Bloomquist is drawing “a lot of interest” on the free agent market. Yawn. I can’t recall the last time Boras didn’t say that about one of his clients, so the real interesting part of this story is how he ended up hitting free agency in the first place.
Bloomquist declined his portion of a $1.1 million mutual option earlier this week after the Diamondbacks exercised their half. It sounds like Boras had every intention of getting in touch with Diamondbacks about a new deal, but the two sides experienced some miscommunication in the days that followed, complete with a missed phone call from one of Boras’ assistants. As a result, the Diamondbacks signed John McDonald to a two-year, $3 million contract. Depending upon what happens with Aaron Hill and the health of Stephen Drew, Bloomquist may be fairly redundant as far as utility infielders go, which makes it fairly likely he’ll end up elsewhere.
This is probably more energy that Boras hopes to spend on a lower-profile client like Bloomquist, but it’s clear he’s not thrilled with how the situation played out.
“Is it our duty to be in touch with them every hour on the hour so we know nobody else signed?” Boras said. “When you want someone, you go get them. We’re not the employer. They offer the contracts and pay the money. We don’t.
“It sounds to me like what happened is, they got upset when Willie opted out. They got emotional and they went out and signed a guy who hit .169.”
And it’s also fair to say that Boras is just emotional because things didn’t work out exactly as he planned. As someone named Omar (and no, not Minaya) once said, “It’s all in the game.”