CHICAGO — Super agent Scott Boras was on hand at Wrigley Field on Thursday to help the Cubs introduce his client, Alex Bregman, who had bolted the Red Sox for a five-year, $175 million deal with Chicago. At some point soon, Boras will likely be in Boston for another major free agent press conference.
Boras also represents starter Ranger Suárez, who agreed to a five-year, $130 million contract with the Red Sox on Wednesday. As Boras flew from his southern California base to Chicago for Thursday’s press conference, he was putting the finishing touches on the largest free agent deal Breslow has given out in three offseasons on the job.
Things came together fast, with the Red Sox pivoting toward the pitching market less than a week after Bregman declined their heavily deferred five-year, $165 million offer and chose Chicago.
“I got a call from Brez saying they were interested and I said, ‘It’s ramping up,’” Boras said Thursday of the Suárez discussions. “Things went rather quick. We really were talking back and forth as I was coming out here yesterday. We pretty much got it done by the late afternoon.”
Unsurprisingly, Breslow’s call to Boras this week wasn’t the first time the club had expressed interest in Suárez, one of the top free agent starters on the market. Even at the outset of the offseason in early November, some Red Sox decision-makers identified the southpaw as the club’s preferred option in the rotation market. The November trade for Sonny Gray and the subsequent depth addition of Johan Oviedo forced the Red Sox to turn most of their attention to the offensive side of the roster, as evidenced by the late December trade for Willson Contreras and the attempt to bring back Bregman at big money. All the while, though, the club was laying contingency plans, even on a market in which they had signaled they were done.
According to sources with knowledge of the process, the Red Sox began initial conversations with Suárez and his camp in November and had back-burner talks involving a loose framework of a deal throughout December and early January. Other teams had been more aggressive on Suárez before Wednesday’s agreement but the Red Sox weren’t a surprise entrant into his mix.
“We had Zooms a month ago,” Boras said.
On Sunday, with team executives and coaches all in one place for organizational meetings following Saturday’s Fenway Fest event, the Red Sox discussed how to proceed in a Bregman-less world and decided to focus on making a pitching addition. Suárez was their preferred free agent option on the open market despite Framber Valdez, Zac Gallen, Chris Bassitt and Lucas Giolito all being available as well. Suárez accepted the final offer rather quickly.
“Ranger had interest in playing there,” Boras said. “That’s the main thing. He pitched in Philly. He’s used to that. It is kind of a challenge for him and he welcomes it.”
Suárez’s contract is not yet official but the Red Sox expect the final step, a physical exam, to be completed at some point soon. Suárez, a Venezuelan native, lives in his home country in the offseason and the recent U.S. strikes, which included the capture and arrest of president Nicolás Maduro, have complicated travel plans. The Red Sox will need to make a 40-man roster move when the contract is finalized.
Suárez’s deal was easy to finish, in part, because of the lack of bells and whistles included in it. There are no opt-out clauses and he did not ask for a no-trade clause like Bregman got from the Cubs. Making things even easier is that the contract includes no deferred money, a factor that was present in both Boston and Chicago’s offers for Bregman and caused the process to drag on all sides this weekend.
“Each club’s intentions and what they choose to do financially for us, we just let them know we’re flexible,” Boras said. “Intellectually, being raised on a farm, you just have to make sure you’re getting a little less lipstick and a lot more pig in the dynamic of it. It’s a process that, for us, is rather arduous as to how we determine net present values and look at all the things. It certainly creates a new level of communication apart from baseball.”
When it came to Suárez and the Red Sox, Boras was in an advantageous spot, having just spent weeks negotiating the particulars of a potential Bregman agreement. He knew Boston had money to spend and needed a talented player to reward. That Breslow had identified Suárez earlier in the winter made things that much easier.
“You never know, internally, what an organization thinks,” Boras said. “I just knew they were ready to move the next player and be a better team.”
