Scott Boras takes another huge L that could impact 2025 free agents

Make no mistake about it, it's good to be Scott Boras. The man can swim in a pool of money that would make Scrooge McDuck's vault seem like a wading pool, but after decades of being the most prominent agent in baseball, there are some undeniable cracks in his superagent armor that are beginning to show.

Boras has had a rough year, if not financially, then at least from a PR perspective. The four prominent free agents he represented this past offseason (Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Jordan Montgomery, and Blake Snell), have, for various reasons, either failed to live up to expectations on the field, failed to secure the type of contract they were demanding this winter, or both, and it's fair to wonder how this will affect the upcoming free agencies of some of the other stars he represents, such as Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, and Corbin Burnes.

Each of the four aforementioned players remained unsigned well past the start of spring training, and Montgomery grew so disillusioned with the process that he dropped Boras as his representation altogether. The lefty was a key part of the Rangers World Series-winning season after coming over in a deadline deal from the Cardinals, but he didn't end up signing with his new team, the Diamondbacks, until the day after Opening Day this year, which may explain why his results on the field have been so pedestrian.

Montgomery's ERA is nearly a run-and-a-half higher through seven starts than it was last year, and his strikeout-to-walk ratio has plummeted from from 3.46 to 2.00, which is barely better than the worst mark of his career. He signed with the Diamondbacks for one year and $25 million, with a $20 million player option for next year, which is nowhere close to the nine-figure deal he was expected to receive in free agency. With his slow start, it's extremely unlikely that he'll be able to opt out and get anywhere close to that money next year.

Though Montgomery's firing of Boras was telling, Blake Snell's recent comments after another lackluster start have added even more fuel to the fire that the Boras way is falling out of favor with players.

Blake Snell's comments should make other players re-evaluate working with Scott Boras

Snell won the National League Cy Young Award as a member of the Padres last season. He has the highest K/9 of any pitcher in Major League Baseball history, and yet thanks to Boras, he remained unsigned until March 19th. Even then, Snell was unable to find a long-term suitor, and now his late signing date has seemingly left him unprepared to come even close to approximating his past results.

Chapman has more or less been in line with his career averages since signing with the Giants in early March, though the three-year, $54 million contract he signed was well below what most experts predicted he would make on the open market. Chapman's deal includes opt-outs after each year, meaning he could hit the market again this winter.

Bellinger did get a three-year, $80 million deal at the end of February, but he's fallen short of the production that saw him finish 10th in the National League MVP voting last year. His last extra-base hit came nine days ago, and he hasn't homered since May 10, which is a big part of the reason that the Cubs have slipped to .500, 4.5 games behind the Brewers for first place in the NL Central.

The money each of Boras' clients signed for this past offseason is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but if you injected all four with truth serum, it seems that they would readily admit that between the absence of signing a long-term deal and the subpar results on the field that they've collectively achieved, the process didn't play out in their favor.

For teams that are thinking of pursuing Boras clients in free agency, they have to see the situations of Snell, Montgomery, Bellinger, and Chapman as flashing red warning signs. Teams won't want to wait Boras out and sign a player to big money when the odds seem great that they'll experience buyer's remorse.

Will we see something similar in the way the free agencies of Soto, Alonso, and Burnes play out, or will more clients drop Boras before then to protect themselves and their careers? It's too early to know the answer, but the fact that the question even needs to be asked is a big L for one of the most powerful men in sports.