Dodgers should be grateful scary Shohei Ohtani-Scott Boras possibility never happened

The Dodgers broke one of their loose, unwritten rules this offseason when they signed Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million deal. The line in the sand had nothing to do with Snell, but rather his agent, the infamous Scott Boras.

Boras has been wheeling and dealing for a long time — he negotiated record-breaking contracts for Greg Maddux, Kevin Brown, Alex Rodriguez, and now, of course, Juan Soto — but the Dodgers typically don't like dealing with him. Boras' documented, ruthless efficiency on behalf of his clients makes him a thorn in teams' sides, and the Dodgers have historically steered clear of his most high-profile employers.

Of course, Boras' tactics don't always work. Snell, along with Matt Chapman, Jordan Montgomery, and Cody Bellinger, suffered botched free agencies under Boras' watch after the 2023 season, and Montgomery even ended up dropping Boras in favor of Wasserman's Joel Wolfe (who also represents Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki) after he'd signed with the Diamondbacks.

Boras is missing a couple of baseball's biggest stars, though, and one of them is Shohei Ohtani. In an interview with Bloomberg, Boras said he traveled to Japan five times and even met Ohtani's parents trying to land him as a client, but Ohtani ended up signing with CAA's Nez Balelo instead (subscription required).

Superagent Scott Boras reveals lengths he went to trying to sign Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani before losing him to Nez Balelo

It's fair to wonder if the Dodgers' deal with Ohtani would've worked out the way it did if Boras had ended up landing him. Ohtani certainly seemed like he was in the driver's seat when it came to negotiating the deal that eventually got signed — famously including those mammoth deferrals, which were reportedly Ohtani's idea — and based on Boras' track record, it doesn't seem like he likes to cede control to his clients, for better or worse.

The Dodgers were always going to target Ohtani no matter who his agent was, but if they'd never deferred the money, they certainly wouldn't have been able to build around him in quite the way that they have.

Boras can't be that upset about losing Ohtani anymore anyway, having broken his and Balelo's record for the highest-paying contract in sports history with Soto's $765 million deal with the Mets. The Dodgers got their guy on a deal that put the club before the player, and Boras probably got a massive commission out of that Soto contract. Everyone's happy.