There was nothing easy about the negotiations between Daisuke Matsuzaka and the Red Sox, despite all the smiles and expressions of mutual respect and admiration at yesterday’s press conference.
With the specter of the controversial U.S.-Japanese posting process hanging over the entire proceedings, the deal nearly fell apart at the 11th hour.
When the Red Sox left their Costa Mesa, Calif., hotel an hour and a half before taking off on John Henry’s private jet for a 9 a.m. flight to Boston on Wednesday, they thought hopes for a deal with Matsuzaka were dead, a source close to the talks said yesterday.
After giving Matsuzaka and his agent, Scott Boras, their final offer of six years and $52 million at a mid-evening meeting, the Red Sox left without a counterproposal in hand. At that point, they declared that the deal was dead.
Only after that declaration, later in the night, did they receive their first counteroffer - nearly 30 days after making their winning $51.11 million bid to the Seibu Lions.
Boras’ proposal was for six years and $66 million. The Red Sox reiterated that they were not coming up from their offer. At 4 a.m., Matsuzaka himself visited the Red Sox’ hotel, heading to the team’s suite for more face-to-face talks, in which the Red Sox brass assured him that he and his family would be taken care of.
When he left the suite, the Red Sox believed they had done an adequate job of addressing Matsuzaka’s concerns, but they still had no idea what he was thinking. The Red Sox then negotiated with Boras until 5:30 in the morning.
Then there was no contact.
As the Red Sox contingent headed for John Wayne Airport, about a 10-minute drive from the hotel, a call was placed at 7:30 to Boras, said the source, and the agent told them Matsuzaka was not coming on the trip.
At the airport, an hour before the planned 9 a.m. departure, the Red Sox made one final call. This time, they were told Matsuzaka would be there.
Matsuzaka and Boras did show up, of course, and the rest is history: a six-year, $52 million contract with incentives that could increase the total value to $60 million, not including award bonuses.
There is no single trademark to dealing with Boras, but nobody should be surprised that this negotiation became so protracted and tenuous.
From the beginning, Boras chafed at the “pink elephant” that the $51.11 million posting fee represented.
“This was an internationally curious negotiations - I say that from the standpoint of both Theo (Epstein) and myself and anybody involved in the process,” said Boras after yesterday’s press conference. “We’re all negotiating something that’s never in the room, and you never want this type of negotiation because it affects ownership and it affects players.”
Boras’ proposed solution is that if there has to be a posting process, the money should go to the player, so that “then the clubs negotiate from that foundation and the player negotiates and they reach the final number. Then a percent of that number is then given to the (Japanese) franchise. That’s how you truly negotiate these contracts, because then the club is truly paying the player whatever they choose to pay him, and the representation for the player can really gain a valuation.”
Boras still sounds primed to change the posting process, to halt giving Japanese baseball teams money “they do not deserve,” and to give players like Matsuzaka more money up front.
Still, in the end, the ballclub and Matsuzaka got the deal done, with general manager Theo Epstein saying he hoped Matsuzaka could pitch his entire career in a Red Sox uniform. In six more years, Epstein and Boras can negotiate that next deal on much more familiar ground.
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松坂の入札金額が高すぎたことが、契約を遅らせた。
