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Agent Scott Boras Blasts Blue Jays over Ace Aaron Sanchez's Contract Negotiations

Boras ripped the team's policies and is upset that Sanchez, a pre-arbitration eligible player, will earn the major-league minimum next season.
Photo by Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Baseball super-agent Scott Boras blasted the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday in the first heated exchange between the team and the notoriously-tenacious representative of All-Star pitcher Aaron Sanchez.

After choosing not to accept a small salary increase based on the team's formula for calculating pre-arbitration raises, Sanchez was renewed at the major-league minimum of $535,000 for next season. As part of a Blue Jays club policy that's been in place for the past 10 seasons, all players are offered the major-league minimum if they choose not to accept their pre-arbitration number, according to Sportsnet's Shi Davidi.

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"It's the harshest treatment in baseball that any club could provide for a player. That's why few teams have such a policy," Boras said to Davidi.

In his second season with the club in 2016, Sanchez went 15-2 with an American League-leading 3.00 ERA while finishing No. 7 in AL Cy Young voting after transitioning to the starting rotation. Despite the breakthrough campaign, Sanchez will earn the same amount as the average rookie next season. The recent decision prompted Boras—whom Sanchez just signed with this offseason—to go off on the team's handling of its young starter.

"Toronto is so rigid, they not only have a very antiquated or substandard policy compared to the other teams for extraordinary performance, but if you don't accept what that low standard is, they then have the poison pill of saying, you get paid the minimum," Boras said.

Sanchez, 24, is coming off his first All-Star appearance. Photo by Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Toronto general manager Ross Atkins downplayed any adverse effect that this situation will have on the relationship between the club and Sanchez moving forward, while also stating that the team has no plans to change its arbitration and negotiation policy, at least for now. Atkins said the club will potentially reconsider it at some point, but didn't feel that this was the right time, especially after the major-league minimum rose $27,000 per year under the new CBA.

Players with three or more full seasons of MLB service time (and less than six) are eligible for arbitration, while players with six-plus years of service time can become a free agent upon the expiration of their contract. Players like Sanchez, with less than six seasons in the bigs, are under team control.

A player's salary is determined solely by their team for years one through three, and they can take their salary demands to an arbitration panel if they can't reach an agreement with their club during years three through six.

Sanchez, 24, developed into the ace of the Jays' staff last season, making his first All-Star team while throwing a career-high 192 innings. He'll be first-time arbitration eligible after the 2017 season, and won't be eligible for free agency until after the 2020 campaign.

"Players who have achieved this type of performance who are not arbitration-eligible, other clubs, most recently the Mets and the Marlins and the Cubs, they redo their systems to account for extraordinary performances. In my 35 years of doing this, that's commonplace with what teams do," Boras said.

If Toronto hopes to retain its hard-throwing righty long term, it will likely have to open up the vault and make Sanchez not only the highest paid pitcher in Blue Jays history—but one of the highest paid in all of baseball.