Varitek, seattle finally agree: MLB averts lawsuit

April 26 , 1995 | Baseball Weekly

 

PEORIA, Ariz. - The prospect of a legal challenge to Major League Baseball's amateur draft system evaporated last week when former Georgia Tech catcher Jason Varitek signed with the Seattle Mariners after nearly a year of negotiations.

The Mariners' top pick in last June's draft and 14th overall, Varitek had threatened to play in the independent Northern League or in Japan if the club did not meet his contract demands. His agent, Scott Boras, had filed a grievance with the Major League Baseball Players Association in February, hoping an arbitrator would declare Varitek a free agent. Had that occurred, it could have destroyed the draft system, turning the annual selection of amateur talent into a free-agent free-for-all. Instead, Boras withdrew the grievance and Varitek signed a contract with the Mariners for a $650,000 bonus three weeks before he was scheduled to report to the St. Paul (Minn.) Saints of the Northern League.

Varitek had demanded a bonus of $750,000. But he agreed to the $650,000 figure, which will grow to $675,000 because of a clause that requires the Mariners to promote him to Seattle in September. He will begin the season at Class AA Wilmington (N.C.).

As recently as April 7, Varitek was prepared to report to St. Paul. While Boras and Woodward negotiated that day on a one-year deal for catcher Chad Kreuter, they reached a breakthrough on the Varitek contract. "It had gotten to the point where I was convinced that I was going to go to St. Paul and never play for Seattle," said Varitek, sporting a Mariners cap at a press conference at the club's spring training complex. Varitek and Boras had insisted this was a battle of principle all along. Varitek returned to Georgia Tech for his senior year after turning down a $350,000 offer from the Minnesota Twins, who took him with the 21st pick in the 1993 draft. When the Mariners came in with the same number a year later, Boras maintained the offer was a lowball figure. He said Varitek, unlike the prep stars and college underclassmen who dominate the first round of the draft, was a college senior and thus did not have the leverage of returning to school. Varitek described the offer as "above and beyond ludicrous."

Last season, Varitek, 23, won Baseball Weekly's Dick Howser Trophy as the nation's top collegiate player, batting .426 with 17 home runs and 86 RBI. While viewed as a can't-miss prospect and perhaps the most talented player in the draft, his stock slipped in part because of his affiliation with Boras, a notoriously hard-line negotiator. Still, Boras contended, if talent dictated value, Varitek should have commanded a signing bonus around $750,000 based on the figures received by comparable draftees. The players taken on either side of Varitek - Jayson Peterson, a high school pitcher drafted by the Chicago Cubs, and Paul Konerko, a high school catcher taken by the Dodgers, got $712,500 and $830,000, respectively.

While other members of the Class of '94 reported to the minor leagues last summer, Varitek remained at home in Longwood, Fla. He returned to Georgia Tech in the fall, completing his degree in management in March and working out with striking major leaguers such as Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones. "I don't think I'm rusty," Varitek said. "but it will take some time to get into game shape." With the signing of Varitek, the Mariners had their last eight first-round picks in camp, a line that began with Ken Griffey, Jr. (1987). Four of those were Boras clients: Varitek, pitchers Roger Salkeld (1989) and Ron Villone (1992), and shortstop Alex Rodriguez (1993). Roger Jongewaard, the Mariners vice president for scouting and development, had negotiated with Boras for all four clients. According to Jongewaard, Salkeld, Villone and Rodriguez ignored the agent's demands and stepped forward to accept the Mariners' offer on their own. "The agent's M.O. is threatened lawsuits," Jongewaard had said over the winter. Jongewaard had defended Seattle's initial offer by saying there were some unusual high school players available in the draft and that's why they received higher signing bonuses than Varitek. He also said the Mariners do not "average out" signing bonuses in the first round when making an offer. Varitek says his decision wasn't an instance of him acting alone. "What Scott wants is what I want," he said. "But what people need to understand is that I don't work for Scott. Scott works for me." Boras said the signing bonus was a reasonable figure given that no catcher coming out of college previously had ever received more. Charles Johnson, another Boras client, received $600,000 from the Florida Marlins in 1992.