Scott Boras took issue with the report that Buster Posey had to close the deal on Matt Chapman’s new deal – aside from approving the no-trade clause
San Francisco Giants team president Farhan Zaidi may well be on the hot seat after another disappointing season. But super agent Scott Boras told the Chronicle it shouldn’t be because Buster Posey closed out the Matt Chapman extension.
From me and @JohnSheaHey, a look at Farhan Zaidi’s status, who really got the Chapman deal done, and the added degree of difficulty with Zaidi dealing with health issues that required hospitalization, with comments from Zaidi, Scott Boras: https://t.co/uynjX7d04b via @sfchronicle
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) September 17, 2024
Sunday, Andrew Baggarly reported that the Giants ownership group “became so frustrated by the lack of immediate progress” that Buster Posey had to step in to hammer out the final details of Chapman’s six-year extension. But Boras strongly countered the idea that Zaidi wasn’t involved, commenting that “any report that suggests that Farhan and I did not negotiate the financial package is inaccurate.”
Posey may have stepped in to get team chairman Greg Johnson approve the no-trade clause that Chapman received, but Boras said that was common practice.
“The years and guarantee totals presented to Matt were a product of a two-week negotiation conducted with Farhan and me while he was in and out of the hospital,” Boaras said. “As with most long-term contracts, once you have agreement on financial terms, there are ancillary contract terms — guarantee language, no-trade provisions, charitable donations, signing bonus and salary payment structure — that are commonly completed by other team officials.”
Of course, Boras may feel loyalty to the Giants’ embattled team president after closing a big deal, months after Zaidi signed Chapman for the first time, along with fellow Boras clients Blake Snell and Jung Ho Lee. Especially with Zaidi poised to go into a final, lame-duck year of his contract in 2025, along with manager Bob Melvin (Both 2026 contracts are reportedly not fully-guaranteed). Plus, if Zaidi has been hospitalized on and off for two weeks, that makes getting any kind of deal done, especially with a Boras client approaching free agency.
Still, there is clearly at least one front-office source who wanted to spread a version of the Chapman extension story that’s unfavorable to Zaidi.
Besides, even the Chronicle’s article suggests that Zaidi’s job is in jeopardy. The paper’s sources claim that the “Giants’ board of directors wanted to assess how the season’s final weeks played out before making a decision on Zaidi.” The Giants are 4-10 in their last 14 games, so these final weeks are not playing out well at all.
But the new story shows there’s at least one person still in Farhan’s corner. Unfortunately, it’s not a member of the Giants front office.