Scott Boras Says He’s Confident About Safety as Baseball Resumes

(Bloomberg) -- Scott Boras is ready to finally get the baseball season underway.

After months of conference calls and Zoom meetings with clients and health experts, baseball's most powerful agent is convinced that games can safely return without fans even as cases of Covid-19 surge in the U.S.

“Unlike other sports, with baseball we have an actual trial and model in Korea, Japan and Taiwan,” Boras said in an interview. “They've been able to play games without any hospitalizations to any of their players.”

Boras' comments came as doubts continue to swirl about the decision to start the season. Four players have decided to sit out the year and on Friday the game's biggest star, Mike Trout, revealed he's concerned about playing in the midst of the pandemic with his wife pregnant with their first child.

Thirty-one players and seven staff members tested positive for Covid-19 in Major League Baseball's first round of testing, according to a joint announcement from the league and the Major League Baseball Players Association. That was just 1.2% of the total 3,185 samples tested, a rate far lower than 5% of players reported by the National Basketball Association in its initial round of testing.

“We have an understating that baseball is a socially distant sport unlike basketball and football,” said Boras. “There's been a clear adaptation of protocols in other environments.”

To be sure, the countries where play has safely resumed have had more success containing the virus than the U.S. The immunologists Boras says he's consulted have told him that the incidence rate at large in a country wasn't a primary concern. Those experts, he said, emphasized that a safe return is predicated on players adhering to safety protocols.

“We assume the virus is everywhere,” said Boras. “If you limit contact with people, the varying rates are less impactful.”

It won't be easy, but Boras is confident that players will stick to the guidelines set by the league and its players association saying that his clients understand that a positive test could force them to sit out a quarter of the already shortened season.

“All of my clients have reported,” he said. “Frankly, there's more concern for those in the higher age brackets with teams and their parents and grandparents. They worry about isolating them.”

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