How the Nats-Boras relationship compares to other teams

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Every time the Nationals sign another Scott Boras client, there's a round of snickering around the game of baseball. It's as if everybody's in on the joke now.

Yes, the Nationals have a lot of players who are represented by Boras. They could have as many as nine of them on their opening day roster: Max Scherzer, Jayson Werth, Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper, Gio González, Matt Wieters, Anthony Rendon, Oliver Pérez and Stephen Drew.

That's as much as 36 percent of the roster. That's a lot.

And we're not talking about lower-tier players here, guys who just fill out a roster. Most of those players are among the best and highest-paid players on the team.

In fact, seven of the nine highest-salaried players on the Nationals right now are Boras clients. The only guys who aren't? Ryan Zimmerman (who is represented by Brodie Van Wagenen of CAA Sports) and Daniel Murphy (who is represented by Sam and Seth Levinson of ACES Baseball).

How unusual is that? Aren't most of Boras' clients really good players who make a lot of money? Well, there is some truth to that. But no other team in baseball can match the Nationals in this department.

I looked up the nine highest-salaried players on every team in the majors, using Baseball Prospectus' spreadsheet, and it's pretty striking how much of an outlier the Nats are.

The Rangers have five Boras clients among their top nine salaried players. The Royals have three. The Orioles, Yankees and Rockies have two. Everybody else has zero or one.

That's not insignificant.

Which isn't say this is wrong, or speaks poorly of the Nationals or Boras. Fact is, they have one of the most talented rosters in the sport. And Boras tends to represent very talented players. Back when the franchise languished in last place in the National League East every year, they had few (if any) Boras guys.

Then they drafted and signed Strasburg. Then they signed Ivan Rodriguez. Then they drafted and signed Harper. And then they signed Werth to the then-largest contract in team history.

Those moves changed the trajectory of the franchise, and in a positive way.

But that doesn't mean the rest of the baseball world isn't going to continue snickering every time it happens again.