There’s no doubting the brilliance of Scott Boras.

It was on full display at last week’s general managers meetings in Chicago, much to the dismay of John Mozeliak and the Cardinals’ front office. The best agent in sports did what he always does, building an oversized market for his most attractive free agent, in this case outfielder Matt Holliday.
By the time Boras headed home Thursday, he had established some level of interest in Holliday from the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets and perhaps the Angels. This wasn’t a great thing for the Cardinals, who traded their top prospect and two others to get Holliday from the A’s in July.
Boras arrived at the O’Hare Hilton having used the last couple of months to build a parallel between Holliday and Mark Teixeira, who last December received an eight-year, $180 million deal from the Yankees.
In a group interview Boras was asked if he were suggesting Holliday was worthy of a Teixeira-sized contract.
“I’m not here to put ceilings on any player,” Boras said, announcing his intentions.
In an interview that ran about 15 minutes, Boras chided the Cardinals for portraying themselves as a middle-market franchise and served up a reminder of a potential power-shifting decision the Red Sox made last winter.
Teixeira was interested in signing with them, but general manager Theo Epstein passed on him, sticking with Kevin Youkilis at first base and the often-injured Mike Lowell at third. There’s no way the Yankees win 103 games without Teixeira and maybe not the World Series, as his presence in the No. 3 hole made life a lot easier for cleanup man Alex Rodriguez.
“The Boston Red Sox had a chance to sign Mark Teixeira before the New York Yankees signed him,” Boras said. “We gave them an offer. That’s the best I can do for a franchise. The player was interested in going there.”
The Red Sox, like the Yankees, enter the offseason with their 2009 left fielders (Jason Bay and Johnny Damon, respectively) on the free-agent market. Epstein had hoped to keep Bay, reportedly offering him four years and $60 million. But Bay didn’t jump on the offer, which puts Holliday strongly on their radar.
Holliday, like Teixeira, is a terrific hitter with light-tower power. He’s reaching free agency after six big-league seasons, as did Teixeira, and has a higher career batting average (.318-.290) and OPS (.932-.919) than did Teixeira when Boras marketed him last fall. He gave the Cardinals a huge lift after the midseason trade, hitting .353 with 13 home runs and 55 RBIs in 63 games.
It’s true he spent his first five seasons in Colorado, a great place for hitters, and he wasn’t exactly Mr. Clutch for the Cardinals in the 2009 playoffs (2-for-12, one solo homer and a series-turning error in left field). But it’s easy to imagine the Red Sox and Yankees in a pull for his services, along with the Mets and surely one or two mystery teams.
Some in St. Louis believe Holliday’s relationship with new Cardinals hitting coach Mark McGwire will convince him to re-sign. But Boras threw a wet blanket on that, in so many words blaming Holliday’s slow start for the A’s last spring (.226, four homers in 28 games) on swing changes McGwire had made during their offseason coaching sessions.
“After five weeks (Holliday) went back to his old stance,” Boras said. “From that point on, he was the same player he always has been.”
The green ceiling: Like Zenyatta at the Breeders’ Cup, the Reds charged to the wire in 2009. They had dug too deep of a hole for many to notice, but nobody in the National League played better in the last six weeks of the season.
GM Walt Jocketty sees the 27-13 run as a sign of rebirth for a franchise that hasn’t gone to the playoffs since 1995.
“We’re close,” Jocketty said. “We won’t have (injured starter Edinson) Volquez for the first half of next season, which hurts us, but what the last couple of months showed us was we have a good young, aggressive club. ... In our division, we’re close.”
Jocketty may be right. But he’s dealing with owner Robert Castellini’s desire to cut a payroll that stood at only $71 million last season, which will make it tougher to re-sign catcher Ramon Hernandez and may force him to consider trading a veteran or two from a group including Brandon Phillips, Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang.
Jocketty has no plans to shop first baseman Joey Votto, but the presence of first-base prospect Yonder Alonso could change his mind.
Urban renewal: The success of MLB’s Urban Youth Academy in Compton, Calif., is spawning similar projects around the country. The second one is to open in February in Houston, and MLB executive Jimmie Lee Solomon says Miami isn’t far behind. .
“We’re a baseball business, and one thing we’re doing is attempting to develop baseball players,” Solomon said. “That’s one of the basic tenets of the academies. But it’s also to aid young men and women to go to schools of higher education.”
The Compton academy has produced more than 40 picks in the last three drafts, including 2008 first-rounders Kyle Skipworth and Aaron Hicks, and Solomon said twice as many have received college scholarships to play baseball or softball.
The last word: “This feels like a long layover, not a meeting.”
— An MLB executive on last week’s GM meetings at the O’Hare Hilton, located between concourses at the Chicago airport.
(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)
——
Brent Morel has shot past Dayan Viciedo as the White Sox’s third baseman of the future. He’s a natural hitter, which he showed when he joined the Arizona Fall League at midseason and hit .372 in his first 12 games. ... Red Sox owner John Henry says his team will not be affected by the finances of his Boca Raton, Fla., investment company, which recently fired eight of its 28 employees. ... A’s GM Billy Beane is encouraged by pitcher Fautino de los Santos’ recovery from Tommy John surgery. De los Santos, a headliner in the deal that sent Nick Swisher to the White Sox, was throwing 95 mph in the Instructional League, according to Beane. ... The Brewers are exploring trades for pitching, but GM Doug Melvin will be reluctant to trade Mat Gamel, seemingly made expendable by the emergence of Casey McGehee. Left-handed-hitting third basemen such as Gamel are valuable commodities. ... How dull were the GM meetings? The Indians’ Mark Shapiro left them a day early to see Bruce Springsteen in Cleveland. ... The Twins’ trade for J.J. Hardy doesn’t mean they have no interest in re-signing Orlando Cabrera. They are talking to him about playing second base. ... The Yankees are more likely to re-sign Johnny Damon than World Series MVP Hideki Matsui. ... Tim Lincecum qualified for Super 2 experience status by nine days; Mark Reynolds and Adam Jones missed by one day apiece. Lincecum thus is in line for a raise from $650,000 to perhaps $8 million from the Giants, while Jones and Reynolds aren’t guaranteed raises from the Diamondbacks and Orioles, respectively. ... The Mariners were thrilled to get Ken Griffey Jr. back for one more season. He was a great influence in the clubhouse, helping Ichiro Suzuki connect with his teammates.