The 4-Letter Word

The news out of Orlando at baseball’s General Manager’s meetings is that Scott Boras has been whoring himself and his star client all around town. Boras sat down with the Red Sox yesterday, and Theo Epstein went out of his way to tell the press that they were not meeting to talk about Alex Rodriguez.

“We went over all of our client list with them,” said Boras last night. “I’ll let them talk about the four-letter word [A-Rod].”

Is it getting hot down there, Scott?

Word around baseball is that teams are not going to allow themselves to be bamboozled by Boras and his ever-present “mystery team.” And if the Dark Prince claims he has an offer from someone, teams want to see it for themselves. There just might be enough residual anger at the way Boras usurped the World Series on the part of baseball people to knock him down a peg, or twelve. Unfortunately there’s a word for that and it’s called “collusion,” so all such talk must be left to dwell in the nether region of speculation.

As long as Mike Lowell remains unsigned, and the optimism from Tuesday seems to have waned, A-Rod will be at least a blip on the Red Sox radar screens, and maybe more.

Though conversations have been ongoing between the Sox and Lowell’s agents, the Levinson brothers, Epstein indicated last night an agreement with Lowell at the meetings is highly unlikely.

Sam Levinson, when asked how talks with Epstein went yesterday said, “Great. But nothing to report.” Epstein used words such as “hopeful” and “progress” in describing the talks.

According to major league sources, the Red Sox are willing to go three years on the 33-year-old Lowell.

Translation: Lowell will not be selling himself short, and well he shouldn’t since this will probably be his last big contract. Until then we’ll have to content ourselves with watching Boras try to find a home for his unemployed four-letter word.