Baseball Isn’t Boring
The Realities Of No-Trade Clauses, Opt-Outs And Free Agency, With Zack Scott
16 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What are the key issues surrounding no-trade clauses in baseball?
Yeah, there should be some passion. This doesn't have to be boring.
You don't get bored by baseball. Okay, one thing the game needs is more people like you.
You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You.
You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. He's back. He's back. Four rings consultants in PBI sports and entertainment doing so many good things and so much impactful things in regards to all things management, helping people, which I think that's the biggest thing, right? I mean, you're helping people.
Yeah, I want to help executives and coaches with their careers and also in the consulting side, help senior leaders get as much clarity about their organization and be able to feel confident that they really have a handle on what's going on in their organization and that they can, that'll help them decide, make decisions more confidently.
Yeah.
Well, and we, it's funny because we were talking about it for a while, but with, with higher ups where you have, everyone thinks that they have it all figured out.
And I'm not even talking about the higher up higher ups, but the people maybe who are one step from being a higher up, which a lot of people who you're dealing with and they think you all have it figured out and that everybody has their strengths, but maybe their strength isn't finding like the sweet spot for the next job. Maybe you're, or representing themselves, whatever it is.
That's one thing that I don't think people understand. And I do think this is an important aspect for any, I'll say GM or president of baseball operations. Those people have to reflect and say, I don't know everything. And especially, Zach, you know this.
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Chapter 2: How do opt-outs influence player contracts and team strategies?
And so, you know, try to understand that we know less than we don't know. And always be, if you always have that mindset, you know, it could be unhealthy that you're paranoid, worried what you're missing, but I think that's better than thinking you got it all figured out.
And there are a lot of people I've been, you know, surprised my conversations with seniors, there are people that feel really confident that they, you know, got a handle on a lot of things. I think that part of that comes with, you know, this exponential increase in the amount of information people have and,
they feel more convicted and all these things, but this game's really too hard and the decisions they're making are definitely not formulaic. So it is really difficult. You're dealing with people, not a deck of cards is what I always say. So yeah, no, it's challenging. And I think that is the right mindset.
I think you hit the nail on the head to sign on the door. I mean, I forgot that, right? I wish everybody had that sign on the door. And this is one of the great things about when we have these conversations is I immediately after this want to put a sign on this door and no one will see it, but just to remind myself. But that's...
even way back then 2003 2003 right i mean yeah right 2003 2005 the mindset and i think in some ways you could say well it's easy to be that way everyone's in their 20s right so like you should realize that you you know there's a lot of fresh faces at the time and you know theo been in the game for 10 years but still only 28 right so but to have that mindset and go into it that
And then maintain that through success was really important. And obviously you get humbled quickly when you make mistakes in this game with contracts that you give to free agents and they don't work out. And it's very easy to be humbled, but it's important to always just keep that in mind. You don't want it to paralyze you. So it's this balancing act of you want to be able to move
make decisions confidently, knowing that some percentage of them are going to fail. So you can't get to a place where you're so afraid of that you don't know something or you're missing something, you're doing something wrong, that you get paralyzed by it. And so it was finding that sweet spot, which I think Theo's case, he was really good at that.
Well, that actually dovetails exactly with one of the things I wanted to talk to you about, and that is front offices now, is that there is this narrative, rightfully so, I think, in a lot of cases, because when you keep hearing it over and over and over again, it becomes a reality of there's more front offices, there's more decision makers who have become paralyzed, and they'll say they're not, but they have been, and you live through different iterations of front offices, but do you feel like...
That is accurate from what you know, what you observe, that there is that element in front offices now where the information is so overwhelming, the voices are so overwhelming. When they're making decisions, there's 50 people in the room instead of five. Tell me if I'm wrong about that. Tell me what your perspective of it is.
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Chapter 3: What challenges do front offices face with overwhelming information?
So, you know, I think that that's sometimes where people get hung up is treating these models as kind of absolutes. And even the people that build these models, the analysts understand that there's a variation of possible outcomes. You just, what it should do is anchor you in some sort of objective reality so you don't go crazy, right? So you don't do things that make absolutely no sense.
But, you know, you have to realize that Um, there are times the trade deadline is a perfect example. I was talking to a former GM the other day and he said, you know, when, when I went into a trade deadline, the first thing I'd say to our group is, Hey, we're going to do trades. You know, we're in, we're competitive. We need to have add some players in the time it was his bullpen, right?
Well, we're going to make trades that are going to look on paper like negative value trades because they're rentals and that's how they look. But.
it makes sense for us given where we're at and we need to do this to improve our club to give ourselves a chance to have real legitimate players walking into that clubhouse after the deadline the day after the deadline there's a real factor there and so in this person is a very objective mind objectively minded person but they realize like this is an appropriate time to do that does it mean go wild and trade away all your best prospects no but most of those deals are going to look like negative deals long term
So you've got to be able to balance.
Yeah. I mean, I think so when I look at free agency, for instance, is that, you know, I think it's different. There's luxury items and there's the guy that you want to have, the guy that you feel like this is the most plan A, this is the most important thing.
And I've been referencing this in regards to like even your life at the Red Sox, that time period where for years upon years upon years, I was like, boy, if they wanted someone, they were going to get them. And I kept referencing, oh, the only one they didn't get was Mark DeShera. I mean, I kept coming back to that. That was like, what, 2009?
So, but it was like, if the Red Sox said, this guy is important to us, we're going to get him. And I'm sure that to your point, like with the Sandoval thing and the other ones where it got really, really uncomfortable, like really uncomfortable. Absolutely.
Yeah. And I think the Teixeira one, not to interrupt you, sorry. Yeah, no. The Teixeira actually came to mind
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Chapter 4: How do analytics impact decision-making in baseball management?
It's funny, I just did a radio interview earlier today, and they're like, oh, this is a John Henry signing because this isn't the type of pitcher that Breslow likes. He's not the velocity, big extension guy. I'm like, well, let's not forget, they're no dummies. They understand the best analytic is out.
I think that that's where people get, yeah, they may like a certain type of pitcher, but it's not like, hey, you aren't tall enough. We're not going to sign you. I mean, Sonny Gray is another example. He's not tall. Yeah.
And he's another guy that has solid stuff, mixes really well, knows what he's doing, commands pretty well. I mean, those top three guys are really interesting pitchers. It's a little bit of a throwback from what we've been seeing lately with a lot of teams where it's just stuff and not caring as much about command. And these guys kind of go right after guys.
And obviously, of course, he has elite stuff. So I like it as far in a vacuum. I really like it. Obviously, I think they're a little imbalanced right now on paper, but I think you can compete with this model, but there's probably a couple of teams on paper that are ahead of you in that division.
So as we sit here in mid-January, I classify this offseason as a bad walk-in song for a reliever, which is you get all, you know, it's just poorly timed. I think that even when signings and trades happen now, people are so exhausted, like you've taken 20% off the enthusiasm. It is what it is. But for a front office, for the decision makers,
to go through this is i'm fascinated to get your perspective of this because there is a discipline there is rotting out the market we are i think every year it gets more and more uncharted territory when it comes to patience i think this year even more than last year but you lived that life i think jd right right right perfect example we finished him till february or something right
And so you think, and maybe you can offer insight to this, but you think that you're like, okay, we're pretty sure we know what this market is. And we're willing to wait this out. It must be a really, really hard thing for a front office to gauge and do. It's really hard.
It's a game of chicken, right? Like, the longer you wait, that creates some risk that something happens, especially when you start getting into spring training, like some player gets injured and a team that had some extra money might all of a sudden panic and get in on JD Martinez in that example. So it's hard you want because the longer you go, the fewer options you have, you can't really pivot.
So you're kind of all in. The agent knows that, so that's why they're waiting because they feel like they got you over a barrel. So you have to feel really confident that the market's not – what they expect, what the agent wants it to be or thinks it could be, and that you're going to be the high bid at the end of the day.
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