Scott Boras has been saying it in private for weeks. Now he’s saying it out loud. The most powerful agent in baseball told The Athletic‘s Andy McCullough that, for many clubs, it makes clear strategic sense to sign free agents before the current CBA expires on December 1, 2026 — rather than waiting to see what the next collective bargaining agreement looks like. The reasoning is straightforward: a new CBA could bring economic restrictions that shrink teams’ spending flexibility. And Boras, of course, has a very specific client in mind.
What Boras Said — and Why the Wording Matters
The quote, published by McCullough on October 22, 2026, is deliberate and carefully framed. Boras doesn’t say every team needs to act immediately — he says that «for many teams, I can make an argument it’s clearly best for them to sign players currently, before the new CBA, than it is after. Because they have more freedom to do what they want.» That precision is intentional. Boras picks his words the same way he picks his clients: with calculation.
The mechanism he’s describing is real. If the new CBA includes restrictions like «Quiet Periods» in free agency — a proposal MLB put forward in August 2026 that the MLBPA rejected, calling it «musical chairs among players» — teams that have already signed their targets avoid that trap entirely. Teams that wait will be playing under rules they don’t yet know.
He’s Done This Before: Seager, Semien, and $325 Million Before the 2021 Lockout
Boras isn’t improvising. He ran this exact playbook before the 2021-22 lockout — MLB’s first work stoppage since the 1994-95 strike. Before owners locked the doors on December 2, 2021, he got Corey Seager signed with the Texas Rangers for $325 million and closed Marcus Semien‘s deal as well. The lockout lasted until March 10, 2022. Both players collected without losing a single day of negotiating leverage.
Now the five-year CBA that came out of that agreement expires December 1, 2026, and the expectation around the league is that owners will initiate a lockout in the early hours of December 2. Technically it’s not confirmed — a lockout is an owner decision, not an automatic trigger — but the history and the movement from both sides point in that direction.
The Salary Cap Wildcard
One key difference from 2021: this cycle includes serious discussion of a salary cap, something the MLBPA has rejected categorically. ESPN’s Jeff Passan projects a 0% probability it actually gets implemented. But the mere fact that it’s on the table gives Boras an extra argument to push teams to move now — sign before the board changes.
Skubal in the Background: The $400 Million Client Who Needs to Close
None of this is happening in a vacuum. Boras’s most prominent client this offseason is Tarik Skubal, the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher and back-to-back Cy Young Award winner whose contract is projected at around $400 million or more, according to ESPN analysis and league insiders. The Dodgers, per The Athletic, are in no rush to sign Skubal before December 1 — they’d prefer to understand the new economic framework before committing to a megadeal. Boras, obviously, prefers the opposite.
That tension turns his public statement into something more than disinterested advice. It’s pressure delivered with an open microphone.
The Clock Is Running
The 2026-27 free agent period opened a few days after the final out of the World Series. Players can sign with any team five days after that last out. The visible deadline is December 1. What comes after depends on how long it takes MLB and the MLBPA to reach a new agreement — and in 2021-22, that took more than three months.
