Agent Cannot Foresee Baseball Cap

Major league baseball owners may sense potential salvation in last week’s NBA labor agreement, which caps individual salaries at $14 million, but the man who negotiated a $15-million annual salary for Dodger pitcher Kevin Brown suggests that an NBA-type deal won’t fly in baseball.

“I think we’ll have a good two- to three-year period to look at this,” player agent Scott Boras said Monday. “And the players in baseball and other sports will realize this is a model of how not to do it.”

Baseball’s labor agreement runs through the 2000 season, although the players’ union holds the option to extend the deal through 2001. Owners searching for ways to halt spiraling salaries may ask the union to consider an NBA-style plan, but Boras said the cap on individual salaries could be exposed as foolish by then.

As the number of NBA players making the maximum salary increases, Boras said, so will dissatisfaction among elite players.

“I guarantee you, there will be a host of players saying, ‘I’m the best in the league, and there are 45 or 50 other players getting paid as much as I am.’ That will happen,” Boras said. “There are only so many superstars, but there are a lot of good players.

“It’s not the money. It’s the principle of being situated fairly in the market. For the premier player in the league, there will be no chance of being situated fairly in the market. I think that will cause a lot of acrimony.”