Boras Says Rodriguez Doesn’t Need Perks

The agent for Alex Rodriguez insisted Tuesday he did not submit a contract proposal to the New York Mets calling for a series of perks and amenities and has not and will not make ancillary demands of any interested team.

“Alex and I discussed this before the [free-agent] process started,” agent Scott Boras said, “and he specifically stated that he wouldn’t be asking for any perks and amenities because he didn’t need any.”

While Met General Manager Steve Phillips called that revisionist history, Boras also said the Dodgers have displayed interest in the former Seattle Mariner shortstop, although he refused to characterize the extent of that interest.

“Like any team,” he said, “the Dodgers know what Alex means to a club. I’ve had meetings with the Dodgers about Alex and expect more.”

Ultimately, Rodriguez, 25, is expected to receive a record contract for at least $20 million a year. The Mets held a conference call Monday to announce they were withdrawing from the bidding.

Phillips admitted that he had not discussed money with Boras but that he was concerned about other aspects of their talks and that if Rodriguez was provided the amenities he was seeking it would isolate Rodriguez from his new teammates and create a “24-plus-one” structure on the 25-man roster.

Among those amenities, according to Phillips and other Met officials, was a greater billboard presence than that of Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter; a Shea Stadium office for the use of Rodriguez’s own marketing staff; the use of a private jet; a luxury suite at Shea; and a tent at the Met spring training complex from which Rodriguez merchandise would be sold.

Boras, reached by phone Tuesday, said he found the Mets’ decision “hard to understand” because he had addressed all of Phillips’ concerns an hour before Phillips went to the media.

“Steve called and said he had concerns about some of the [marketing] things Seattle had done with Alex and I assured him that those were strictly comfort issues that illustrated how the city had embraced Alex,” Boras said.

“None of it was ever discussed in the context of a demand because there were no demands. I told Steve that Alex would be comfortable with the normal and customary treatment the Mets give all their players.

“I mean, Mike Piazza has a luxury suite at Shea but Alex doesn’t need a suite. He doesn’t need his own marketing staff at a ballpark because for the last five years he’s used our own marketing company [Impact Sports Marketing in Atlanta] and he doesn’t need a private jet because for the last three years he’s contracted his own jet service.”

Said Phillips Tuesday: “Scott is saying now he wants Rodriguez to be treated like any other player on the team, but in our discussions it was all about how will we market around him, how many billboards will we put up? The tone . . . was about putting the other players in a secondary role.”

Has Boras--skewered in the New York media Tuesday--contaminated the Rodriguez market by bringing up ancillary issues that were bound to scare off the Mets or any team that might otherwise have been willing to pay $200 million?

Did Phillips overreact? Did he decide, when it became apparent that it would be a more complex and expensive venture than anticipated at a time when he has five members of his pitching staff on the market, to use the ancillary issues as a rationale for pulling out and investing in other places?

Talk about talking points.