Reports that the New York Yankees have offered free agent pitcher Gerrit Cole $245 million over seven years is about as ludicrous as any contract given in sports. That’s $35 million a year. Enough to almost single-handily put the ball club over the luxury tax threshold. And then you haven’t even addressed the other pressing needs of the ball club. Anyone represented by Scott Boras will get paid. That is one thing you can take to the bank when inking a pact with the super agent who has a track record of negotiating hard and taking no prisoners on the way through the free agency process.

Home town discounts aren’t in Scott Boras’ DNA. Neither are contracts that even hint to favoring the signing team. Over the years he has repeatedly screwed over the Los Angeles Dodgers and for various reasons.

Sometimes Boras has the team bidding against themselves by inventing fictitious rumors (Darren Dreifort). Then there are efforts made to sue a ball club over false birth certificates allegations (Adrian Beltre) that his own client’s representative presented. Opt-out clauses that were plugged into contracts on false promises that wouldn’t be exercised? Yes, another Boras invention, (J.D. Drew). Or how about the time he was aware of the enhanced performance doping of one client, all the while getting him to ink a record-setting extended contract (Manny Ramirez).

Not even mentioned are the contracts of Kevin Brown (actually not too bad in retrospect), the shenanigans with Luke Hochevar’s non-signing, and the abhorrent Andruw Jones contract that gave the Dodgers two months of an unproductive, lazy, worthless, overweight player – perhaps the worst Dodger in their history – all for $36 million.

Each of those transactions was spearheaded by a guy that every team should steer clear of. His track record has left franchises in disarray. There are probably some labor activists that would disagree with me, but Scott Boras is not good for the game. He has one thing in mind when negotiating, and that is getting his client the most money possible, regardless if it hurts a franchise for years in the process. (See Alex Rodriguez – Texas Rangers; Jacoby Ellsbury and Mark Teixeira – New York Yankees; Bryce Harper – Philadelphia Phillies; Daisuke Matsuzaka – Boston Red Sox; Barry Zito – San Francisco Giants).

It can be argued that some of the aforementioned contracts didn’t cripple a team, but the overall length and value achieved in the majority of those deals were not to the team’s advantage.

It probably isn’t prudent to believe that Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger, and Julio Urias will be Dodgers for years. It’s important to remember which agent represents the trio (Boras), which may be a valid reason why sending Seager to an American League team like Cleveland might not be that bad of an idea.

And before the talk about Anthony Rendon begins in earnest at this week’s MLB Winter Meetings in San Diego, guess who also has Boras as his agent? Cole and Rendon will be offered record-setting contracts that will require what Phillies owner, John Middleton, said would be a contact paying “stupid money.” Not to anyone’s surprise, Philadelphia is rumored to be in on both Cole and Rendon.

The Dodgers can afford a poor contract (or two) with their revenue stream, but why even go there? Andrew Friedman has spent five years getting the ball club in an optimum financial position, creating room under the competitive balance tax threshold. It would be stupid to toss that advantage away in one fell swoop by signing high-premium guys to contracts that will hamper the team once they are well past their prime.

This is a key offseason. But the non-moves in free agent signings that the Dodgers don’t make might be the most important this offseason.

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