The devil approaches Scott Boras and offers him a deal: The agent can represent any 10 ballplayers he wants in exchange for his immortal soul. Boras mulls this over for a moment, meets Satan’s gaze and snaps, “Okay, but what’s the catch?”

To most baseball executives, Boras is a soulless publicity-monger who has leveraged his stable of talent into power and influence by screaming and scheming while creaming his 5 percent off the top. He is ruthless. He is cutthroat. He is also abundantly successful.

Boras’ latest devilry was to upstage the World Series by announcing late in the final game that Alex Rodriguez will exercise the opt-out clause in his contract with the New York Yankees. Boras’ detractors say his grandstanding cements his reputation as the most reprehensible of reps.

He’s surely the most recalcitrant. To take advantage of the $29 million that the Texas Rangers still owed on the 10-year, $252-million deal A-Rod signed in 2000, the Yanks were ready to offer him a colossal contract extension—eight years for some $240 million. But Boras would neither listen nor haggle. With the original contract now voided, New York would have to pay all the money they negotiate with him.

Boras and A-Rod fit together hand in third baseman’s glove. One is a nonpareil posturer; the other, a nonpareil poseur. Though a perennial All-Star and M.V.P. candidate, A-Rod was considered a stats-first phony in the Yankees’ clubhouse. Many teammates privately called him A-Fraud.

A year ago, during A-Rod’s psychic meltdown, Jason Giambi told me: “I’m always asked two things at parties: ‘What’s Jeter like?’ and ‘What’s A-Rod like?’ Answer No. 1: ‘I love Jeet. He’s a fun guy.’ Answer No. 2: ‘A-Rod’s as gifted as anyone who ever played the game.’”

A day ago, another current Yankee told me: “Boras’ announcement before a national TV audience showed he’s an egomaniac who thinks only about himself. A-Rod’s the same way: During his four years in New York, he never put the team before himself: It was always all about A-Rod.”

Over those four years, A-Rod was astonishingly productive in the Bronx from April to September (he averaged 43 home runs and 128 R.B.I.). In October, however, he was staggeringly unproductive. During his last 17 post-season games, he batted .136 and went 0 for 27 (including 11 strikeouts) with runners on base. Not only did he knock in none of those 38 runners, but he stranded all 12 in scoring position. The Yanks won 3 of those 17 games and never advanced to the World Series.
    
Despite this, Boras insists that “Mr. Opt-ober” is that rare player imbued with what he calls I.P.N.—for Iconic magnetism, historic Performance, and Network value. By Boras’ calculations, A-Rod’s I.P.N. adds up to $80 million to his team’s annual cash flow, and would justify a 10-year pact for $400 million.
    
This claim, says sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, is ludicrous. “A-Rod does have some iconic value, I guess,” says the author of May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy. “But he didn’t do himself a financial favor by opting out of his Yankees contract.”
    
The Yankees, he notes, play on baseball’s biggest stage and in its most lucrative market. Their new $1 billion ballpark, set to open in 2009, will boost annual revenue by another $50 million or so from the sale of tickets and luxury suites. Their pockets are deeper than any other team’s, he says, and their need to sign marquee players is more pressing.

The reason Boras gave for opting out was an ingenious bit of disingenuousness: In discussing the 2008 season, George Steinbrenner’s son Hank had used the words “transition” and “patience.”

“I’ve known George for 25 years and I’ve never heard him use those words,” Boras said. “I don’t know what those words mean. I do know I have a player who is held accountable for winning in the postseason and there’s concern that the direction of the New York Yankees has changed.”

In Boras-speak, Hank Steinbrenner has N.W.S., or No longer interested in winning the World Series. I’d wager that not even the gullible A-Rod believes that one.

“Boras is very shrewd, but he’s not infallible,” Zimbalist says. “He has really stretched himself here. A good agent pushes the envelope to drive up a player’s deal, but Boras has pushed this one to a new zip code. He may think another team will top the Yankees, but I’d be very much surprised if another team out there came close. The dollar figures he is throwing out are way out of range of A-Rod’s value.”

In baseball, though, value is often relative. “All you need is one desperate owner,” says one doubtful agent.

Boras, he argues, wouldn’t opt out unless he was guaranteed a soft landing elsewhere. “Scott’s ego drives all his negotiations,” the agent says. “And one thing his ego won’t settle for is less money.”
    
The agent believes Boras and A-Rod have been playing the Yankees for suckers. “A-Rod always intended to opt out,” he says. “If he really wanted to stay a Yankee, Boras would at least have tried to negotiate. To the Yankees credit, they insist they won’t chase A-Rod on the open market. By playing Boras’ game, they know they can only get burned.”
    
So, who does Boras singe next? Perhaps the power-starved Los Angeles Dodgers, who lost J.D. Drew last fall through a similar Boras-designed opt-out. Or maybe the Barry Bonds-less San Francisco Giants, who last winter Boras hoodwinked into spending a record $126 million for fading mediocrity Barry Zito.
    
But buyer beware: Over the last two decades, the game’s most expensive player has never played for the team that won the World Series.