Scott Boras is the most powerful, highest-paid agent in sports, and he and his large staff represent only baseball players, from many of the game’s biggest stars to prospects in the minor leagues. So with major league players currently locked out by owners in baseball’s first work stoppage since 1995, Boras had plenty to say about the state of the game and its labor situation when he was a guest on The Athletic’s 755 Is Real podcast.

During a 45-minute podcast interview with co-hosts David O’Brien, Braves beat writer for The Athletic, and former relief pitcher Eric O’Flaherty, Boras answered a wide range of questions, including but not limited to baseball’s financial state, what was most problematic about the previous collective bargaining agreement, what should be done to help minor leaguers, his background as a minor league player and how he went from corporate lawyer to baseball agent, the accomplishments and outlook of the World Series champion Braves, and how he gets along with general manager Alex Anthopoulos.

Boras represents five of eight members of the MLB Players Association executive committee — Max Scherzer, Zack Britton, Gerrit Cole, Marcus Semien and James Paxton — and asked the podcast hosts to steer clear of questions about ongoing negotiations between players and owners.

Here’s a sample of what was discussed, which can be heard in its entirety here and viewed on YouTube here. Some answers have been edited for clarity or length but were not edited on the podcast.

Scott, did you do a spit take when the commissioner (Rob Manfred) said that baseball owners do worse owning a franchise than they would do if they put the money in the stock market?

He said he spoke to an investment banker. Didn’t mention his name, but I can only speak to and address this from the information we collect and the investment bankers (Boras talks with) …  I get calls all the time from people who want to know who to contact to purchase these franchises. So if that is truly what the investment people are telling Rob, I would say that there’s probably (that) opinion out there, but that would be a smaller part of the opinion of what I think is the true nature of what advice most venture capitalists are receiving about professional sports franchises.

I think the story of people investing anywhere from $200 or 300 million to $500 million, the truth of it is many of these people are only investing $90 to 100 million. They’re getting financing because their banking entities know it’s a good investment. So they got to invest a small amount of money, and then they got to take advantage of monstrous appreciation over the last 10 or 15 years.