CARLSBAD, Calif. — Baseball’s most influential agent said the sport was the victim of a “competitive cancer” caused by teams unloading veterans to accumulate draft picks and said the Atlanta Braves’ World Series title was a direct result of others’ tanking.

Speaking Wednesday at the general managers’ meetings, Scott Boras backed the demands of the players’ association for changes in the collective bargaining agreement that expires Dec. 1. The sport is braced for a lockout that would be baseball’s ninth work stoppage but first since 1995.

“This is the Easter Bunny delivering rotten eggs,” he said in front of Bob’s Steak & Chop House at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.