Trading Mookie sucks...but it was the right move
Jim Monaghan
Content Coordinator
Let's state the obvious right from the start - trading Mookie Betts sucks.
Here's another obvious statement - mega-year contracts are great for the player but NEVER good for the team.
Don't agree with the second statement? Go ahead...name one that has worked out in favor of the team.
How many playoff games has Mike Trout played in? How did that Bryce Harper deal work out for the Phillies last year?
As Red Sox fans, we've looked at the Yankees signing players like Giancarlo Stanton, Alex Rodriguez, Jacoby Ellsbury, and most recently Gerrit Cole, and laughed at the fiscal insanity. How many World Series titles have come as a result of any of those deals?
We'll make it easy for you - exactly one.
Now to be fair, Cole has yet to play a single game in pinstripes, and New York does appear to have the inside track on a trip to October, but we've all looked at that contract and said how bad the last few years of it are going to look.
Here in our own backyard, there's Dustin Pedroia. For those who may have forgotten, here are the details on that contract - an 8-year, $110 million extension signed in 2013. Over the past two years, Pedroia has played in a grand total of 9 games for which he was paid $31 million.
And the Red Sox are on the hook for a combined $24 million over the remaining two years, in which it is currently expected he will not play at all.
So with a sizable portion of Red Sox Nation all up in arms over the trade of the home-grown Betts, answer this question honestly -
Do you REALLY want to think about what the last four or five years of the 10-year deal he was offered by Boston would look like? Or the 12-year contract he was said to be looking for?
Trading Mookie Betts sucks. But if you're looking at it even remotely realistically, it was absolutely the right thing to do.
Click here to find more by Jim Monaghan on Red Sox Life. Follow him on twitter - @Monaghan21.
Content Coordinator
Let's state the obvious right from the start - trading Mookie Betts sucks.
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| Photo courtesy of NESN |
Don't agree with the second statement? Go ahead...name one that has worked out in favor of the team.
How many playoff games has Mike Trout played in? How did that Bryce Harper deal work out for the Phillies last year?
As Red Sox fans, we've looked at the Yankees signing players like Giancarlo Stanton, Alex Rodriguez, Jacoby Ellsbury, and most recently Gerrit Cole, and laughed at the fiscal insanity. How many World Series titles have come as a result of any of those deals?
We'll make it easy for you - exactly one.
Now to be fair, Cole has yet to play a single game in pinstripes, and New York does appear to have the inside track on a trip to October, but we've all looked at that contract and said how bad the last few years of it are going to look.
Here in our own backyard, there's Dustin Pedroia. For those who may have forgotten, here are the details on that contract - an 8-year, $110 million extension signed in 2013. Over the past two years, Pedroia has played in a grand total of 9 games for which he was paid $31 million.
And the Red Sox are on the hook for a combined $24 million over the remaining two years, in which it is currently expected he will not play at all.
So with a sizable portion of Red Sox Nation all up in arms over the trade of the home-grown Betts, answer this question honestly -
Do you REALLY want to think about what the last four or five years of the 10-year deal he was offered by Boston would look like? Or the 12-year contract he was said to be looking for?
Trading Mookie Betts sucks. But if you're looking at it even remotely realistically, it was absolutely the right thing to do.
Click here to find more by Jim Monaghan on Red Sox Life. Follow him on twitter - @Monaghan21.
