Red Sox trade Betts and Price to Dodgers, Sox owners can now buy even more summer homes
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| The Red Sox decided that paying market value to a young superstar that every other big market team would have kept was not worth it |
BREAKING: Mookie Betts is reportedly heading to the #Dodgers.— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) February 5, 2020
.@Ken_Rosenthal provides the details of this multi-team trade. pic.twitter.com/C7043YyFx1
BREAKING: The Los Angeles Dodgers have agreed to a deal with the Boston Red Sox that would send star outfielder Mookie Betts and starter David Price to the Dodgers, sources familiar with the deal tell ESPN. Deal is pending medical reviews.— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 5, 2020
Mookie Betts has the 14th-highest WAR in Red Sox history (42.0), ahead of Nomar, Babe Ruth and Carlton Fisk.— Darren Hartwell (@darren_hartwell) February 5, 2020
That's in five full seasons.
Well there you have it. We heard it was imminent and it's happened. The Red Sox have traded their 27 year old superstar for outfielder Alex Verdugo and pitcher Brusdar Graterol. Verdugo is currently injured with various ailments. The Sox are also trading David Price, but sending the Dodgers a ton of cash as well in the deal (unconfirmed, but multiple reports are saying the Sox are giving the Dodgers $50 million). So the Dodgers get one of the best players in the game who's still only 27 and a heavily subsidized Price.
Sources tell me the deal is— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) February 5, 2020
LAD gets: Mookie Betts, David Price, cash from BOS
MIN gets: Kenya Maeda
BOS gets: Alex Verdugo, Brusdar Graterol
Separately, LAD trades Joc Pederson to LAA for Luis Rengifo
Well at least Fenway ticket prices will be going down next season. Oh wait... no, I got that backwards. https://t.co/nYf4uK84Qa— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) February 5, 2020
The last time the Red Sox traded a player with 40+ career WAR before their 27th birthday...Babe Ruth— Michael Dyer (@Mike_Dyer13) February 5, 2020
Paraphrasing but after the A's traded Rickey Henderson, Bill James wrote something like "The whole point of having a team is to get a Rickey Henderson and keep him for as long as possible." That's the first thing that came to mind about the Mookie Betts trade.— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) February 5, 2020
Red Sox are also sending the Dodgers a ton of cash in the deal, because Mookie wasn't enough apparently.
Here's a breakdown on the two players the Red Sox are adding:
Verdugo, 23, hit .294/.342/.475 with a 2.2 WAR in 377 plate appearances for the Dodgers last season. He took over in center field when A.J. Pollock was out.
Verdugo didn't play after Aug. 4 because of a back injury that he re-aggravated while on a rehab assignment in September.
He is excellent against left-handed pitching and is under team control through the 2024 season. He will make the MLB minimum of $563,500 in 2020. He's also a member of the Mexican National team.
Graterol, a hard-throwing, 21-year-old right-hander, pitched 9.2 innings last season in the majors, going 1-1 with a 4.66 ERA. In the minors last season, the Venezuelan was 7-0 with a 1.92 ERA across three levels. He was rated the No. 83 overall prospect for 2020 by MLB pipeline.
When fans say that Mookie shouldn't ask for $35 million a year even though that's his market value. It's not like there savings are going to result in lower ticket prices. They simply make a billionaire wealthier. Not sure why fans call Mookie greedy for wanting market value. Of course all baseball contracts are absurd. And baseball owners are even more absurdly rich. But I'd rather see Mookie make $5 million more a season to play for the Red Sox than to see him on the Dodgers and John Henry pocked even more millions.
Since John Henry bought the Red Sox 18 years ago, Fenway Sports Group has grown in value from $700 million to $6.6 billion. The Red Sox won a World Series two years ago. Liverpool won the Champions League last year.— Joon Lee (@joonlee) February 5, 2020
FSG is worth more than the Yankees.
