The Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers are in agreement on a trade that will send Mookie Betts and David Price to Hollywood pending physicals.
News just broke and Red Sox Nation will be rocked with what has just happened. A move that we’ve been expecting for quite some time as seemingly come to fruition. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Jeff Passan of ESPN have both reported that Boston will be sending Mookie Betts and David Price to the Dodgers pending physicals.
Both have stated that a third team is involved and some cash considerations to figure out, but the deal feels set. This has been something that the Fenway Faithful have been gearing up for since the 2019 season ended and talks have been heating up lately. The San Diego Padres were a favorite for much of the last few weeks with the Dodgers also joining in the fight. If everything plays out as reported it looks like LA had the best offer.
Rosenthal and Passan would follow up their initial reports about the possible third team and it’s been made known that Minnesota is involved. The details are still coming in as to what all of the fine print and what exactly each team will fully receive, but this is major news for all involved. Granted, physicals need to be completed for anything to fully take shape. For Betts that doesn’t worry me as much as with Price.
The southpaw missed significant time last season thanks to a cyst on his left wrist. Add that into his rollercoaster performances all season long and he’s far from a guarantee. When you look at this deal from the outside it’s pretty clear what the Red Sox were trying to accomplish here. They weren’t trying to move Betts as much as they were Price.
Too many people to credit, but it looks like this is the deal:
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) February 5, 2020
Red Sox get: OF Alex Verdugo, RHP Brusdar Graterol
Dodgers get: OF Mookie Betts, LHP David Price, cash
Twins get: RHP Kenta Maeda
Moving Mookie for a haul of prospects would’ve been the best-case scenario for the situation they put themselves in. This, however, is clearly adding Mookie in as a sweetener to get a team to take on Price and at least some of his massive contract. That’s a tough pill to swallow for any fan of this team. In no way should a franchise’s generational player be used as a toss in to get rid of a poor contract. Bad job by you John Henry.
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Per the reports coming in it seems that Boston will be getting Alex Verdugo from the Dodgers and RHP Brusdar Graterol from the Twins. Not quite the haul that the Red Sox should’ve gotten for the pairing of Betts and Price but with Mookie being a rental and the lefty being an injury concern, I’m not shocked. Again, this feels like nothing more than a salary dump to get below that $208M marker so the Red Sox can avoid the luxury tax penalty.
This is going to be a hard pill to swallow for Red Sox Nation as Mookie is easily the best homegrown product since Ted Williams in this organization. Things seemed to ramp up when it was made known how far apart the two sides were on a new contract. Now Betts will be heading to LA where he’ll most likely see another World Series berth while Boston will likely struggle for a Wild Card.
In 2019, Betts posted a .295/.391/.524/.915 line with 29 homers and 80 RBI in his follow up to his MVP winning campaign. Price had a rougher go of it last year finishing with a 7-5 record through 107.1 IP with a 4.28 ERA and 1.314 WHIP. A tale of two seasons, and more so two careers, come to an end in Boston.
The Red Sox will need to make some magic happen if they want to even be in the fight in 2020 as both the Yankees and Rays got better while Boston is now much worse. This is one of those deals that will go down in history as either a shocking positive or a massive bust. From the outside looking in, this sure doesn’t feel like a positive.