Mookie Betts is gone but we still have plenty of fond memories from the star right fielder’s time with the Boston Red Sox to look back on.
The sting of losing a franchise player to a financially motivated trade has far from faded. Red Sox Nation isn’t quite ready to let go of Mookie Betts but he leaves behind many great memories from his six years in Boston.
Betts piled up a long list of accolades over a relatively short time. He’s made four consecutive All-Star appearances and earned four Gold Glove awards, three Silver Sluggers, a batting title and an MVP.
Baseball-Reference has valued Betts at 42.0 WAR for his career, which ranks 23rd among active players. Everyone ahead of him on this list of active players has at least three more years of experience and Mike Trout is the only one among them under the age of 30. Trout and Albert Pujols are the only active players to produce a higher WAR than Betts through their age 26 season.
The historically great start to his career had Betts on pace to join an elite class of Red Sox greats if he had remained in Boston for the majority of his career. Sadly, we’ll never know since ownership decided to use the threat of Betts bolting in free agency as an excuse to dump a boatload of salary.
The days of Betts delivering memorable moments in a Red Sox uniform are over but we’ll always have our favorite memories to reflect on. Here are a handful of my favorite Mookie Betts moments.