Since its initial announcement in February 2020, the Mookie Betts trade has haunted Red Sox Nation. Many fans were left wholly dumbfounded as to how Boston’s management could have traded a homegrown star and MVP.
Almost five years later, a former Red Sox assistant general manager finally took to social media to answer the long-unanswered questions and speculation that has plagued many Boston fans since the trade’s completion.
Zack Scott, who worked in the Red Sox front office from 2004-20, explained on X that when Betts rejected the team’s final offer in the spring of 2019, the club had resigned itself to the belief that the 2018 MVP would eventually leave in free agency — a belief strengthed by the team’s apparent disinterest in giving out mega-contracts. Ultimately, this led the team to extend Chris Sale. It is a move that Boston surely regrets, as the remainder of Sale’s time with the Red Sox was plagued by injury, leading to him being dealt to Atlanta just a few offseasons later.
We made our best and final to Mookie in spring 2019, and once it was clear it wasn't happening, we almost immediately pivoted to Sale. I guess all that cash was burning a hole in someone's pocket. 😆 https://t.co/N69fr0ABgp
— Zack Scott (@ZackScottSports) December 5, 2024
In addition to the Sale extension, Scott divulged that Boston almost traded Betts to the Dodgers in July 2019. According to Scott, the Red Sox would've received a better return from the first draft of the trade.
Of course, while this may have been a better outcome for the Red Sox in the long run, hindsight is 20/20. The club was in the heat of the wild card race at the time and did not want to draw the ire of the Red Sox fanbase so soon. Scott and the rest of Boston's brass decided it would be best to hold on to the outfielder and reigning MVP.
Nevertheless, as Red Sox fans so painfully remember, Boston eventually traded their beloved star to the Dodgers just months later, a move that many fans believe trumps the sale of Babe Ruth as the worst move in the franchise's history. While fans continue to ruminate on the trade and believe this to be true, judging by Scott's comments, it appears that the front office's only genuine regret is that they didn't trade their superstar earlier.