Red Sox Trade Betts + Price To The Dodgers

[CaNdyMaN1369]

Screw the Sox. Cheaters and cheapskates.

I’m rooting for the Dodgers this year.

did you turn on the sox when nomar was sent packing?

i root for the sox, first, last, and forever. a sox team with mookie would be more fun to root for, but they are still the sox so i follow them. i will miss mookie, but at least the sox will still score a lot of runs and be in play for the wild card....which would have been their hope even with mookie on the team.

mookie was pretty much gone after next season. so, to get two young players with high upside is better than a mediocre draft pick. mookie would want close to trout money, which would really harm the ability to keep a good team around him because of cost.

and, there is no guarantee mookie would have come back to boston as other bidders would have entered the fray.

no mlb team constantly lives above the luxury tax. you can say a lot of things about Henry, but one thing he isn’t is cheap. he has invested in this team. every big market team that has gone above the tax limit has gone below it to reset and then spent again. i expect that the sox will as well.

graterol will probably immediately become the #1 pitching prospect in the sox minor league system. he throws around 99-100 mph and has a great sider. he is clearly one of the top 50 minor league prospects out there.

verdugo is very young as well and if his back injury is in the past you can expect something such as JBJ with a good batting average.

neither is mookie, even combined. but either and certainly both are better than a middling draft pick or a financially crippling contract.

TP to this. I am not exactly psyched about the trade, but understand the idea of resetting and starting fresh. I like Mookie, but do consider him a little overrated and just don't think a Mike Trout contract is reasonable at all for him. No way do I consider him a top 5 player in baseball. And even though he doesn't play D, I personally even prefer JD Martinez.

The Sox have won 4 World Series' since 2004; it's not like the ownership group has been stingy and there have been times when we've traded away big salaries and got the farm system back up and running. If we had lost a close series in the playoffs last year, it would be one thing, but we were pretty much trash last season - even with Mookie putting up solid numbers.

TP...            hwangjini_1              I agree completely.             I root for the Sox no matter if their bad, i hated they traded Betts, but i understand why they did...

[SparzWizard]

Screw the Sox. Cheaters and cheapskates.

I’m rooting for the Dodgers this year.

did you turn on the sox when nomar was sent packing?

i root for the sox, first, last, and forever. a sox team with mookie would be more fun to root for, but they are still the sox so i follow them. i will miss mookie, but at least the sox will still score a lot of runs and be in play for the wild card....which would have been their hope even with mookie on the team.

mookie was pretty much gone after next season. so, to get two young players with high upside is better than a mediocre draft pick. mookie would want close to trout money, which would really harm the ability to keep a good team around him because of cost.

and, there is no guarantee mookie would have come back to boston as other bidders would have entered the fray.

no mlb team constantly lives above the luxury tax. you can say a lot of things about Henry, but one thing he isn’t is cheap. he has invested in this team. every big market team that has gone above the tax limit has gone below it to reset and then spent again. i expect that the sox will as well.

graterol will probably immediately become the #1 pitching prospect in the sox minor league system. he throws around 99-100 mph and has a great sider. he is clearly one of the top 50 minor league prospects out there.

verdugo is very young as well and if his back injury is in the past you can expect something such as JBJ with a good batting average.

neither is mookie, even combined. but either and certainly both are better than a middling draft pick or a financially crippling contract.

TP to this. I am not exactly psyched about the trade, but understand the idea of resetting and starting fresh. I like Mookie, but do consider him a little overrated and just don't think a Mike Trout contract is reasonable at all for him. No way do I consider him a top 5 player in baseball. And even though he doesn't play D, I personally even prefer JD Martinez.

The Sox have won 4 World Series' since 2004; it's not like the ownership group has been stingy and there have been times when we've traded away big salaries and got the farm system back up and running. If we had lost a close series in the playoffs last year, it would be one thing, but we were pretty much trash last season - even with Mookie putting up solid numbers.

TP...            hwangjini_1              I agree completely.             I root for the Sox no matter if their bad, i hated they traded Betts, but i understand why they did...

We can keep telling ourselves that it was a trade that must be done, but the fact is the Dodgers robbed them.

Now if the Dodgers don't win it all next season, there'll be people losing jobs there

[Phantom255x]

Screw the Sox. Cheaters and cheapskates.

I’m rooting for the Dodgers this year.

did you turn on the sox when nomar was sent packing?

i root for the sox, first, last, and forever. a sox team with mookie would be more fun to root for, but they are still the sox so i follow them. i will miss mookie, but at least the sox will still score a lot of runs and be in play for the wild card....which would have been their hope even with mookie on the team.

mookie was pretty much gone after next season. so, to get two young players with high upside is better than a mediocre draft pick. mookie would want close to trout money, which would really harm the ability to keep a good team around him because of cost.

and, there is no guarantee mookie would have come back to boston as other bidders would have entered the fray.

no mlb team constantly lives above the luxury tax. you can say a lot of things about Henry, but one thing he isn’t is cheap. he has invested in this team. every big market team that has gone above the tax limit has gone below it to reset and then spent again. i expect that the sox will as well.

graterol will probably immediately become the #1 pitching prospect in the sox minor league system. he throws around 99-100 mph and has a great sider. he is clearly one of the top 50 minor league prospects out there.

verdugo is very young as well and if his back injury is in the past you can expect something such as JBJ with a good batting average.

neither is mookie, even combined. but either and certainly both are better than a middling draft pick or a financially crippling contract.

TP to this. I am not exactly psyched about the trade, but understand the idea of resetting and starting fresh. I like Mookie, but do consider him a little overrated and just don't think a Mike Trout contract is reasonable at all for him. No way do I consider him a top 5 player in baseball. And even though he doesn't play D, I personally even prefer JD Martinez.

The Sox have won 4 World Series' since 2004; it's not like the ownership group has been stingy and there have been times when we've traded away big salaries and got the farm system back up and running. If we had lost a close series in the playoffs last year, it would be one thing, but we were pretty much trash last season - even with Mookie putting up solid numbers.

TP...            hwangjini_1              I agree completely.             I root for the Sox no matter if their bad, i hated they traded Betts, but i understand why they did...

We can keep telling ourselves that it was a trade that must be done, but the fact is the Dodgers robbed them.

Now if the Dodgers don't win it all next season, there'll be people losing jobs there

Dodgers fans and their media have been pushing a "win now" agenda all winter long.

Look at their blogs and social media pages. Their fans are begging for them to make these kinds of moves lol. They’re feeling desperate for a title.

Hell, some of them still want them to go ahead and trade for Lindor now 

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Screw the Sox. Cheaters and cheapskates.

I’m rooting for the Dodgers this year.

did you turn on the sox when nomar was sent packing?

i root for the sox, first, last, and forever. a sox team with mookie would be more fun to root for, but they are still the sox so i follow them. i will miss mookie, but at least the sox will still score a lot of runs and be in play for the wild card....which would have been their hope even with mookie on the team.

mookie was pretty much gone after next season. so, to get two young players with high upside is better than a mediocre draft pick. mookie would want close to trout money, which would really harm the ability to keep a good team around him because of cost.

and, there is no guarantee mookie would have come back to boston as other bidders would have entered the fray.

no mlb team constantly lives above the luxury tax. you can say a lot of things about Henry, but one thing he isn’t is cheap. he has invested in this team. every big market team that has gone above the tax limit has gone below it to reset and then spent again. i expect that the sox will as well.

graterol will probably immediately become the #1 pitching prospect in the sox minor league system. he throws around 99-100 mph and has a great sider. he is clearly one of the top 50 minor league prospects out there.

verdugo is very young as well and if his back injury is in the past you can expect something such as JBJ with a good batting average.

neither is mookie, even combined. but either and certainly both are better than a middling draft pick or a financially crippling contract.

Except no other big-market team felt compelled to trade an in-his-prime future Hall of Famer.

It's one thing to dump some overpaid pitchers or injury-prone players, or guys who haven't lived up to their contracts; it's quite another to dump one of the game's best players.

[GreenEnvy]

Man its really weird to have fans buy into the idea that the mega rich owners need to cut salary to avoid luxury tax payments rather than try to win. Even buying into the idea he was never coming back, then you keep him and contend this year and trade him at the deadline if you are out of it. Try to win!

Red Sox re-branding to the Pirates operational model, profits > winning.

What is the point of sports if your team doesn't even want the second best player in baseball on its team for fear of not raking in quite as much profit.

What good reason is there to believe they would realistically contend next year? Without getting into the 2018 allegations, almost the entire roster exceeded expectations (why there was severe regression is debatable, but let’s wait on the investigation for that).

Do you think, even with Mookie, that the 2020 team would play closer to the 2019 or 2018 teams? I vote the former.

So, if they have good intel (for whatever reason) that they can’t retain Betts after this upcoming season, you have to move him. You couldn’t move him after they fell out of contention last season, and waiting til the summer deadline is also too risky.

Now whether this was truly the best offer they could get, that’s the real question. It seems like an bad deal considering they are eating so much of Price’s contract. He wasn’t awful last season, so paying $16M per for 3 years (half his remaining contract) doesn’t seem quite the albatross it’s made out to be.

Plenty of teams trade away their superstars more in fear of losing them for nothing. I know they cited the luxury tax many times, but I also think they believe he would’ve left regardless.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Screw the Sox. Cheaters and cheapskates.

I’m rooting for the Dodgers this year.

did you turn on the sox when nomar was sent packing?

i root for the sox, first, last, and forever. a sox team with mookie would be more fun to root for, but they are still the sox so i follow them. i will miss mookie, but at least the sox will still score a lot of runs and be in play for the wild card....which would have been their hope even with mookie on the team.

mookie was pretty much gone after next season. so, to get two young players with high upside is better than a mediocre draft pick. mookie would want close to trout money, which would really harm the ability to keep a good team around him because of cost.

and, there is no guarantee mookie would have come back to boston as other bidders would have entered the fray.

no mlb team constantly lives above the luxury tax. you can say a lot of things about Henry, but one thing he isn’t is cheap. he has invested in this team. every big market team that has gone above the tax limit has gone below it to reset and then spent again. i expect that the sox will as well.

graterol will probably immediately become the #1 pitching prospect in the sox minor league system. he throws around 99-100 mph and has a great sider. he is clearly one of the top 50 minor league prospects out there.

verdugo is very young as well and if his back injury is in the past you can expect something such as JBJ with a good batting average.

neither is mookie, even combined. but either and certainly both are better than a middling draft pick or a financially crippling contract.

TP to this. I am not exactly psyched about the trade, but understand the idea of resetting and starting fresh. I like Mookie, but do consider him a little overrated and just don't think a Mike Trout contract is reasonable at all for him. No way do I consider him a top 5 player in baseball. And even though he doesn't play D, I personally even prefer JD Martinez.

The Sox have won 4 World Series' since 2004; it's not like the ownership group has been stingy and there have been times when we've traded away big salaries and got the farm system back up and running. If we had lost a close series in the playoffs last year, it would be one thing, but we were pretty much trash last season - even with Mookie putting up solid numbers.

TP...            hwangjini_1              I agree completely.             I root for the Sox no matter if their bad, i hated they traded Betts, but i understand why they did...

We can keep telling ourselves that it was a trade that must be done, but the fact is the Dodgers robbed them.

Now if the Dodgers don't win it all next season, there'll be people losing jobs there

Dodgers fans and their media have been pushing a "win now" agenda all winter long.

Look at their blogs and social media pages. Their fans are begging for them to make these kinds of moves lol. They’re feeling desperate for a title.

Hell, some of them still want them to go ahead and trade for Lindor now 

Most of my friends are Dodgers fans, and they're saying that anything less than a WS title this year will be an embarrassment. I don't know if I'd go that far—the Yankees look to be just about as good as the Dodgers—but it certainly will have some negative repercussions throughout the Dodgers organization and their fans.

[PhoSita]

https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/02/05/red-sox-trade-mookie-betts-dodgers

That’s right: Lest we forget, the Red Sox won the World Series two years ago, with largely the same team that was scheduled to report to Fort Myers, Fla., next week. That’s what makes this move so dismal. It’s bad enough when a club that just lost 100 games tries to start over. This is a championship-level collection of players that is being dismantled because its absurdly wealthy owner doesn’t feel like paying it.

When the Red Sox traded Betts, they said two things to their fans: Maybe next year. And: Screw you.

[jambr380]

I know Mookie wants to go to FA, but if he can secure the kind of deal he wants now, he might be smart to do so. A lot of players who switch teams don't always have the best transition; and it's not like he is going to a more hitter friendly park. It would be a shame for him if after all this, he went out there and hit like .276 with 20 HRs and 72 RBIs.

Like, of course he will still be good and will get a monstrous contract either way, but he got away from the team who didn't want to pay him the big bucks and is now on a team that most certainly will do everything they can to keep him.

[Fafnir]

Man its really weird to have fans buy into the idea that the mega rich owners need to cut salary to avoid luxury tax payments rather than try to win. Even buying into the idea he was never coming back, then you keep him and contend this year and trade him at the deadline if you are out of it. Try to win!

Red Sox re-branding to the Pirates operational model, profits > winning.

What is the point of sports if your team doesn't even want the second best player in baseball on its team for fear of not raking in quite as much profit.

What good reason is there to believe they would realistically contend next year? Without getting into the 2018 allegations, almost the entire roster exceeded expectations (why there was severe regression is debatable, but let’s wait on the investigation for that).

Do you think, even with Mookie, that the 2020 team would play closer to the 2019 or 2018 teams? I vote the former.

So, if they have good intel (for whatever reason) that they can’t retain Betts after this upcoming season, you have to move him. You couldn’t move him after they fell out of contention last season, and waiting til the summer deadline is also too risky.

Now whether this was truly the best offer they could get, that’s the real question. It seems like an bad deal considering they are eating so much of Price’s contract. He wasn’t awful last season, so paying $16M per for 3 years (half his remaining contract) doesn’t seem quite the albatross it’s made out to be.

Plenty of teams trade away their superstars more in fear of losing them for nothing. I know they cited the luxury tax many times, but I also think they believe he would’ve left regardless.

They could have easily waited till the trade deadline to move him and tried to win. The fact that they didn't' showed that the priority wasn't prospects, but how much money could they squeeze out with him.

You build around 27 year old MVP players who are on HoF trajectories, you don't use them to dump contracts. The Red Sox weren't a hopelessly bad team that needed to move on! They were an above .500 squad with a solid run differential.

Its amazing to me that so many here are resigned to some sort of rebuild instead of contending for the playoffs this upcoming season. Owners being cheap is not okay, the Red Sox aren't the freakin Pittsburgh Pirates.

[Fafnir]

I know Mookie wants to go to FA, but if he can secure the kind of deal he wants now, he might be smart to do so. A lot of players who switch teams don't always have the best transition; and it's not like he is going to a more hitter friendly park. It would be a shame for him if after all this, he went out there and hit like .276 with 20 HRs and 72 RBIs.

Like, of course he will still be good and will get a monstrous contract either way, but he got away from the team who didn't want to pay him the big bucks and is now on a team that most certainly will do everything they can to keep him.

Even if he has a down year he's going to get a massive deal barring some sort of truly horrific injury. Too consistent in his production from year to year.

[Fafnir]

I am still in shock so many fans on this board seem to think that the same restrictions on the Royals apply to the Red Sox....

[Roy H.]

I am still in shock so many fans on this board seem to think that the same restrictions on the Royals apply to the Red Sox....

Years of team-influenced and controlled media indoctrinating them into a belief in “fiscal responsibility”.

2019 figures aren’t out yet, but in 2018 the Sox made $85 million in profit, while team value increased 14% to $3.2 billion.  That profit doesn’t include 80% ownership of NESN; Roush Racing; or FC Liverpool.  Oh, and they just raised ticket prices.

The Sox easily could have added significant salary. They could have afforded Betts and Strasburg while still paying the bloated salaries on the payroll.  Instead, Henry has some fans convinced that this deal needed to be done to be competitive long term. PT Barnum-esque.

[Fafnir]

I am still in shock so many fans on this board seem to think that the same restrictions on the Royals apply to the Red Sox....

Years of team-influenced and controlled media indoctrinating them into a belief in “fiscal responsibility”.

2019 figures aren’t out yet, but in 2018 the Sox made $85 million in profit, while team value increased 14% to $3.2 billion.  That profit doesn’t include 80% ownership of NESN; Roush Racing; or FC Liverpool.  Oh, and they just raised ticket prices.

The Sox easily could have added significant salary. They could have afforded Betts and Strasburg while still paying the bloated salaries on the payroll.  Instead, Henry has some fans convinced that this deal needed to be done to be competitive long term. PT Barnum-esque.

I hear they've also been buying up businesses and properties around Fenway, setting up to capture as much income from around the park as well.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I know Mookie wants to go to FA, but if he can secure the kind of deal he wants now, he might be smart to do so. A lot of players who switch teams don't always have the best transition; and it's not like he is going to a more hitter friendly park. It would be a shame for him if after all this, he went out there and hit like .276 with 20 HRs and 72 RBIs.

Like, of course he will still be good and will get a monstrous contract either way, but he got away from the team who didn't want to pay him the big bucks and is now on a team that most certainly will do everything they can to keep him.

This would be absolutely hilarious.

Man its really weird to have fans buy into the idea that the mega rich owners need to cut salary to avoid luxury tax payments rather than try to win. Even buying into the idea he was never coming back, then you keep him and contend this year and trade him at the deadline if you are out of it. Try to win!

Red Sox re-branding to the Pirates operational model, profits > winning.

What is the point of sports if your team doesn't even want the second best player in baseball on its team for fear of not raking in quite as much profit.

What good reason is there to believe they would realistically contend next year? Without getting into the 2018 allegations, almost the entire roster exceeded expectations (why there was severe regression is debatable, but let’s wait on the investigation for that).

Do you think, even with Mookie, that the 2020 team would play closer to the 2019 or 2018 teams? I vote the former.

So, if they have good intel (for whatever reason) that they can’t retain Betts after this upcoming season, you have to move him. You couldn’t move him after they fell out of contention last season, and waiting til the summer deadline is also too risky.

Now whether this was truly the best offer they could get, that’s the real question. It seems like an bad deal considering they are eating so much of Price’s contract. He wasn’t awful last season, so paying $16M per for 3 years (half his remaining contract) doesn’t seem quite the albatross it’s made out to be.

Plenty of teams trade away their superstars more in fear of losing them for nothing. I know they cited the luxury tax many times, but I also think they believe he would’ve left regardless.

They could have easily waited till the trade deadline to move him and tried to win. The fact that they didn't' showed that the priority wasn't prospects, but how much money could they squeeze out with him.

You build around 27 year old MVP players who are on HoF trajectories, you don't use them to dump contracts. The Red Sox weren't a hopelessly bad team that needed to move on! They were an above .500 squad with a solid run differential.

Its amazing to me that so many here are resigned to some sort of rebuild instead of contending for the playoffs this upcoming season. Owners being cheap is not okay, the Red Sox aren't the freakin Pittsburgh Pirates.

Rotation: Even with a healthy Sale and Eovaldi, the rotation is nothing great, and I'm confident that Sale and Eovaldi will not stay healthy this season.

Bullpen: Was mostly a mess last season, and as of now, at least, the Sox haven't done anything to address that.

Lineup: They really have only 3 consistently good, dangerous hitters: Bogaerts, Devers, and Martinez. Benny isn't panning out at the plate (a measly 13 homers during last year's historic "season of the home run"), Jackie mostly stinks as a hitter, Verdugo is likely a huge downgrade from Mookie, and Moreland and Chavis are average.

Plus, at this late stage of the offseason, it's going to be pretty tough to significantly upgrade anything.

Conclusion: I think it's much more likely that the Sox miss the playoffs than make them. Last year a lot of fans kept saying, "But this is nearly the same team that won the previous World Series!", but I really have to wonder whether 2018 was the anomaly and 2019 was a truer representation of this team's overall ability.

[Fafnir]

You say they couldn't really upgrade at this point in the offseason, which is absolutely correct. But you have it backwards in that this is a reason why the Mookie deal makes sense.

The reason they didn't upgrade is that the offseason priority was dumping salary and trading Mookie. Their entire offseason was structured around cutting payroll and they were looking to find the best Mookie trade they could to cut said payroll. They probably spent more time arguing around the salary they'd kick in for Price than prospects.

They were literally hoping that one of their best players would decline his option and become a FA so they wouldn't have to pay him on a one year deal. Profits > winning.