All of a sudden, the Boston Red Sox want to be like the Pittsburgh Pirates rather than match wits with their traditional rivals — the New York Yankees.
How else would you describe this mad rush to unload one of the top three players in all of baseball before his contract expires at the end of this current season.
This just makes no sense at all.
In five years, Mookie Betts has risen to the upper echelon of the upper echelon of the game. He is the proverbial five-tool player. There isn’t a thing he can’t do.
Jackie Bradley Jr. can certainly play a mean center field. He can run. And he can throw lasers from anywhere in the ballpark. But he goes through long stretches of being an automatic out.
J.D. Martinez can hit. And he’s clutch. His bat makes a big difference in the lineup. But you take a deep breath and hold it when the ball’s hit his way. That’s why he’s your designated hitter.
The Red Sox have been fortunate in the last two years because they have two all-purpose superstars in their lineup: Xander Bogaerts and Betts.
Let’s call Bogaerts a four-tool player. Or maybe even a 3½-tool player. He can hit and hit for power, he has an accurate throwing arm, and decent range. But I’ve never seen anyone accuse him of being able to run fast.
There isn’t a thing Betts can’t do. He is the Lincoln Town Car of the Red Sox fleet.
I understand keeping him is going to cost money. And please, people, don’t preach to me about the fact that no athlete should be making these obscene amounts of money. While I get that on one level, people who keep saying this miss the point: that the market in which the Mookie Betts of the world compete, this is the pay scale. Your pay scale, and certainly my pay scale, aren’t in the same ballpark, if you’ll pardon the gratuitous pun.
In that context, and with that reality, we must discuss the folly of turning down a 10-year, $300 million contract, as Betts apparently did, responding to said offer by the Red Sox by pitching 12 years at $420 million.
If you know anything about bargaining, you know that the first two numbers floated in contract talks do nothing more than set the parameters for future discussion. I realize $120 million is an awful lot of Simoleons, but now, at least, the two sides can deal.
And I hope they do. Betts is a once-in-a-generation player who understands that, at his age (27), this will be his one and only shot at cashing in on his abilities at a rate commensurate to the market values of Bryce Harper and Mike Trout.
Much was made, last year, when Sox owner John Henry talked of scaling the payroll back to be under the luxury tax threshold. It seemed to be a shot across the bow at Betts. And it doesn’t really matter whether Henry tried to back away from that claim (which he did) either. That seems to be the Red Sox mindset.
But the Red Sox have some things working against them. They’re caught up to the eye teeth in this sign-stealing scandal, and it’s cost them their manager. They also woefully underperformed last season (which is more on the pitchers than it is on Betts, who ended up hitting .295 with 29 homers, and scored 135 runs). And they are one of Major League Baseball’s signature franchises. They’re not in too strong a position to turn frugal all of a sudden.
No matter who they get for Betts in a trade, it’s not going to be enough to match the skill and the excitement he brings to the ballpark every day. And I, for one, will take this failure to come to terms with him as an overt admission by the ownership that competing is not on the top of its list of priorities.
Do not trade him. Sign him.
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].