The Mookie Betts trade has finally happened, but how does it impact the teams involved?
The Mookie Betts trade rumors have gone on for what feels like forever, but they finally came to a close Tuesday night. In a three team trade, the Boston Red Sox traded Mookie Betts and David Price to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for Alex Verdugo, and pitching prospect Brusdar Graterol from the Minnesota Twins. This trade is a blockbuster and one of the biggest trades in recent years, so lets break it down and figure out what it means for the Red Sox and the Dodgers.
Mookie Betts is a Dodger now, the same team Betts and the Red Sox beat in the World Series just over a year ago, is now going to be their starting right fielder (or Center Fielder, that we’ll wait to see). The Dodgers who won 106 games last season have added the second best player in the entire game (behind Mike Trout). In a separate deal, the Dodgers sent outfielder Joc Pederson to the Angels in exchange for infielder Luis Rengifo. Pederson is a great bat to have in the lineup but when they had acquired Betts they could no longer afford him, as Pederson is set to make between 7–9 million dollars through arbitration in 2020. The Dodgers become the clear favorite to be the best team in baseball in 2020, they have a great starting rotation with the likes of Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, and Ross Stripling, and they now add David Price. Price is on the declining part of his career, but he without a doubt can still serve as a very serviceable starter in the Dodgers rotation, and as of writing this the rumors have it that the Red Sox are still going to be paying about half his contract. The Dodgers are going to have an near unstoppable lineup, they have the 2019 NL MVP in Cody Bellinger and Mookie Betts who won the AL MVP in 2018, they also have Max Muncy who is turning into one of the best players in the game, and Corey Seager who is a bright young star at shortstop.
The Red Sox … uh … well … they cut their payroll ? The Red Sox made a franchise altering decision on Tuesday. They had the choice to either pay Betts this off-season for a reported 12 year, $420 million contract that Betts was looking for, they could either attempt to trade him this off-season or try and trade him at the Trade Deadline in July. No matter what decision they made, it was going to change the team for many years to come . If they signed Betts to his (deserved) contract they would have showed the league and the world that they were looking to continue to win and that they weren't going to go through any sort of “rebuild” per say, and if they traded Betts it meant that they were going to start a rebuild and try to revamp their farm system which has started to dwindle in the past couple of years. Do I think the Red Sox were smart to trade Betts ? No, definitely not. The Red Sox had the second best player in the league on their team, and because they wanted to cut payroll, they decided that it was better for the franchise if they traded him and saved those hundred millions of dollars for a rainy day. The return isn’t amazing, but it also isn’t horrible.
The bigger name of the two prospects the Red Sox got is Alex Verdugo. Alex Verdugo is a 23 year old outfielder, who has a tremendous upside. Verdugo, in his first full season in the majors, hit for a .294 batting average, along with 12 Home Runs, and 44 RBI’s with an OPS of .817 in just 106 games. The Dodgers saw value in Verdugo , as they have been hesitant on dealing him, he was supposed to be involved in a few trades the past couple years, and before it fell through, he was going to be one of the main pieces in the package going to the Indians for Francisco Lindor. Verdugo has a very high ceiling, I think its very possible that Verdugo could turn into a star in the big leagues. What we saw with Mookie Betts and what we are seeing with Red Sox Outfielder, Andrew Benitendi, is that the Red Sox are very good at developing young players, especially young outfielders. The Red Sox are likely to have Verdugo be one of the three starting outfielders come Opening Day. The other player the Red Sox got is Brusdar Graterol. Graterol immediately becomes the best prospect in the Red Sox farm system, as he was already ranked the 83rd best prospect in all of baseball. Graterol is an elite pitching prospect, he’s only 21 years old (insert Gleyber Torres meme here), he throws a 100MPH sinker and he has already developed what a lot of pitchers his age haven't, and that is control. His BB/9 was 2.7 (and 1.9 in the Majors but a very small sample size) in the minors last season which is very good for a young pitcher. Graterol only gave up 4 home runs in 61 innings between all levels of the minors last season, and that is elite territory. The biggest problems young pitchers usually have is the control of their pitches (BB/9) and they usually give up a lot of home runs, but Graterol has already climbed over that barrier. The main question surrounding Graterol is if he will be a starting pitcher or a relief pitcher. He has the ability to become the Red Sox’s right handed version of Aroldis Chapman, but he also has the ability to be a great starting pitcher as well. I think the Red Sox will likely start him off in the bullpen this season, whether that be in the Majors or in Triple-A, but they may attempt to develop him into a starting pitcher.
The Red Sox and the Dodgers pulled off one of the biggest blockbuster trades the league has seen for years, the Red Sox trimmed their payroll and gained two very good young prospects, and the Dodgers become the sure favorite to win not only the NL West division but to win the World Series (It is probably close between them and the Yankees). A possibility is that maybe the Red Sox are using this season to stay under the Luxury tax threshold, and by dumping the contract of David Price, and the $27 million that Betts was going to make this season due to arbitration, the Red Sox could attempt to make a run at getting Betts next off-season. The Red Sox are going to be in for a lot of criticism this year, they are likely to have a poor season on the field, and they are going to realize the hard way how valuable Mookie Betts really is.
