This is absolutely correct, but as you can see from the snarky response you received, there's a ton of willful ignorance from the Mookie über alles crowd on the substantial role the pandemic played in how things ended up. The consistent message that winter was that Mookie was absolutely determined to test free agency. To the extent that the Sox had a shot at negotiating an extension with him (if it was even possible), it would have been far larger than the deal he ultimately took from the Dodgers. He was traded just over a month before Covid was declared a pandemic and became a global emergency. If there had been any snags in the negotiations of that trade which pushed things off by a few weeks, it's possible it never even happens. Mookie signed his extension with the Dodgers in July, right before MLB started up playing that bizarre bubble season and when the world had been turned completely upside down with no vaccines and pretty limited visibility on the near future. It's absurd to think that his priorities, and desire for immediate security over getting top dollar on the free market, hadn't changed dramatically by that point.