Betts/Price to LA for Verdugo/Jeter Downs/TBA

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bankshot1

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They weren't going to re-sign Mookie and they wanted to get more than a 4th round pick. I don't think it's a lot more complicated than that.
I understand that Mookie seemed intent on becoming a FA. Way back when when trading Betts was first discussed here I suggested packaging Price with Betts.I'm just not real happy about trading one of the best and most entertaining players the Sox have ever had. Players like him don't come around all that often.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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If it's only Mookie, then you are correct - $27M in relief now versus $10M in July. (I was counting approx. 50% of Price as well, trying to be an optimist.)
Ahh, yeah, I see. Waiting until July would add risk too, I guess. Once Mookie has earned about $8 million, they are over the cap and must dump another player to get under. I could see where Bloom gets nervous. If it gets to June and Price is injured, they are screwed.
 

GoDa

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Sep 25, 2017
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over/under on MLB career IP for Bruce Gatorade... 200?
oooooh! and we get a cheap fungible OF!

fantastic haul. joy and optimism will sweep over the Hub.

this is going to be one of the worst attended Sox seasons in a long time. I bet they don't win 81.
 

SouthernBoSox

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It’s tough for me to not look at the Dodgers who just traded a talented/solid but not spectacular OF and Maeda for Mookie Betts and a subsidized David Price and not think they came out smelling like roses.

With subsiding Price I would have expected another player in this. I like the 2 the Red Sox got but I think a couple of more lower level prospect pieces seem appropriate.
 

UncleStinkfinger

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Oct 8, 2015
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i cant remember being this disappointed in the red sox or a sports team. not sure i'll be buying that extra innings package this year. folding the season before it starts.
 

Ed Hillel

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over/under on MLB career IP for Bruce Gatorade... 200?
oooooh! and we get a cheap fungible OF!

fantastic haul. joy and optimism will sweep over the Hub.

this is going to be one of the worst attended Sox seasons in a long time. I bet they don't win 81.
Better they had won 85 and Mookie walks for a comp pick (or nothing, depending on punishment)?
 

Muppet

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I can't work out if I have to burn my Mookie jersey or not.
Absolutely burn it, if he wasn't so selfish we wouldn't be in this position.

On another topic I have a John Henry no: 12/420 jersey you might be interested in.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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It’s tough for me to not look at the Dodgers who just traded a talented/solid but not spectacular OF and Maeda for Mookie Betts and a subsidized David Price and not think they came out smelling like roses.

With subsiding Price I would have expected another player in this. I like the 2 the Red Sox got but I think a couple of more lower level prospect pieces seem appropriate.
Shame the Dodgers didn't have Dombrowski running the show. Guy was great at throwing in solid low-level prospects as the 3rd and 4th pieces.
 

Ed Hillel

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No, that would be 2014 when they signed Hanley and Panda, and then traded for Porcello and signed him to big money as well. The only saving grace of that entire offseason was signing Moncada.
Don’t forget the foreplay of the 2014 offseason - Signing Rusney Castillo to a 7-year deal.
 

JCizzle

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i cant remember being this disappointed in the red sox or a sports team. not sure i'll be buying that extra innings package this year. folding the season before it starts.
I think Smiling Joe Hesketh has been making the point I agree with - ratings will tank and they'll make some sort of Pablo Sandoval signing overreaction to this fuck up.
 

mikeot

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Contrary to some of the conventional wisdom on this board, I like this trade for the long haul. A few thoughts:

1. Mookie is not Yaz. Yaz did not rebuff consistent team efforts to sign him to a long-term contract. Mookie probably doesn't want to re-sign with the Red Sox, and the Red Sox couldn't and shouldn't afford his contract demands.
2. This isn't really about saving John Henry's money. This is about re-setting the Red Sox payroll to avoid long-term luxury tax and draft penalties that hamstring the team's future competitiveness.
3. Jettisoning Price has to be considered a positive. While he may be a great teammate, he's a distraction and a public-relations albatross in the Boston media market.
4. Two major league ready prospects with nearly a decade of control between them strike me as a decent haul for 1 year of an un-resign-able Mookie and a guy none of us should be sad to see go.
5. Payroll flexibility! Bloom just undid all of Dombrowski's subpar payroll management, and now has a much cleaner slate to work with going forward.
Once the tears and rage subside, this makes perfect sense.
 

GoDa

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Sep 25, 2017
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The same reaction when Kyrie and Horford walked out the door last summer.

The Celtics survived, so will the Sox.
Absolutely not the same reaction. People were packing Kyrie's bags and everyone knew Al was on the back 9. Not even close.
 

8slim

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Everything else aside, this makes me incredibly sad. I loved watching Mookie Betts play baseball for the Sox. I would have enjoyed doing so for many more years.
 

moondog80

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Sep 20, 2005
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I can’t believe Friedman was able to turn Kenya Maeda into Graterol. Does he have naked pictures of someone?
Maeda is stupidly cheap. 12.5 total the next 4 years. Graterol is cheap too but has 9.2 IP in the majors and There Is No Such Thing As a Pitching Prospect.
 

mauf

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Alternatively, if they only wanted to get under the tax, couldn't they have done that by just trading Price (and JBJ if that wasn't quite enough)?
It’s clear that the market for Price was worse than you and I thought. If CB could’ve found a team willing to eat half of Price’s contract without a sweetener, he would’ve done that deal separately and gotten a better haul for Mookie.
 

bosockboy

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It’s tough for me to not look at the Dodgers who just traded a talented/solid but not spectacular OF and Maeda for Mookie Betts and a subsidized David Price and not think they came out smelling like roses.

With subsiding Price I would have expected another player in this. I like the 2 the Red Sox got but I think a couple of more lower level prospect pieces seem appropriate.
Not the same trade but they moved Pederson to make room.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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I think Smiling Joe Hesketh has been making the point I agree with - ratings will tank and they'll make some sort of Pablo Sandoval signing overreaction to this fuck up.
This is the thing—they have made these mistakes in the past when they thought they saw a good opportunity to acquire talent for just money. If Bloom can avoid the trap—and is empowered to avoid the trap in the first place—then maybe we'll be okay.
 

DeadlySplitter

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I see the outside opinion is the Dodgers fleeced us, not surprised by this prevailing opinion.

But Price is a negative asset... Mookie is a near-lock for at least 5 WAR, but who knows beyond that... feels overall like a fair trade to me
 

DJnVa

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Thinking this board underestimates Mookie's talent takes a dim view of the posters here.
 

In my lifetime

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Talent-wise of course it is no contest. However, this is all about resetting the cap and the absolute fact that Betts was going to test the market unless blown away with a 12/400+ offer.

Price is clearly a negative asset for the next 3 years. I think it also shows that the days of a Punto-like trade with that kind of salary dump and return is no longer in the cards. Money, long term contracts and the cap matter.
 
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Soxy

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This move isn't about this season. It's about the long term health of the ball club.

They're basically hitting the reset button after Dombrowski threw all of their money at the major league roster, while ignoring the farm system. You can only do that for so long before the bill comes due, the well is dry, and now you have a roster full of overpaid, underperforming vets, with no talent pipeline behind them, and you're screwed for a decade. That's the road they were headed down.

They gave Dombrowski too much leeway after winning the World Series, which was a mistake. But they're admitting that mistake. They've course corrected, sanity has taken hold, they've pulled the rug out, and now it's back to reality.

For the long term health of the Boston Red Sox, this is a good thing, not a bad thing.
 

BornToRun

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Well goddamnit. I get it but I certainly don’t like it. Mookie should’ve been a Red Sock for life and I’m really bummed about losing Price too as he was one of my favorites. I’ll still be here come opening day but it’s hard not to be incredibly bummed right now.

Thanks for everything, Mookie and David.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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It’s tough for me to not look at the Dodgers who just traded a talented/solid but not spectacular OF and Maeda for Mookie Betts and a subsidized David Price and not think they came out smelling like roses.

With subsiding Price I would have expected another player in this. I like the 2 the Red Sox got but I think a couple of more lower level prospect pieces seem appropriate.
You have to think about baseball like you do football. The dodgers got down to 190m in 2018, and so they can rent a year of Mookie and take on half of Price. Just like in football, it is cyclical. Some teams are up in the cap and some are down.
 

glennhoffmania

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$27 million on Betts and $15.5(if it's half of the $31 that counts towards the CBT)for Price so its $42 million. But still a significant savings on the 2020 CBT count. Then also saving $15.5 in the next 2 years.
Ok. I thought you meant in total. Yeah it's like 75m total.
 

BaseballJones

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Everything else aside, this makes me incredibly sad. I loved watching Mookie Betts play baseball for the Sox. I would have enjoyed doing so for many more years.
You may still. Getting under the tax threshold was the only shot they had at signing Mookie long-term. And sadly, trading him now was the way to get under the threshold. This, ironically, probably gives them their best shot at having Mookie long-term. IF, that is, that's what they want to do. Maybe they have no interest in that. I dunno.
 

GoDa

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Sep 25, 2017
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I see the outside opinion is the Dodgers fleeced us, not surprised by this prevailing opinion.

But Price is a negative asset... Mookie is a near-lock for at least 5 WAR, but who knows beyond that... feels overall like a fair trade to me
Is there any doubt Mookie will put up an AS/MVP season, or of Price being the kind of guy that will pitch the season with a chip on his shoulder and be a top-10 NL starter?

Gatorballs probably hurts himself in ST and the other guy will end up half of some mediocre OF platoon.
 

Coachster

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So gang, we’re going to have to spend some of that found cash for a starter ASAP. Unless you relish the idea of Hector Velazquez every five days.
 

OurF'ingCity

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This is just not accurate, at all. No amount of "foresight with contract and salary management" would have convinced Mookie Betts to sign an extension instead of hitting free agency. And no amount of "foresight with contract and salary management" would make it a good idea to pin your hopes on being the high bidder next off-season.
How can you say this...we have no idea if Mookie would have accepted, say, 10/360, because the Sox never offered it, because they were dead-set on trading Mookie.
 

DJnVa

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The folks saying they should hold Betts and if in race in summer, just go for it, are ignoring the future. Which is kind of what got us here. It's a different path but eventually the piper will be paid.
 

8slim

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You may still. Getting under the tax threshold was the only shot they had at signing Mookie long-term. And sadly, trading him now was the way to get under the threshold. This, ironically, probably gives them their best shot at having Mookie long-term. IF, that is, that's what they want to do. Maybe they have no interest in that. I dunno.
I’m not bothering to waste time considering that incredibly unlikely scenario. He’s gone.
 

HangingW/ScottCooper

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So if the Dodgers are paying half of Price's contract ($32 mil a year) that's slightly different than the $31 mil a year of the AAV for the life of the contract.

Per Cots this should put the Sox just under $185 mil for the 40 man.
 
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