Actually, it makes it very hard to swallow.
It depends on whether they want to dump salary or get prospects. Unless there's a bidding war, they likely don't get an elite prospect back as it's only for a year. It's unlikely that he doesn't test the FA market at this point. If the Dodgers don't win it this year, I can see them going all in. They have the pieces. Atlanta, Chicago, San Diego are possibilities.
Realistically, is there any way a trade of Betts wouldn't be about getting prospects and reloading/rebuilding? If it were only a matter of dumping salary, they could simply non-tender him. Obviously that's not something they're going to do and I'm not suggesting it's remotely in their thinking. But that only leaves trading Betts for future gains (prospects).
If Mookie expects Trout level duration and AAV, he's either going to be disappointed or someone's going to make a whale of an overpay. The measure of Mookie's greatness is not that he's as good as Trout, but that you can say "Mookie's not as good as Trout" and not be engaging in comical understatement. There's a difference between being a top-5 player in your generation and being a top-5 player in the history of the game. And that difference should be reflected in the price tag.
Good news! Emotions seem to mostly work against the original team, stuff like "they tried to get me to take a discount early on and now I'm insulted." Not that him just looking for the best combo of money and success means the Sox have a great shot to retain him, but at least we don't have to hear about semi-artificial nonsense being the reason he goes to the Yankees.
He would be opting out of a remaining 7/218, I would say there is well under a 1 percent chance that that happens.
I think the answer is, Mookie doesn't yet know what his market is yet, and isn't that his point? He knows what the floor is for him...$8/200 or whatever the Sox initially offered. Legitimately, he can probably expect somewhere between Machado/Harper and Trout, but he won't know exactly until the offers come in.
Why would he get more than Machado and Harper? He's a better player, but he'll be 2 years older when he reaches free agency. He might get a higher AAV, but 10 years is too long for someone going into their age 29 season.
If they move him it’s this winter. Only way you’d get good value.
So, he's talking about the $208M threshold? Good fucking luck. If they've known about this for a while, what was the game plan? Even if they had a good 2019, what was their plan to get back under?
I feel like this is an important follow up:
Looks like a separate thread was started for this discussion since it extends beyond (but centers on) Mookie.
If they make the best offer I don't see why he wouldn't comeback. If I was him and I liked playing in Boston, I wouldn't take it personally. The offer, itself, shows respect. Would you be offended if it were you?
Pujols was 32 when he left St Louis when he left. Mookie is 26 right now.
And would they really be that much better if they had traded Trout?
if he's traded because sox ownership determined awhile ago like they claim that they needed to get under the cap then it's 100% on ownership that they locked in sale and eovaldi over mookie
There's no way to know this without knowing what the next CBA will be, but right now, almost no FA deal over $50M total ends up being a good one for the club. Pre-arb players are too good and too cheap.
I don't disagree with any of that but, assuming that something close to the current system remains, teams like the Red Sox and Yankees will continue to spend money on free agents to supplement their prearb talent to build their ball clubs, and my guess is that WAR on the open market will remain really expensive.
Bye, Mookie. It’s going to be really sad to see him go, but unfortunately they dug the hole they’re climbing out of.
Why wouldn't the White Sox(capital letters can be fun!) trade for him? I could absolutely see them doing it.
The Yankees have already largely stopped giving out big FA deals, the Dodgers and Astros too. Gerrit Cole is (deservedly) going to get $200M+ this offseason, but I'll be very surprised if it's from one of those three teams.
And give up all that money? Why would he do that? Pedroia hasn't/won't
It's absolutely ridiculous that we're even having this discussion. He should be the face of this franchise, have his number retired, and go into the HOF as Red Sox player.
I am with you They let Mookie go because of contracts to Evoldi and that they owe Sandoval and Pedroia 20 mill+ next year, I may stop following the team. Whoever thought giving Pedroia 40 million for his age 35-37 seasons was a solid move?
The same people who want to give Mookie $120 million for his age 36-38 seasons? The free agent contract that isn't a complete and total waste in the last few years is very rare.
Pedroia more than earned his contract. He’s not the problem. Sandoval is officially over also.
The White Sox peak salary was $119m in 2013, and that clocked in at 8th in MLB. Since then they have come in at 20, 15, 20, 24, 29, and 26. It’s hard to imagine Reinsdorf signing off on a quantum leap in salary outlay that would come with extending Mookie. The plan on the South Side is to groom this generation of prospects, see how far they can take things, and let salaries rise incrementally with arbitration.
