I am on the side of fury that the Sox are going to cheap out and could lose the best player they have drafted and developed in ages. Through their media allies, we have been force fed the narrative that they must, MUST!, get below the luxury tax threshold like it's some kind of hard cap. I realize there are disadvantages to not getting below, but it's mainly money, and I could not care less what John Henry has to pay to field a team. He's made a fortune off this fan base and the woe-is-me being pushed is nauseating.
Just because financial mistakes - which ownership agreed to - have been made repeatedly, does not mean you deal Mookie. No team that I can recall has dealt a superstar in the winter before a potential walk year. If they crash, then sure, go ahead at the July 31 deadline. Again, this is narrative pushing through state-owned and compliant media. "Mookie is going to leave, we had to trade him." Bullsh*t. J.D. Martinez opted in and screwed up your austerity plan. If J.D. opts out, Mookie stays and his pending free agency is the non-story it should be in 2020 roster construction.
I think it's way too premature to use "cheap out."
The fact that Mookie is homegrown means nothing with respect to the current situation. Some players want to stay with a team. Some players want to lock up big life-changing money during their cost control years and are willing to give up the potential for bigger money at the back end for that assurance.
The single fact that matters most in this thing is that Mookie was not in these categories. He bet on himself. He played well enough to earn two very big arb year contracts and he now has a decent sized war chest to go for it all. And he's made clear that's exactly what he's going to do.
A player like that gives his current team pretty much zero options. All they have is the right to use his services during the cost controlled years. One of those years worked out pretty good. And part of using his services during the cost controlled years is to see if you can get other assets for him. Unless Mookie is being dishonest about his intentions, and he gets traded and signs an extension, there is no reason to believe that the Sox won't be in exactly the same position to sign him next year if he's off the team as they would be if he weren't.
In ten months, the Red Sox just become one of thirty teams when it comes to Mookie and that's the way he has wanted it. They are just playing the hand they are dealt. I'm really not sure what they could do differently.
The luxury tax threshold stuff is just noise at this point. Trade, don't trade, whatever. He's going to be a free agent next year. The question whether the Sox cheap out or not cannot be answered until it is known what contract he got. If he goes somewhere else next year for 10/300, then, yeah, obviously, the Sox (and many other teams) cheaped out. If he goes somewhere for 12/480, it should be looked at like any other contract in free agency.
The prospective anger about the Sox treating a guy who has stated he's going to be a free agent next year no matter what like he's a guy who is going to be a free agent next year no matter what is misdirected, in my view at least.