Boston Red Sox: A farewell to Mookie Betts and Sox future

The Boston Red Sox have officially traded Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a lame attempt to rebuild around another farm-produced hitter.

The Boston Red Sox continue their recent descent into moral ineptitude with the trade of Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.

The transaction was part of a three-team deal that sent center fielder Alex Verdugo to Boston, starting pitcher Kent Maeda to the Minnesota Twins, and David Price and Betts to the Dodgers.

With this agreement, the Sox organization is blatantly transitioning from a championship-caliber franchise to an unproven squad that now lacks a formidable centerpiece in an already talented batting order.

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Betts was a reigning MVP who possessed a .301 career batting average with the Boston Red Sox. He also retained four Gold Glove awards, four All-Star appearances, and one batting title.

Betts was a man amongst children, instilling fear in opposing pitchers every time he came up to bat with that tenacious snarl on his face.

The 2018 season was one of the greatest in Red Sox history thanks to Betts. He batted .346 and obtained a 10.9 WAR (Wins Above Replacement), which lead the league that year.

You know a player is transcendent when the announcer is able to predict what you’re about to do. That’s exactly what happened in a regular season contest against the Toronto Blue Jays a couple of summers ago.

After a 13-pitch at-bat, Betts smashed a grand slam off of Justin Smoak in one of the more infamous Red Sox moments of the past couple of years. Dennis Eckersley accurately envisioned this occurrence right before that 13th pitch. The crowd erupted. Things couldn’t have been better.

That, like many other fans, is my favorite Mookie moment. The electricity in the ballpark that night was uncanny. Betts is seen screaming at the dugout in delight and gratification.

A beautiful marriage began to form between stratospheric superstar and big-market franchise. Between his stellar 2016 MVP runner-up season and the aforementioned World Series run, it seemed like Betts was going to be in Boston for his entire career.

Unfortunately, this did not happen. John Henry and company did not know how to market him as the face of their organization, and I don’t know why. He’s a stand-up citizen who’s been seen feeding the homeless, and participating in various charity events.

After a disappointing exit in the 2017 playoffs, Betts was one of the first to step up in the locker room and force a more positive and enjoyable attitude. When Boston needed a big hit, he provided it.

I remember writing a Mookie article before the 2018 season. Within that piece, I note how Betts needed to fill the void of David Ortiz. He was clearly up for that challenge. In fact, he exceeded expectations.

The Red Sox have cycled through a couple of different GMs while Betts was in town. All of them tip-toed around his contract with a ridiculous caution.

They couldn’t lock up a long-term deal after a supposed “down year” in 2017 (he was still a top three fielder), and they somehow failed to do so again after two more cosmic seasons. They gave him a $20 million arbitration statement about a month ago.

There’s no salary cap in baseball. Yes, there’s a luxury tax, but that shouldn’t matter in this situation. The Red Sox are a big market franchise. If they could miraculously pay Chris Sale and David Price northwards of $200 million each, then there’s no excuse for not handing out the maximum deal to Betts.

Between this, the cheating scandal, and the lack of a manager, the Boston Red Sox are in an unfathomable position. The whole point of baseball is to develop a farm system with the hope that at least one player will become otherworldly. The Sox had that with Betts.

Now, they must start all over with an unproven 23-year-old (Verdugo) who carries an uncertain past filled with immature debauchery, and a mysterious sexual assault case that was apparently hidden (he didn’t commit the act, but he was present). Clearly, morals didn’t drive this decision.

To be honest, I don’t know what did drive this decision. Part of me thinks it’s another instance of a baseball franchise declining to properly market an African American superstar who’s got the same skill set as a Mike Trout. Another part of me thinks it’s just the incompetence and instability shown within the Boston Red Sox recently.

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Whichever way you put it, this was not a good move. I hope Betts performs with the same graciousness in LA as he did in Boston. He deserves it. He will always be one of my favorite Red Sox players. It’s too bad money-hungry businessmen couldn’t acknowledge the excitement; or the greatness.

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