Boston Red Sox: Still can't believe team traded Mookie Betts

The MLB season has been delayed, but it still stings that the Boston Red Sox have traded Mookie Betts.

As a big Boston sports fan, I still can’t believe the Boston Red Sox traded Mookie Betts.

Like an early April Fool’s joke, when rumors started to intensify that the Red Sox were engaged in a three-way deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Minnesota Twins that would send one of the best young players in baseball out of Boston to the big lights of Hollywood, disbelief was the first stage of grief.

Then it happened. On that day in February of 2020, it happened. The Boston Red Sox traded Mookie Betts.

An American League MVP-winning, Gold Glove-winning, Silver Slugger Award-winning World Series champion out the door so that a big spending team could get under that threaded luxury tax?

I still can’t believe the Boston Red Sox traded Mookie Betts.

Although I or many fans of the great Red Sox Nation weren’t alive to witness the team trading Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees $100,000, the trade of the team’s best player essentially feels as outrageous.

Sure, there was the possibility that Betts would leave following the 2020 MLB season (one that may not even happen) and the team would get nothing in return.

But, for a team still facing a punishment for a sign-stealing scandal, one more year of Betts would’ve still been much better than a season most fans had no excitement towards before the Novel coronavirus delivered a curveball on the entire sports world.

Perhaps that distraction has lessened the blow and made the second stage of grief a little easier. But then again, acceptance is easy when we don’t have to see Betts sporting Dodger blue…at least for now.

It also may distract us from believing in another curse. Will the Curse of the Bambino turn into the curse of Mookie Betts?

Let’s see, since the trade, the team is essentially without a true manager with bench coach Ron Roenicke being named interim manager…how exciting!

And if there was any silver lining in getting rid of the contract and social media troublemaker known as David Price, that quickly faded into another mistake as Chris Sale finally gave into Tommy John surgery that could leave him sidelined to the early part of 2021.

With the starting rotation suddenly a big question mark, that first stage of grief reared its head once again, as in disbelief:

I still can’t believe the Boston Red Sox traded Mookie Betts.

But there is still hope. If and when the season begins…whether it’s in a two-month condensed season played in empty stadiums, the 2020 Red Sox will have an opportunity to pick up fans who, by then, will be starting for sports.

Win or lose, the team still has some exciting young players in Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts, Michael Chavis, Andrew Benintendi and yes…Alex Verdugo to get behind. They have pitchers like Eduardo Rodriguez and Nathan Eovaldi to root for. There is also a dominant hitter like J.D. Martinez there to glue it all together.

Next. Boston Red Sox: Top 5 franchise players of the 1990s. dark

In all, they may surprise us. They may make us not miss Mookie Betts as much. Above all else, they may usher us on to the third stage of grief, which would allow every Sox fan to move on, but it’s going to take a while to get over what Bloom, ownership and even the great David Ortiz believed was best for the team.

I still can’t believe the Boston Red Sox traded Mookie Betts.

Sorry, but the final stage of forgiveness is going to take a while.

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Op/Ed: Still can’t believe the Boston Red Sox traded Mookie Betts

By Tarringo Basile-vaughan | Apr 1, 2020

The MLB season has been delayed, but it still stings that the Boston Red Sox have traded Mookie Betts.

I still can’t believe the Boston Red Sox traded Mookie Betts.

I still can’t believe the Boston Red Sox traded Mookie Betts.

I still can’t believe the Boston Red Sox traded Mookie Betts.