Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers and catchers report to spring training in Arizona today, and thus will begin Mookie Betts’ sixth season with the team. Monday is also the fifth anniversary of the blockbuster trade that sent Betts from Boston to Los Angeles, a trade that ultimately was years in the making. It’s also a trade that looks even more lopsided now than it did the day it was made. It is not a stretch to call it the most significant recent trade in North American sports up until last week’s Luka Doncic/Anthony Davis swap.
“When people are partying in Los Angeles, I just want to remind Los Angeles because I come from Los Angeles and I spend the winters there, that in the last 20 years, Los Angeles has won zero World Series and the Red Sox have won four,” Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said two days after Betts signed his 12-year extension with the Dodgers (via MassLive.com). “I’ve got nothing to be complaining about regarding our past. We think we made the right decision at the time.”
Three months after Werner said those words, Betts and the Dodgers hoisted the commissioner’s trophy and won the franchise’s first World Series title since 1988. Last fall, Mookie won his second World Series with the Dodgers. The Red Sox, meanwhile, have been to the postseason once since trading Betts, when they advanced to the ALCS in 2021. They have three last-place finishes in the five seasons since the trade, or two more than the Dodgers have since moving to Los Angeles in 1958.
“I love Boston. It’s been my life for nine years. And so, I thank them for everything. I can’t ask them for anything more than what they did for me,” Betts said during his introductory press conference with the Dodgers. “… It’s still a business. Once you understand that, you can put those emotions aside when it comes to business time.”
The Betts trade was made official on Feb. 11, 2020, though it was agreed to and in place on Feb. 10. The trade was made with Betts one year away from free agency, and after years after tough (though not necessarily contentious) salary negotiations and several rounds of long-term contract extension offers. To put it another way, the Red Sox were uncomfortable paying Betts what he wanted, and didn’t want to lose him for nothing but a draft pick as a free agent, so they traded him.
Now 32, Betts was 27 at the time of the trade, and coming off a 2019 season that saw him hit .295/.391/.524 with 40 doubles, 29 home runs, 16 stolen bases, and 7.3 WAR. It was a step down from his 2018 AL MVP year — .346/.438/.640 with 47 doubles, 32 homers, 30 steals, and 10.7 WAR — when he helped the Red Sox win their most recent World Series championship, but still a terrific season. Good enough to earn Betts a fourth straight finish in the top eight of the AL MVP voting.
When the trade was made, Betts was a superstar in his prime, the sort of player who rarely gets traded, and frankly a player that a team with pockets as deep as the Red Sox should never trade. It’s a trade Red Sox fans should never forgive, especially since ownership has reduced its investment in the roster since the trade. Boston’s Opening Day payroll in 2019, its last year with Betts, was $237.2 million. It was $180.1 million in 2021 and it projects to be in the same range in 2025, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts.
Years of failed extension negotiations opened the door to a trade, and once that door opened, the Dodgers kicked it down. Barring injury, Betts will have played more games with the Dodgers than with the Red Sox starting sometime in the summer of 2026. He will almost certainly go into the Hall of Fame as a Dodger. Betts is Boston’s best homegrown player since at least Wade Boggs, maybe since Carl Yastrzemski, and maybe even since Ted Williams. And yet, he will play most of his career in Dodger blue.
On the fifth anniversary of the trade, let’s go back and revisit the events that led to Betts being shipped to the Dodgers in one of the most consequential trades in recent memory. The Red Sox still haven’t fully recovered, and you can draw a straight line from Betts elevating the Dodgers from contender to champion to the Dodgers luring Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani to Chavez Ravine. The Mookie trade was a major step in turning the Dodgers into the powerhouse they are today.
For years, Betts was willing to bet on himself
The first sign Betts was willing to stand his ground and not accept less than what he believes he’s worth came before he signed his first pro contract. The Red Sox drafted Betts out of his Tennessee high school in the fifth round of the 2011 amateur draft. He was the 172nd overall selection. Every team passed on Betts multiple times, including the Red Sox. Boston had multiple extra picks that draft through free agent compensation. Betts was a fifth-round pick but the eighth player the Red Sox selected.
“I did not see home runs like this,” Danny Watkins, a scout who was instrumental in drafting Betts, told the Boston Globe in May 2016. “Honestly, I thought he could have some impact with power, but I really thought it would come in the form of doubles more than home runs. Knowing what I saw, it would still be very difficult for me to go back and project this type of performance by this age.”
The 2011 draft was the last draft before MLB and the MLBPA agreed to the current bonus pool system. Back then, MLB provided a recommended bonus for each draft slot, though teams could pay their drafted player any amount. As noted by the Boston Globe in September 2019, Betts wanted $750,000 to pass on his commitment to Tennessee, well above the usual fifth-round recommendation. The Red Sox initially offered half that. Betts stood his ground and was ready to report to the Volunteers unless Boston paid up. The Red Sox eventually caved and gave him the $750,000.
By 2014, Betts was one of the best prospects in baseball, and he made his MLB debut that June 29. A 6.1-WAR season and MVP votes followed in 2015, then, in 2016, Betts went to the All-Star Game and finished second in the MVP voting thanks to an MLB-best 359 total bases and 9.5 WAR. He was only 23 and already one of the best players in the game. Betts was also not yet eligible for arbitration, limiting his earning potential. As a pre-arbitration player, the Red Sox were free to pay him as they saw fit.
Teams can pay pre-arbitration players whatever they want but they rarely do that. They typically negotiate a salary near the league minimum with the player to maintain a good relationship. Some teams have sliding salary scales for pre-arbitration players based on service time, with escalators for All-Star Games and awards. Point is, it’s not often a team unilaterally imposes a salary on a pre-arbitration player even though the system allows them to do that. The two sides almost always negotiate a salary.
That was not the case for the Red Sox and Betts heading into 2017. They were unable to agree to a salary for that season, so the Red Sox ultimately renewed his contract (i.e. unilaterally imposed a salary) at $950,000. That was well above the $535,000 league minimum for 2017 and a show of good faith on the team’s part. The $950,000 was the second-highest salary ever given to a player in his pre-arbitration years, behind only the $1 million Mike Trout earned in 2014. Still, it was more evidence Betts was willing to stand his ground on salary matters.
“Both sides didn’t agree and that’s OK. That’s part of business. But now we have to switch the focus to baseball,” Betts told MLB.com after having his contract renewed. “… When you just stand for something, you kind of stand for it. I think that’s kind of my view on it. Like I said, we didn’t agree on that but I love everybody here and that’s never going to change, and I’m going to play the same way I play any other time.”
After another All-Star and MVP vote-getting season in 2017, Betts was eligible for arbitration for the first time, and the two sides were far apart during negotiations. Far enough apart that they went to a hearing. Betts filed for $10.5 million through arbitration. The Red Sox countered with $7.5 million. The $10.5 million would have been the second-largest salary for a first-time arbitration-eligible player, behind only Kris Bryant’s $10.85 million salary that same year. Bryant took a Rookie of the Year and MVP award into arbitration. Betts, as good as he was at that point in his career, lacked those credentials.
And yet, the three-person arbitration panel sided with Betts, and awarded him the $10.5 million. Because Bryant and the Chicago Cubs agreed to their contract and did not go to a hearing, Mookie’s $10.5 million set a record for a salary awarded to a first-time arbitration-eligible player in a hearing. Arbitration hearings can be unpleasant because the team essentially details the player’s shortcomings and explain why he shouldn’t receive the salary he believes he deserves, though Betts downplayed any bad feelings.
“Just seeing that side of it is pretty interesting. I like those type of things, kind of see how people debate. There were no hard feelings, nothing wrong. I love these guys. Nothing changed,” Betts told ESPN after his arbitration win. “… “That’s just two sides, two people can not agree. That’s just a part of life. It just so happened twice (2017 salary renewal and 2018 arbitration hearing). That’s OK. I love it here. I love the guys here.”
“I think our relationship with him is fine,” Red Sox POBO Dave Dombrowski told MassLive.com after the hearing. “I think it would have been either way. I called him and texted him back and forth. (Assistant GM) Brian O’Halloran spoke to him. Mookie’s fine, he understands the process so we have a good relationship. He’s a player we love a great deal and want to keep a part of the organization for years to come.”
After winning his arbitration hearing, Betts went out and won MVP and led the Red Sox to a World Series title in 2018. The two sides were able to avoid another hearing after that season, though it cost the Red Sox a $20 million salary in 2019. That was the largest salary ever given to a player in his second year of arbitration. One year later, after another All-Star Game and more MVP votes, the Red Sox and Betts agreed to a $27 million salary for 2020. It was the largest salary ever given to an arbitration-eligible player at the time. It was also the final contract Betts would sign with Boston.
Boston’s extension efforts
While Betts was setting arbitration records, the Red Sox made efforts behind the scenes to sign him long-term. In March 2015, WEEI reported the Red Sox “at least internally discussed” a long-term extension for Betts. That was after his 52-game rookie season, so the Red Sox considered a long-term deal before he reached one full year of service time. At the time, only a handful of players had signed extensions before reaching one year of service time, most notably Evan Longoria with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Teams internally discuss all sorts of things all the time, though the Red Sox never did make an extension offer to Betts in 2015. They thought about it, but never followed through. The following year, Betts confirmed he and the Red Sox had not yet begun to discuss a long-term contract, and added he intended to go year to year (i.e. through arbitration) with his contract.
“(A long-term extension) is not part of the discussion right now,” Betts told the Boston Globe in March 2016. “I’m just focused on going and playing this year. We’re going year-by-year. I block all that out. I know that I have to go play each and every day.”
The Red Sox made their first serious attempt to sign Betts long-term following the 2017 season, before he beat them in arbitration and secured that record $10.5 million salary for 2018. The New York Post reported the details in March 2019:
Betts rejected an eight-year, $200 million extension proposal following the 2017 season, according to a source. Two other sources said the Red Sox have made several attempts at a long-term deal with Betts, including this past offseason, with the Betts camp not even making a counter-proposal. The All-Star has instead been comfortable with the risks of going a year at a time in exchange for the reward that could come with patience.
At the time, Betts was three years away from free agency, so an eight-year contract would have bought out his three arbitration years plus five free-agent years, and taken him through the 2025 season. That $200 million from 2018-25 is actually quite a bit more than Betts will take home those years between his arbitration salaries and Dodgers contract ($147.5 million from 2018-25), though that’s only because his Dodgers contract includes a backloaded salary structure and deferrals.
More importantly, eight years and $200 million was not an unreasonable offer. The largest extension ever given to a player who was three years away from free agency at the time was the eight-year, $135 million deal the Atlanta Braves gave Freddie Freeman in February 2014. The Red Sox had to adjust upward to account for four years of salary inflation, plus the fact that Betts was the better player. At the time of the extension offer, Betts had 24.3 career WAR. Freeman had racked up 9.0 career WAR when he signed his deal.
“When you start rushing into things, that’s when you get some deals that may not be the right ones,” Betts told the Boston Herald in February 2019. “I think I can just kind of settle down and think about what’s going on. I mean, yeah, if everything works out well, I love this place. I love Boston. It’s one of those things where you have to see how it goes.”
Following that initial eight-year, $200 million offer, the Red Sox reportedly made several other attempts to sign Betts long-term, though obviously a deal never came together. This offseason Zack Scott, a Red Sox front office staffer from 2004-18 and assistant GM from 2019-20, confirmed the club made their “best and final offer” to Betts in the spring of 2019, and that they nearly traded him to the Dodgers that summer.
That best and final offer was “almost” $100 million more than the team’s previous extension offer, Scott said. That implies the Red Sox never offered $300 million. Entering 2019, Betts was two years away from free agency, and even $300 million would not have been a record at that service time level. The contract record at that service time level was (and still is) Giancarlo Stanton’s $325 milion deal with the Miami Marlins. Boston was not even offering Stanton money despite the fact Betts was the better and more well-rounded player.
“As a whole, when it comes to business in general, whether it’s buying a building or contract negotiations or whatever it is, you have to take emotions out of it,” Betts told WEEI in September 2019. “That’s what people forget. Fans and media get caught up in emotions and that’s just not how I was raised and that’s just not what my point of view with my agents is. We take emotions out of it and we focus on the business part. Of course, I love it here. This is all I know. But you also have to take that emotional side out of it and get to what is actually real.”
“I think he’s doing what’s in the best interest of Mookie and I think that’s what athletes should do,” Red Sox assistant GM Eddie Romero told MassLive.com in October 2019. “Every situation of these is case-by-case. Mookie has been the one who has sacrificed his body and has put in the work. He has the right to decide what he wants to do.”
Once that 2019 extension offer was rejected, it put the wheels in motion for the trade to the Dodgers. The Red Sox determined they would be unable to sign Betts long-term, and pivoted to other business. That includes signing Chris Sale to a five-year extension worth $145 million in March 2019, and Xander Bogaerts to a six-year, $120 million extension in April 2019. Bogaerts and Sale were scheduled to become free agents after the 2019 season.
“We were looking for houses in Boston,” Betts told the Boston Globe in August 2023. “We thought it was going to work out. I thought both sides were playing the slow game and it would eventually work out. We were negotiating, that’s what I thought.”
The first iteration of the trade
The first report connecting the Dodgers to Betts arrived on Dec. 17, 2019, when USA Today reported the two teams were “engaged in exploratory trade talks.” On Jan. 19, 2020, ESPN reported that the team that acquired Betts would have to take most or all of the $96 million owed to David Price as well, and the Red Sox wanted two top prospects in the trade. It is not uncommon for major trades to drag into February (Nolan Arenado and Corbin Burnes were traded on Feb. 1, Alex Rodriguez was traded on Feb. 16, etc.), and it seemed the Betts trade would follow a similar path.
“(Opening the 2020 season with Betts has) really been my expectation all along,” then-Red Sox CBO Chaim Bloom told WEEI on Jan. 16, 2020. “I think big picture, and this applies to everything, we’re not doing our jobs if we’re not open to anything that improves our chances to compete as successfully and as often as possible over the course of the next decade. That has kind of been our guiding principle as we have accessed interest in any of our players. But you do that with the expectation that they will be here. And that will certainly be the case with Mookie.”
On Jan. 23, The Athletic reported the San Diego Padres had entered the mix, with talks centered around sending Wil Myers and a “significant amount of prospect talent” to Boston. Baseball America’s top 10 Padres prospects entering 2020 included a number of players who were eventually traded away in other deals: CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore (Juan Soto trade), Andrés Muñoz and Taylor Trammell (Austin Nola trade), Gabriel Arias (Mike Clevinger trade), and Luis Patiño (Blake Snell trade).
On one hand, Padres GM A.J. Preller has never been shy about making blockbuster trades, so it certainly passed the sniff test that San Diego was interested in Betts. On the other hand, there was a hint in the air that the Red Sox were making a leverage play against the Dodgers. “If you don’t give us what we want, we’re going to trade him to your division rival” kind of thing. I do think the Padres were sincere in their efforts to acquire Betts. I also think the Red Sox were happy to use San Diego against the Dodgers.
A week of back and forth rumors followed. The Boston Globe reported on Feb. 2 that a Betts trade “could come within the next few days.” Two days later, the Red Sox and Dodgers had a trade. The Minnesota Twins were looped in as a third team. This was the agreed-to trade:
The Red Sox were set to receive Verdugo, then only 23 and coming off a .294/.342/.475 slash line and 3.0 WAR in 2019, as the headliner in the trade. He was five years away from free agency. Graterol was one of the top relief prospects in baseball at the time. The super-hard thrower made his MLB debut in 2019 and had all six years of team control remaining. The Twins got an affordable starter in Maeda. The Red Sox got Betts and Price, and $48 million toward the $96 million remaining on Price’s deal.
The trade was done until it wasn’t. One day later, reports surfaced that the deal had potentially hit a snag, with Graterol’s medicals an issue for the Red Sox, according to the Star Tribune. Graterol had Tommy John surgery in 2016 and also missed time with a shoulder issue in 2019. Given the magnitude of the trade — the Red Sox were moving their franchise player — Boston scrutinized the medicals closely, and saw enough red flags to push them off Graterol completely.
Spring training served as an unofficial deadline for the trade. Once they got this far down the line, it was clear the Red Sox were willing to move Betts (and Price), and having him report to camp would have been a tremendous distraction. The Dodgers and especially the Red Sox were motivated to push the deal across the finish line. So, after Boston balked at Graterol’s medicals, the three teams got to work and tried to figure out a way to satisfy everyone. The trade hit a bump in the road, but it wasn’t dead.
“I wasn’t surprised. I was a little taken aback by some of the comments they made about my shoulder, but I wasn’t really surprised where I ended up,” Graterol told WEEI in July 2022 about the Red Sox passing on his medicals. “I think that just kept me motivated and kept me focused on doing my job and it resulted in a World Series and the results are there.”
The other trade that fell apart
After the original Betts three-team trade was agreed to, the Dodgers quickly moved on to their next major move, and agreed to a four-player trade that would send outfielder Joc Pederson, swingman Ross Stripling, and 19-year-old prospect Andy Pages to the Los Angeles Angels for infielder Luis Rengifo. Betts would have made Pederson expendable, and Stripling and Pages were the cost of doing business to get Rengifo, a touted switch-hitting infielder who made his MLB debut in 2019.
Once the Red Sox balked at Graterol’s medicals, the Dodgers hit pause on their trade with the Angels, and Halos owner Arte Moreno grew impatient. He reportedly pulled the plug on the trade as talks between the Dodgers, Red Sox, and Twins about a reworked Betts trade dragged on. “It wasn’t all impatience. There were other things involved, too. I just would rather not talk about it. That wasn’t going to happen, and it’s not happening,” Moreno told the Associated Press.
“There are a lot of components in deals that need to be satisfied before you get to a point where you are calling players and informing them,” then-Angels GM Billy Eppler said after the trade fell apart. “We weren’t able to get to that point and, in fairness to our players and players with other organizations, we won’t comment further than that.”
The Angels did not pivot to another outfielder and/or pitcher after the Pederson/Stripline trade fell through, and Rengifo remains with the club to this day. He’s been quite productive the last few years too. Pages remains with the Dodgers and reached the big leagues in 2024. Stripling was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays at the 2020 deadline. The Dodgers kept Pederson in 2020 and he was vital to their World Series win, hitting .382/.432/.559 in 16 postseason games. He left as a free agent after the season.
“A lot was made publicly — some accurate and some not accurate — about different things that were out there,” Dodgers POBO Andrew Friedman told Dodger Blue after Moreno backed out of the trade. “… Some of that information was correct, some was not, and it didn’t happen, so it’s hard to speak to it. But we feel really good about the way things played out and what our team looks like right now.”
Finally, the trade gets done
It took six days for the Dodgers, Red Sox, and Twins to rework the original deal into something that worked for all three clubs. The three-team trade became two two-team trades, and four new players and a draft pick (and cash) were added in the blockbuster. Although it was, officially, two two-team trades, it was essentially one big three-team trade. This is the reworked deal that was eventually completed:
The Dodgers got Betts, Price, and $48 million from the Red Sox for Downs, Verdugo, and Wong. In a separate trade, the Dodgers received Graterol, Raley, and a competitive balance draft pick from the Twins for Maeda, Camargo, and $10 million. Boston was scared away by Graterol’s medicals. The Dodgers looked things over, and were happy to take him. A few months later, Graterol recorded two outs in the seventh inning of the World Series clincher (though he’s dealt with numerous injuries in the years since).
“We’ve had really talented teams in the past,” Friedman said during the Betts/Price introductory press conference. “This is quite possibly our most talented team.”
The Dodgers later traded Raley to the Rays for righty Tanner Dodson, who has yet to reach the big leagues and left as a minor-league free agent this offseason. They used the competitive-balance draft pick on righty Clayton Beeter, who they later traded to the New York Yankees for Joey Gallo. The Twins got three solid seasons from Maeda in four years, albeit with Tommy John surgery mixed in. Camargo made his MLB debut last April and is positioned to be Minnesota’s backup catcher of the future.
As for the Red Sox, the reworked trade netted them Downs (who is named after Derek), who at the time was a consensus top-100 prospect, and Wong rather than Graterol. The then-20-year-old Downs was coming off a .276/.362/.526 line with 24 home runs between High Class-A and Double-A in 2019. Wong, 23 at the time, was a relative unknown, albeit an unknown who put together a .281/.335/.541 line with 24 homers between High-A and Double-A in 2019. Verdugo replaced Betts in the outfield and Downs and Wong were added to Boston’s farm system.
“Acquiring Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong represents a major step forward for our talent base and will help us win consistently for many years,” Bloom told MLB.com following the trade. “… Our mission, our charge as a department, is to compete consistently, year in and year out, and to put ourselves in a position to win as many championships as we can. And that’s behind everything we do. And we can only accomplish that goal with a talent base at all levels of the organization that is deep, broad and sustainable.”
Soon after the trade, Red Sox owner John Henry released a lengthy statement in which he spent talked about a “system that has a few imbalances as all economic systems do,” making it clear Red Sox brass was at least aware the Betts trade appeared motivated by financial reasons rather than baseball reasons, if not bothered by it.
“We were faced with a difficult choice. You can talk about dollars. You can talk about metrics and value. But in the end, even though we are consistently among the highest-spending clubs in baseball — with this year being no exception — we have to make hard judgments about competing for the future as well as the present,” Henry said. “… We felt we could not sit on our hands and lose (Betts) next offseason without getting value in return to help us on our path forward. We carefully considered the alternative over the last year and made a decision when this opportunity presented itself to acquire substantial, young talent for the years ahead.”
The Dodgers get an extension done
Ultimately, the Dodgers traded for one season of Betts. He was a year away from free agency at the time and there was no guarantee he would agree to a long-term extension. The Red Sox tried and failed to extend him, and seeing how Betts was going to have earned close to $60 million through arbitration, he could have easily played out the 2020 season and tested free agency. How much could a 28-year-old superstar who impacts the game in every way get on the open market? There was reason to think Betts would find out.
“When we made the trade, we did it with more than 2020 in mind,” Friedman told MLB.com in July 2020. “We appreciate the risk that came with that and did go into it with our eyes wide open. We traded a lot of talent away, we got a lot of talent back. Now we’re going to kind of keep the band together for a while, that was front of mind for us.”
Not long after the trade, the COVID-19 pandemic put the 2020 season on pause, and threw the world for a loop. It was not until June 24 that MLB announced plans for a 60-day season, with “spring” training scheduled to begin on July 1. Opening Day was booked for July 23. One day before the season was set to begin, the Dodgers locked Betts up on a 12-year contract worth $365 million. They got him extended in a matter of months after the Red Sox failed to do so over a period of years.
“Our desire to get something done didn’t change at all,” Friedman said during a Zoom call after the extension was announced, adding the two sides started contract talks before the pandemic shutout in March. “It helps when both sides are coming at it from a standpoint of wanting to get a deal done.”
The $365 million contract was the second largest in baseball history at the time, behind only Trout’s $426.5 million contract with the Angels. It’s a complicated deal. Betts received a $65 million signing bonus, though it will be paid out in annual installments from 2021-35. There’s also $115 million in deferred salary that will be paid out from 2033-44. The MLBPA calculated the present day value at $306.7 million. For competitive balance tax purposes, Betts counts as $25.6 million per year ($306.7 million across 12 years) rather than $30.4 million per year ($365 million across 12 years).
Given the way things played out, with Betts agreeing to an extension with the Dodgers so quickly after rejecting Boston’s multiple extension efforts, it’s easy to think Betts just didn’t want to be with the Red Sox long-term. And maybe he didn’t. Ultimately, Betts is the only person who really, truly knows what he wanted. That all said, the fact of the matter is the Dodgers offered Betts more than the Red Sox ever did. Boston’s “best and final offer” only approached $300 million. It didn’t exceed. Betts made it pretty clear throughout his career he was comfortable waiting things out if his price wasn’t met. Maybe the Dodgers simply met it?
“I just love being here,” Betts said of Los Angeles in a Zoom call after signing his extension. “I love everything about here. I’m here to win some rings and bring championships back to LA. That’s all I’m focused on.”
Boston’s only saving grace
From the Red Sox’s perspective, the trade has been a disaster. Betts signed long-term with the Dodgers a few months after being traded, and he helped them win the World Series a few months after that. Verdugo was largely fine during his four years with the Red Sox, but that’s all. Fine. He wore out his welcome and was traded to the rival Yankees last offseason, and is now an unsigned free agent. Downs made his MLB debut with Boston in 2022, though he never hit much at the upper levels of the minors, and was lost on waivers in December 2022. He now plays for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan.
The only player the Red Sox received in the trade who is still with the team is Wong, ostensibly the third piece in the package. Wong, now 28, made his MLB debut in June 2021 and took over as Boston’s starting catcher in 2023. Last season, he slashed .280/.333/.425, well above the league average .234/.300/.379 line for catchers. Wong rated as a poor defender, however, checking in with minus-14 defensive runs saved overall. At minus-7 runs, Statcast had the most optimistic number for his pitch-framing. Factoring in defense, Wong was worth 1.1 WAR in 126 games and 487 plate appearances in 2024.
Five years later, that is what the Red Sox have to show for the Betts trade. A good bat/bad glove catcher, the mid-level pitching prospects received in the Verdugo trade (Richard Fitts, most notably), and some cash savings that don’t appear to have been put back into the roster given the team’s decline in payroll the last few years. Perhaps Wong will improve his defense and perhaps Fitts will eventually make an impact in Boston. That is the only possible saving grace for the Red Sox at this point. Mookie Betts, one of the best players of this generation, was turned into an OK catcher and an OK pitching prospect.
“It’s business and both sides took care of themselves,” Betts told MLB.com when he returned to Fenway Park in 2023. “And so sometimes it may not be in the best interest for both, you know, but it is what it is. I’m wearing an L.A. jersey. I’ve got two kids. I’ve got a production company. I’ve got podcasts. I’m super happy where I’m at. I’m very blessed and very happy.”
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