Currently, Mookie Betts is coming off a ho-hum 2019 campaign where he was a 6.8 bWAR player. While that’s a career year for most players in the game of baseball, that’s just another year for Betts. Furthermore, he’s the reigning 2018 AL MVP; a year that saw him amass a 10.9 bWAR and hit .346 for the season.
Without question – he’s one of the game’s most consistent talent.
However, talk recently is that the Boston Red Sox may have to re-stock their cupboard at the expense of Betts. Indeed, the Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said Monday evening that while it’s not impossible; he classifies keeping his star as ‘difficult’.
Red Sox president: Keeping Mookie, J.D. 'difficult' https://t.co/ScXMuxOzjJ pic.twitter.com/w73LxeRkZy
— ESPNBoston (@ESPNBoston) September 30, 2019
Without pun, here is the money quote.
“There is a way, but obviously it will be difficult given the nature of the agreements and the contracts we have in place,” Kennedy said Monday at Fenway Park.
Moreover, it sounds like the Red Sox will need to pull powerful minds together and get creative to keep the 26-year old under team control into the foreseeable future. Equally important, the Red Sox have been over the $208 million luxury tax threshold for two consecutive seasons.
“We have a very targeted and strategic plan that we’re building now. Some of the dates related to contract decisions come right after the World Series. So we’ve had some time in September to focus on the offseason given where we were in the standings,” he said. “It is going to be a challenging offseason, but we’re ready to attack it head-on and do everything we can to put a competitive team out there not just for next year but 2021, 2022.”
Now, if they exceed that number for a third straight season in 2020; they will be subject to a hefty team tax as penalty.
Obviously the call here in the Boston front office is between keeping their main star or fielding a balanced team. While we don’t know the tools or data they will use to determine this measurement, you have to be glad you’re not the one making the call.
Remember, Boston fired GM Dave Dombrowski weeks before the 2019 regular season ended fresh off a World Series Title victory because they felt he had depleted their minor league system among other reasons.
Finally, the Red Sox can look at the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim as a team that kept their star player (Mike Trout) but have yet to build a balanced team around him. Therefore, if they allocate say $400 million to retain Betts; what other areas of the club will suffer from imbalance?
Certainly, this will be an interesting offseason for the Boston Red Sox in more than one way.
