Before the Dodgers traded for Mookie Betts, their analytics staff and professional staffing department conducted a study to measure the aging curve of such powerful little outfielders. Betts stands at 5 foot 9 and 180 pounds. His career slugging percentage is .519. They didn’t find anyone like him, unless you count Mel Ott, who debuted 94 years ago and needed to hit baseballs just 259 feet to clear the wall of Polo Grounds in the right corner of the field.
By swapping Betts from Boston, and seeing him first in spring training and lately in summer camp, the Dodgers came to a similar conclusion about Betts that the statistical study yielded: There is no one like Markus Lynn Betts, the outlier with the MLB initials and now the 12-year, $ 365 million extension. The previous record money given to a player under six feet tall is surprising: $ 214 million for Prince Fielder.
Looking at Betts every day, the Dodgers discovered that he was an even better player and person than they knew. The test drive sold them before they left the lot. The Dodgers knew before Opening Day that they couldn’t let him escape.
“It’s all you want,” said a Dodgers executive. “First of all, he’s a great athlete and a talented hitter. Looking at it day by day, you appreciate what it can do. He has extraordinary ability to track pitches and square them, and he makes incredibly fast yes / no decisions on swings. He is an excellent defender with the ability to play four different positions and play them well over time.
“Work hard, study the game, help young hitters, have a positive attitude every day … it’s been a pleasure having him in every way.” It’s so amazing “.
Betts and DH’s incorporation into the National League could make Los Angeles one of the most destructive offensive teams since the 1999 Indians. The irony of Betts’ expansion is that the Dodgers initially intended to drop a sum of Such ridiculous money in pitching.
For six years under Andrew Friedman, the club cut its payroll, built the minor league system, and avoided huge future payments. The Dodgers rank in the middle of the pack among teams on future payroll engagements. Friedman had never signed a player for more than $ 100 million. It wasn’t that Friedman was averse to the high-priced item. I was expecting the right one.
The first choice was Gerrit Cole, a free agent last winter. But the Dodgers couldn’t overcome Cole’s desire to pitch for the New York Yankees, his favorite team as a child and the team that ever selected him. So Los Angeles turned to Plan B, just like Betts.
Motivated to cut his payroll below the luxury tax threshold, and cautious that they couldn’t re-sign Betts if he made it to free agency, the Red Sox put him on the commercial market. The Dodgers launched. With Betts positioned as a rental piece, $ 27 million for a year, the price was low, with Alex Verdugo, a decent gardener, as the lead piece. Trading looks even better today.
The contract, signed amid a pandemic amid reduced income, showed nothing about the upcoming free-agent market, other than the reminder that the Hollywood star baseball system remains in place. The real stars get paid. Mid-level players, especially the past 30s, should still be very concerned.
“This is not about [upcoming] free-agent market, “said a club executive.” You would have to believe that the market will slow down over the next year or so, like many companies. “
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Betts is an amazing success story, the Tennessee boy who was a statewide bowler and was ignored as a high school player because of his size and because he didn’t venture deep into the exhibition circuit. One day in the spring of 2011, a Red Sox scout pulled Betts out of his lunch period at Overton High in Nashville to take a baseball-specific acuity test on a laptop that Boston CEO Theo Epstein , he had discovered through Cambridge, Massachusetts. tech company The program measured how fast a batter could make determinations about a pitch: its speed, turn and location. It was a high-tech program to measure a hitter’s decision-making skills. Should I swing or not? And when do you make that call? Epstein had tried this out with his major league players in spring training, so he had a baseline of how fast and how well the major leagues processed the embedded information on a field. When Betts tested, his results amazed Epstein. As a high school senior, Betts scored on a par with David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, and the Red Sox ‘top hitters.
Betts stayed so far off the display rack, and at 5 feet 9 inches did not fit the mold that explorers prefer, Epstein could wait until the fifth round to select him. Betts was number 172 in the draft. It is the Boston baseball equivalent of the Patriots who recruit Tom Brady in the sixth round with 199. Now Betts is in Los Angeles and Brady is in Tampa Bay. The difference is that the Dodgers own Betts’ early years.
People often make the mistake of judging long-term deals by the final part of the contracts. The teams do not deliver them thinking that the players will be impact players of more than 30 years (that is, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Joey Votto, Robinson Canó, etc.). It is paying off the first years. It’s accounting with an eye on competitive balance tax.
What kind of player will Mookie Betts be at 39? How will a 5-foot-9, 180-pound hitter age over the wear and tear of 12 seasons? That involves a lot of guesswork. It’s less important than the Dodgers know for sure today, especially after being around him: Mookie Betts is one of the game’s top five players and a definitive cornerstone of the franchise. This is also true: His best years will be played with the Los Angeles Dodgers surrounded by a deep core of young talent.
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