Twenty-one months ago, Mookie Betts shot out into the garden at Dodger Stadium, with a smile as broad as Chavez Ravine’s. He had just won the World Series. He threw himself into the arms of his Red Sox teammates. Across the field, the Dodgers entered their clubhouse to mourn a second consecutive title loss.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles signed with Mookie Betts for a $ 365 million, 12-year contract, making him the highest-paid player in a World Series contender. In February, the Red Sox traded Betts, who is, at worst, the game’s second-best player, the Dodgers. They then tried to convince Boston fans to tune in to a season where they would likely end, at best, third in the AL East.
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The story of what happened between the 2018 World Series and now is that of a franchise that was right and another that was wrong.
The teams, meanwhile, faced similar challenges: Five key members of the Dodgers’ World Series roster could become free agents, as could six key Red Sox players. Each team also controlled a handful of young players that they wanted to expand. And each team believed they had the core to compete for a championship for years to come. “
LA let all of his potential free agents walk, saving himself the 10 years and the $ 300 million infielder Manny Machado received from the Padres, the four-year, $ 80 million left-handed Hyun-jin Ryu received from the Blue Jays and four-year, $ 73 million receiver Yasmani Grandal received from the White Sox. He extended left-hander Clayton Kershaw, for three years and $ 93 million, and signed outfielder AJ Pollock, for four years and $ 55 million, and reliever Joe Kelly, for three years and $ 25 million.
Boston re-signed right-hander Nathan Eovaldi for four years and $ 68 million. It also extended left-hander Chris Sale, for five years and $ 145 million, and shortstop Xander Bogaerts, for six years and $ 120 million.
Kershaw finished eighth in the National League Cy Young vote last year. Pollock and Kelly were busts, but they were busts that combined to cost the Dodgers $ 17 million. Los Angeles supplemented his talent with the crop of young players: National League MVP outfielder Cody Bellinger, All-Star first baseman Max Muncy, shortstop Corey Seager, All-Star right Walker Buehler, hitting on the move that It mattered, and it contained losses in the ones that didn’t.
Three thousand miles away, Eovaldi compiled a 6.00 ERA through four starts before undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow. He came back as a pain reliever. Sale opened the season with an 8.50 ERA and called his performance “embarrassing.” In August, he made it onto the disabled list with elbow swelling, but insisted he didn’t need Tommy John surgery. This March, he had Tommy John surgery. Bogaerts finished fifth in the AL MVP vote. Boston had one of the best young lineups in the game, with right fielder Betts, Bogaerts, third baseman Rafael Devers, left fielder Andrew Benintendi and DH JD Martinez. Rather than keeping that group intact, the team chose to invest in a pair of pitchers with an injury history.
The Dodgers made the playoffs. The Red Sox won 84 games and fired their GM, Dave Dombrowski. The property declined to hold a press conference to discuss the decision. Four months later, their manager, Alex Cora, was fired after an MLB investigation concluded that he had planned the Astros’ illegal cartel theft operation in 2017.
All of these factors contributed to the reversal of fortunes. But the most important were not payroll obligations or organizational turmoil. It was desire.
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The spring after that World Series, the Red Sox allegedly offered Betts, the current AL MVP, a 10-year, $ 300 million extension. Machado, a minor player in every way, had just signed for that same figure. Betts reportedly asked for 12 years, $ 420 million. Forbes estimates that Fenway Sports Group, the company through which John Henry owns the Red Sox, is worth $ 6.6 billion, No. 3 worldwide among sports properties. The Dodgers did not make the top 10.
The Red Sox said no.
A year later, instead of trying to win the World Series again, they sent Betts to Los Angeles, along with left-hander David Price, and let the Dodgers try. Betts had one more season before being eligible for free agency. Los Angeles used that exclusive bargaining window to lock him up. The Red Sox cannot be blamed for failing to predict that a pandemic would collapse the free agent market and allow the Betts team to sign him for less than the amount he initially requested. But you can blame them for giving someone else a chance to be that team.
Someday soon, it seems likely that Betts will hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy again at Dodger Stadium. This time, the Dodgers will be celebrating. And the Red Sox probably won’t even be on the field.
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