Mookie.
The one-time face of the Red Sox franchise returns Friday to Fenway Park.
Mookie Betts stands alongside Babe Ruth, Carlton Fisk, Sparky Lyle, Reggie Smith, Jeff Bagwell, Roger Clemens, Dennis Eckersley, Waite Hoyt and Jackie Robinson (look it up) as among the greats who got away.
Fittingly, Betts triggered the Great Exodus.
Betts and David Price were shipped to SoCal on Feb. 11, 2020, in exchange for three players and Competitive Balance Tax relief.
Five weeks later, Tom Brady informed the world he was setting sail for Tampa Bay.
Rob Gronkowski soon followed.
So did Julian Edelman.
And Zdeno Chara.
With time, Xander Bogaerts, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Devin McCourty and Dont’a Hightower joined the departed.
Dozens of championships exited with the passage of time and tightening of wallets.
A herd of GOATs and other prize-winning livestock being driven across the plains to Montana by the Dutton family.
The sheep?
They were left behind in Boston.
In the wake of the Betts trade, social justice took the place of winning baseball at Fenway Park.
All under the steady hand of Ron Roenicke.
After Betts was dealt, the Red Sox had more Black Lives Matter banners than Black ballplayers.
Yet fans were the ones who needed to be enlightened, er, brainwashed.
The Red Sox and their dutiful disciples in John Henry’s newspaper, on John Henry’s TV station, the radio station that airs John Henry games, and across multiple websites who want to curry favor with John Henry’s baseball team, tell us Betts deal was a good baseball trade.
Not just a salary dump.
The Los Angeles Blue Sox offer comfort in their familiarity.
In addition to Betts, Dave Roberts is the manager. J.D. Martinez is DH. Kike “Butterfingers” Hernandez could be anywhere from first, to short, or left field, or on the bench.
Ryan Brasier is a regular out of the bullpen. Joe Kelly is nursing a forearm injury.
Baseball purists tell us Betts’ 2020 World Series ring with Los Angeles doesn’t count because there were only 60 games in the regular season. That also conveniently absolves the Red Sox of their worst winning percentage since 1965.
Starting in 2021, Betts has averaged 39 home runs and 96 RBIs over 162 games. His overall OPS is .903 and he’s hit 92 homers and driven in 226 runs during that span.
He and the rest of the Blue Sox have fizzled spectacularly in the postseason.
In 2021-22, LA won 217 games but never reached the World Series. Last year was particularly painful for the occupants of Chavez Ravine. LA rolled to the NL West title with 111 victories, beating San Diego by 22 games. That meant nothing. The Padres upended the Blue Sox 3-1 in the NLDS.
Baby Bloomers reflectively cite the Blue Sox playoff flops since winning the World Series as further evidence of the hidden brilliance displayed by the Red Sox GM in his first big move after taking over for Dave Dombrowski.
In return for dumping the market value salary of Betts (and Price), the Red Sox received Alex Verdugo, Connor Wong and Jeter Downs.
Downs was last spotted in Washington playing for the Nationals.
Verdugo and Wong have settled into starting roles.
Of the three, Wong could prove to be the best acquisition in the long run. Verdugo offers the presence of someone who may have already peaked as a ballplayer. See “Andrew Benintendi.”
Betts has swatted 34 home runs thus far in 2023. He’s backed them up with 86 RBI, 101 runs and a .989 OPS. Verdugo, meanwhile, supplied just 39 home runs since joining the Red Sox in 2020.
The Red Sox were never going to get anything close to reasonable value for Betts.
Three potentially average players never equal a great one.
Betts’ departure ushered in the post “Score of Success” © Red Sox.
Bloom brought the Tampa Bay Way to Boston and turned it into Pittsfield.
Bloom’s former boss in St. Petersburg, Andrew Friedman, has been running the Dodgers/Blue Sox since 2015. Money isn’t real La La Land.
Look no further West than the Bronx or Queens as proof that burning mountains of cash on free agents doesn’t guarantee success in the standings.
Yet, the Red Sox committed a far more grievous sin with Betts. They low-balled a player who came up through their system and had the potential to be a Red Sox Hall of Famer, if not the Cooperstown type, by the time his career was complete.
The Red Sox drafted Betts in 2011 when he was still in high school. Betts, a Nashville native, never embraced Boston like an Ortiz. He told me in 2016 he wasn’t sure he would end up staying in Boston for his whole career.
The Red Sox botched this relationship going back to 2018 when they took Betts to arbitration. Betts won, but it left a mark.
No matter what you may have read elsewhere.
The Red Sox failed to secure Betts before the 2019 season. At the time, $300 million wasn’t enough.
“I just wanted to get my value,” Betts told WEEI last year. “The numbers didn’t align.”
Thus, Betts was gone one way or another in 2020. The same pattern followed with Bogaerts. Betts’ 12-year, $365 million deal with LA may have looked kooky before in 2021. But its average annual value (AAV) of $30.41 million is becoming more and more of a bargain. It is below the 2023 salaries of Miguel Cabrera, Stephen Strasburg and Giancarlo Stanton.
Given his Red Sox success, Betts has earned the best possible pre-game hype video that Dr. Charles can offer. And an ovation only reserved for Taylor Swift
Every time he comes to the plate.
Don’t hate the player. Hate the game.
Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com