Were you surprised the Red Sox went to arbitration with Mookie Betts?
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Are you surprised the Red Sox went to arbitration with Mookie Betts? You’d think they’d want to avoid any potential hard feelings with a player like him. – Kris L.
It’s funny, I’m so out of the loop on the Sox at the moment that I didn’t even realize a decision was coming today. My initial reaction to the news was, “Ten-and-a-half-million? Bargain for the Sox.” And it is, even if it counts as steep by historical arbitration standards.
Then I started hearing from a few fans on Twitter who asked a similar version of this question, albeit with more alarm even though Betts won’t become a free agent until after the 2020 season. The concern about hard feelings is a legitimate one, I suppose, though it’s not something I’m interested in worrying about now, with three years until he can depart.
And I really don’t believe it will be an issue down the road. Since he was seated next to me at the Super Bowl media center when I answered this and he knows much more about this stuff than I do, I asked Alex Speier why the Sox would even go to arbitration with Betts. He explained it like this:
When the teams were presenting their arbitration requests, the Red Sox tried to negotiate for a middle ground, presumably somewhere around the $8.2 million at which MLB Trade Rumors projected his value.
Betts and his agents preferred to aim for the high end of the range, which is of course their prerogative. The teams couldn’t come to an agreement, and, in the interim, while they were awaiting a decision, Kris Bryant got $10.85 million from the Cubs in arbitration.
His case was fairly similar to Betts’, and at that point the Red Sox knew that they no longer had much of a chance of winning and could not resubmit an offer.
Maybe they should have just given him what he asked for, but that’s not how the process works. I doubt they were especially critical of him during the hearing given that there’s hardly anything to criticize. And from what I know having talked to him about Boston a few times, Betts really likes it here, though the Red Sox are going to have to pay him a lot of money when it’s time.
So yes, I was surprised they went to arbitration. I would have been more surprised if Betts had not won. But what do you guys think of this topic? I’ll hear you in the comments.
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