Betts to the Dodgers

February 10, 2020. The Red Sox traded Mookie Betts, David Price, and cash to the Dodgers for Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs, and Connor Wong. Betts was the 2018 Most Valuable Player, 27 years old, and a year from free agency. The Dodgers were taking his $27 million salary for 2020. The clubs split the $96 million still owed to Price; Boston sent $48 million of it. A three-team structure with the Twins had been reported the week before, with Brusdar Graterol headed to Boston. The Red Sox backed away after reviewing his medical records. Graterol went to Los Angeles instead, in a separate trade that sent Kenta Maeda to Minnesota.

Chaim Bloom said the aim was a roster that could keep winning, and that Verdugo, Downs, and Wong put the club in a better position to do that. The competitive-balance tax was the other stated pressure: a third straight season over the threshold carried penalties Boston was trying to get out from under. Verdugo was a major-league outfielder. Downs and Wong were prospects.

Betts stayed in Los Angeles and was a central player on a championship club that autumn. The trade is not only the tax bill, and it is not only the trophy. It is a franchise batting title-winner, one season short of the open market, moved with a large contract attached so the prospect return would be smaller than his name.