The Red Sox Know the Future
And Other Rationalizations of the Mookie Betts Trade
The Red Sox’s ‘punch in the nuts’ trade of Mookie Betts left their fanbase rolling around on the ground writhing in pain like an unlucky stink bug living out its last pitiful moments. It is the type of move that should never happen, let alone from a team that runs league-high payrolls like they’re training for a marathon. At the moment, the move seemed completely and utterly indefensible in every capacity. Why does a team as good and as rich as the Red Sox trade a generational talent to save a little money? Perhaps, the Red Sox were operating with a different set of facts. Perhaps, they knew something we didn’t.
First, the elephant in the room, that also probably made you forget about the Mookie Betts trade, Covid-19. According to the WHO, on December 31st, 2019 was when the novel coronavirus was identified in Wuhan China. It was not until February 10th, 2020 that the Red Sox made their initial trade of Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Could the Red Sox, all the way back in February, have thought that the season was in jeopardy?
John Henry, the owner of Red Sox, seems like he would be the type of person who would be very quick to see the danger looming with Covid-19. He is an asthmatic and got his start as a commodities trader that developed a mechanical trading system to weed out human emotion when investing (He is worth $2.1 billion, so I guess there’s no crying in investing). He not only owns the Red Sox but also Liverpool FC, giving him a global scope. So when an analytical asthmatic globetrotting financier sees the DOW Jones tanking in late January they might see the writing on the wall in regards to Covid-19. To mitigate the risk of the ensuing pandemic, he traded away his most expensive player and also dumped part of David Price’s contract and picked up cheap cost-controlled talent in the process. If the Red Sox saw Covid-19 coming then shipping Mookie out made absolute sense. Also, if the Red Sox’s saw Covid-19 coming and all they did was trade away their beloved franchise player to dump a bad contract to make a little money and not warn anyone, well, fuck them.
Let’s not kid ourselves (even if I just did), the chances that the Red Sox saw this coming are basically zero. On February 10th, 2020 there were over 40,000 Covid-19 cases in China. Nowhere else even had 100 cases yet. When Mookie was sent to Los Angeles the Coronavirus was still just China’s problem. So while it would be insane to think that the Red Sox were aware a global pandemic was on its way, could they have been privy to a different set of medical information?
Lost in the Covid-shuffle was Chris Sale’s decision to have Tommy John surgery. The Boston Red Sox’s ace had been shut down since last August with elbow tightness and after trying to ramp up for spring training opted to have Tommy John surgery at the end of March. Chris Sale being lost for the season is almost as big a blow as losing Mookie Betts. Perhaps the Red Sox front office and medical staff believed Tommy John was only a matter of time after the problems Sale had with his elbow ended his 2019 season. The Red Sox with Mookie and Sale in 2020 would still have a tough road to the playoffs. Instead of risking pushing more chips in for a 2020 without Sale they decided to cash out their best asset and hope 2021 is better. It’s not exactly the bravest or boldest decision, but sometimes punting is the smart move.
The Red Sox front office feeling uneasy about the health of Sale’s elbow is more realistic than them anticipating Covid-19 forcing the global economy to sputter out like the engine of a brand new Dolorian. While it is highly unlikely that the Red Sox believed Sale would need surgery so soon, since he did not have the surgery in the offseason, there must have been a belief that it would one day come to that. Perhaps the Red Sox moved Mookie Betts to free up money to acquire another top of the line player, just not a baseball player, but a soccer player.
John Henry is not exactly the owner of the Red Sox, even if he is. John Henry started Fenway Sports Group in 2001 to purchase and be the parent company of the Boston Red Sox. So John Henry owns the company that owns the Red Sox, and this company also owns Liverpool FC. If you have not been paying attention to European professional soccer you would not be aware that Liverpool are fresh off winning the most prestigious club soccer competition in the world and are about to lift their first English 1st division title in 30 years. Liverpool are the best team in the world and the only way to stay on top of the crazy competitive world of club football is to outspend your rivals for the best available talent, which has become ludicrously expensive due to oil-rich nations “diversifying their assets”. The Fenway Sports Group might have decided to prioritize spending for Liverpool over the Red Sox. To grab a young talent like Jadon Sancho might be costly, but he’s almost assuredly more valuable than Mookie Betts over the next decade. Which sucks for Red Sox fans, but it would be incredible for Liverpool fans.
Maybe the truth was right there before our eyes. The Red Sox after years of spending just needed to hit the reset button and start fresh. Yes, all that spending led to winning and more money, but sometimes enough is enough. Sometimes you just need to trade your franchise player, smack-dab in the middle of their prime after they produced an all-time great season for the greatest Red Sox team in history, to save a little money. Remember how that worked out last time? Back in 1918, when the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth right as the global pandemic, known as the “Spanish flu”, ravaged the world. Remember how it kick-started an 86 year-long title drought that literally saw people go to their graves unfulfilled due to the Red Sox’s lack of a championship. Remember the curse of the Bambino. I guess what I’m trying to say is, “Don’t fucking trade Mookie Betts!”