Mookie Betts is a Dodger for life!
It all started early this morning at around 6:30 AM Pacific Time when it was first reported by Boston Sports Radio Host Lou Merloni that the Dodgers and Betts were close to a long term extension.
About 45 minutes later, MLB Network Insider Jon Heyman came in and said that he heard the same thing.
As a rule of thumb in baseball, you believe everything from reporters like Jeff Passan and Ken Rosenthal since they are never wrong. Since these reports were from different people, I didn’t fully believe them.
Then everything changed when Jeff Passan dropped a nuke on the baseball world when he confirmed the reports.
As you can probably tell I’m a Dodgers fan, and when Passan was the guy to report that the deal was close I went through the roof because I was so excited.
I mean how could you blame me. The Dodgers have come close to winning the World Series so many times over the past seven years and they never really spent money on the big name player. They have never gone all in.
The Dodgers always spent money on a few different guys like signing A.J. Pollock instead of Bryce Harper, and trading for Yu Darvish instead of Justin Verlander because Verlander had $40 Million left on his deal, etc.
So, it was nice to see them finally go for it and spend money. The Dodgers have the money to be the Yankees of the west coast, but they never spent money. Maybe now there will be a change in the front office philosophy and they will start spending big.
A couple of things to note about his contract is Betts is the only contract left on the books after the 2022 season. This means that the Dodgers will have the money to re-sign guys like Cody Bellinger, who is a free agent after 2022 and Walker Buehler, who is a free agent after the 2023 season, and others. Also his deal does not include a no-trade clause, and over $100 Million of his contract is deferred to the end of his 13-year deal and beyond.
The best part about this is Betts is only twenty-seven years old, and he’s right in the beginning stages of his prime. They have him signed until he’s forty, which is a little bit worrying, but to have probably the second best baseball player in the world on your team is pretty good.
Actually I lied. The best part was watching Red Sox fans melt down on Twitter.
A story in four parts: