The dance is getting under the luxury tax threshold and it's an important one. According to Cot's they are about $8,000 from incuring a 62% tax(50% plus the 12% surtax for being more than $20 million over). Any team that has lived above it like the Red Sox have had to reset the tax and then they are able to spend more with less penalty. They will spend money again and it's not because of "ratings". The FA class after the 2021 season could include players like Lindor, Yelich, Arenado, Stanton, Freeman, Blackmon, Carlos Martinez, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Syndergaard, Corey Seager, and Carlos Correa. Get under the tax for one season and they will be able to spend again.
I hate that they have to do this, but it's necessary if they don't want to hamstring themselves in luxury taxes for years to come. No big salaries are scheduled to come off the books until after the 2022 season so if you don't do it now you risk not being able to add to the team for a while.
The problem with that list is that a bunch of those players, while good, are at positions that the Red Sox don't need to fill (unless there's a huge problem):
Lindor, Seager and Correa are shortstops, we have a really good one who signed a long-term deal last year.
Arenado and Bryant play the same position as Rafael Devers, who's pretty good himself.
Yelich's contract runs through the 2022 season, and that's his year 30-season. BTW, his similarity score on bbref is Mookie, so why not keep the guy you have?
Stanton has an option, but if he does well, I don't see the Yankees letting him leave. If he does poorly, why would we want him. Plus that is his year 30 season, and he's already snake-bitten enough. I don't think his body type ages well.
Blackmon has a player option after the 2022 season, when he'll be in his year 35 season. No thanks.
Martinez is signed through 2023 with two team options.
Baez, I'm not big on him, but I could be talked into him. But not at Mookie money. Plus, he's a free agent after the 2020 season and it looks like he might be the best of the bunch, do you want to get into a bidding war over Javy Baez?
Sydergaard is pretty good, no doubt. I'd be okay with him.
So out of that list, I'd realistically be happy with one of those players. The others are either superfluous or old or are fine. Would you swap Mookie for Thor? I don't think that I would, TBH.
As far as your bolded, there are other players that you can trade so that you don't end up in luxury tax jail. It seems to me that Bloom is probably running into a brick wall trying to trade Price and Eovaldi and JBJ, but I don't think that it makes a lot of sense to trade Mookie, get under the tax threshold and then sign someone 75% of his worth but at an inflated price. That's how we got into this mess in the first place. The Sox aren't great about finding a lane and staying in it, which makes them interesting but also infuriating.
Twelve months ago, it was damn the torpedos, sign everyone, who gives a shit about the luxury tax threshold! Now it's, whoa, whoa, whoa. What is this all about? We NEED to get under the luxury tax threshold otherwise, Mr. Henry will have to sell his 43rd yacht! (Hyperbole, but bare with me). In 2012, we had to dump all of salary on the Dodgers, build from within and sign smart free agents. Which we did and we won a World Series. BUT a season later, there's no sizzle to this steak. We need to sign Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval and David Price.
I don't know about you, but I'm getting whiplash.
If you want to be cheap, be cheap. If you want to spend like a drunken sailor, spend like a drunken sailor. I don't care, just please be consistent. And for god's sakes, when you're in the middle of your manic phases, the answer isn't getting rid of the best player that your organization has developed since 1961. JFC, these guys don't come around every single year.
This time last year, would you have complained that Henry "didn't want to win" or were short-sighted for letting Sale go? At the time, the deal was lauded as a steal for one of the best pitchers in the game and that he took less to stay in Boston. Eovaldi I get the revisionist history, but they had to sign Sale.
They did not have to sign Chris Sale. I like Chris Sale a bunch, but one of the things that I don't like about Chris Sale is how he fades in August and September. He's done that for the last three years that he's been a member of the Red Sox. And the 2018 season, he was babied and he still didn't pitch great in the post season. Chris Sale is the type of player that you don't commit long-term to. Would I have been pissed if Sale walked? Maybe for a day or two. But I mean, Chris Sale is signed through his age 36 season. Those last few years are going to be rough.
To frame it another way, I expect Chris Sale to spend more time on the DL than I do Mookie Betts.
That's fair, but there's spending out the wazoo and then there's spending out the wazoo. Even if they offload Mookie this year, JH is spending out the wazoo because they're still going to be up against the edge of the tax threshold, and the reset (ASSUMPTION WARNING) is so that they can continue spending well over the threshold next year--and who knows, maybe it's Mookie they spend it on. There's no evidence to suggest that the ownership group has plans to cheap out in the future.
Snark aside (from above) I've come down from the ledge that John Henry is cheap. He isn't cheap, obviously. He's spent a lot of money on the Red Sox and Fenway Park, but I'd argue that he's also reaped his investment many times over. Henry isn't stupid. But, like I've said, Henry has a way of going down one road (we're going to be frugal!) and then doubling back and going down the opposite road, lavishing money on the wrong players. I don't think that Mookie is the wrong player, YMMV, but to me, he seems like a guy that you sign at most costs. Because they're going to sign someone in the next two or three years, and it could be a lot worse.
All that being said, I think that Mookie is probably going to be traded and I think that this could all have been avoided. That's what's so frustrating about this entire offseason. AND even if they keep Mookie, I don't see the Sox doing much this year. Especially since they don't really have a second baseman and they haven't done anything to address the bullpen. IDK, maybe you just blow up the entire year, trade every one with a pulse, hope that people don't mind a few bridge years and stick to one road.