It's like people still don't get why they traded away Betts. Anyone who thinks that they did so in order to be bad is insane. They had tried to re-sign him to a huge contract. Betts turned it down, reportedly asking for more than $400 million - money the Red Sox simply did not have if they wanted to stay under the luxury tax (at least to avoid the worst penalties of being over), which ALL TEAMS DO. Betts, moreover, said the whole time, never once deviating or hinting otherwise, that that he wanted to go to free agency. So the Sox had a choice. Hang onto him for one more season and be way over the luxury tax and then probably lose him for nothing, since they couldn't have signed him at his asking price if they were over the luxury tax in 2020.... OR trade him, get under the luxury tax, and free up enough money to maybe be able to re-sign him at huge dollars. The ONLY way to have Betts on Boston's roster in 2021 and beyond was to get under the luxury tax in 2020, and that meant dealing him and Price.
Of course Covid comes, ruins everything, and now because the entire world is different, Mookie took a contract less than what he was asking for last year. Oh well, I don't think this was in anyone's predictive model.
But the Sox are suffering through a Covid-plagued 60-game season in front of no fans with weird rules. If EVER there was a year to suck, this is it.
Get Sale and ERod healthy, get the season to Sept 1 so they clear the luxury tax, use the freed-up money to rebuild, advance your key prospects, and be ready to compete in 2021 and beyond. That would make for a hugely successful 2020 campaign, despite what we're seeing on the field right now.