This is where I am at as well. Mookie being traded has become an inevitable truth that I have learned to accept.
Or it could be that they knew Mookie was going to free agency no matter what, and would likely command a contract that they didn't want to pay under any circumstances, even if they had the luxury tax space. I don't have a problem with thinking that 12/$420m is a philosophically poor baseball decision.
The difference of course being we got the entire prime of Pedro. Mookie has a good 5-6 years of prime at minimum. Sox may very well be trading the prime years of Mookie.
By this logic the only reason to not signing any free agent ever is money. So why don't they spend $500M per season and build a super team?
I cannot. They let Pedro walk for baseball reasons, right or wrong. Age, injuries, etc, all played a key part in that decision.
"First Prime. Then Ultra Magnus. Now you. It's a pity you Autobots die so easily or I might have a sense of satisfaction."
Sorry, still can't accept it even if the return is decent. If this is somehow 5th dimensional chess and Bloom re-signs Mookie next offseason, maybe it's OK? But nothing in life is guaranteed and to see the second best position player in baseball get shipped off because of money is a disgrace.
My line is that they have to make him a palatable contract offer he'll sign. Period. You don't let the best homegrown player they've had since Yaz walk in the primer of his career simply because you don't want to pay him market value. And you don't suddenly find your coffers empty one year after giving stupid deals to Sale and Eovaldi. They knew full well Mookie's deal was coming up.
This is where I'd been for some time, but it's become fairly clear that there is really no way Mookie was not entering FA short of the Sox offering him a contract just as irresponsible as the Sale and Eovaldi deals. Those contracts are still a disaster for myriad reasons, but I don't think they are what precluded re-signing Mookie.
If you make the assumption that the odds of signing Mookie don't change from now until next December, then it doesn't really matter where Mookie plays in 2020.
John Henry needs to feed his family.
Through the same age, Nomar was a better player. And then he got hit in the wrist and was never the same again. The risks of putting nearly half a billion dollars in one basket are huge.
But is the bolded really true? According to reporting the Sox offered 10/300 and Mookie asked for 12/420. It doesn't take a math genius to calculate that there might be a middle ground there somewhere - what if the Sox offered 10/360? Put another way, unless it's true that Mookie asked for 12/420 and made clear he would not accept a penny lower, which I don't think has been reported, all the talk about how there was no way the Sox could extend Mookie for something below $400m seems to be just speculation/spin.
To put it delicately, today they test for PEDs. And I loved Nomar. But this team can afford monetary risks. The most skillful things they've done this winter, in the midst of stepping on their dicks with everything else they try, is convince people they need to be fiscally "prudent."
This is where I am. He stated that he was going to test free agency. There's only so much you can pay a player, no matter how good he is. Even without the Sale and Eovaldi contracts I seriously doubt the Sox would offer the 12/$240m that it was reported that he'd take to sign. That's the kind of counter you make knowing the other side will balk.
Palatable to whom? What is "market value"? Mookie is clearly unwilling to accept any offer until he determines exactly what his market value is by actually going on the market. No one will know until next winter what his market value is. So how do we know right now that the Red Sox refuse to pay market rate?
We've been told he countered the team's 10/$300m offer (i.e. Machado money) with 12/$420m, which is basically Trout's extension. So... make of that what you will.
Mookie, of course. You don't offer him Machado's deal to start when 1) Mookie's a far, far better player than Machado by WAR, and 2) Machado's deal came from a historically cash-poor team in SD. Mookie's counter-offer showed what he was looking for.
My question is do you skimp on going all in on 2017 and 2018 with the additions of Price and JDM in order to save money for Mookie now? I also think it would've been a hard sell to not follow up 2018 by making another run with such a solid core; the bill was coming due eventually and we're paying it now because it's not possible to lock Mookie up without competing with 29 other teams.
Following up on my last post, I think it depends what he signs for. If the Dodgers give him 12/420 then I think most here will just kind of whistle and acknowledge that there was probably no way the Sox were going to give him that under any circumstances, beyond any CBT implications, and probably rightly so.
No, I skimp by not giving obvious overpays to Sale and Eovaldi after 2018.
As someone who is fine with trading Mookie, I pretty much agree with this. It would be a bad look if he signs immediately for something moderately less than 12/$420. Personally I think 10/$375 is still a bit too high (that would be ~4.65% higher AAV than Trout). I also think it seems highly doubtful that he will sign a 10 year deal, although I suppose if it gets high enough like your $375M then it is possible.
If this does happen I'll follow you out the door, because it will mean that Chaim Bloom is the new Ben Cherington and is not really in charge of baseball operations.
Not sure if that was a intentional or a typo, but if the Red Sox were to actually land Pablo Sanchez, that would be a massive, massive get and I would forget all about Mookie if he came to Boston.
I agree these were bad moves and said so at the time. But they happened and nothing can change that, they have to live with the consequences.
So the explanation that they simply don't want to be the highest bidder on this one doesn't make rational sense?
People keep saying this, but Machado was also hitting FA two years younger than Betts. That matters a ton to his market value. A ten year deal signs Machado through his age 36 season and Mookie through 38.
Haven’t we learned that any time a popular player/coach leaves, the higher-ups are ready to shit on them on the way out? E.g. Tito.
