The fabulous start to the season for Mookie Betts carries with it a subtext for the Red Sox. Each home run, double, and run scored underscores the reality that the clock is ticking for the club.
Betts is eligible for free agency after the 2020 season, which further heightens the urgency for the Sox to get him signed to a contract extension.
The outfielder isn’t the only one of the team’s core inching toward free agency – Xander Bogaerts is eligible after 2019 and Jackie Bradley Jr. follows him the next year – but no player is more critical to the franchise’s future than Betts, who has clearly established himself as not only the team’s best talent but also, one of the top half-dozen players in the game.
Adding to the apprehension is the team’s inability to reach agreement with Betts in each of the last two offseasons. In the spring of 2017, the team took the unusual step of renewing Betts – that is, unilaterally imposing his salary for that season.
Then, this past January, the Sox went to a salary arbitration hearing with Betts, marking only the second time since 2002 the organization went that route. Betts beat the Sox in arbitration, winning a $10.5 million salary for this season after the team had countered at $7.5 million.
Following each contractual standoff, both Betts and the club insisted no hard feelings existed and the negotiations were business-like. Still, the inability to reach agreement has to be seen at least somewhat troubling.
In addition, the Sox were rebuffed in their efforts to get Betts signed long-term in the spring of ’17, offering him a nine-figure deal that would have qualified as the second-biggest deal ever for a player of similar service time.
The explanation from the player’s camp at the time was that Betts and his representatives prefer to go year-to-year in arbitration. That’s an understandable position, since, after February’s arbitration win, Betts stands to win $15 million or more next winter, and top $20 million the following year.
According to a source, talks remain cordial between the Red Sox and the agents who represent Betts, with the team occasionally reaching out to maintain an open communication throughout. But those talks, however casual, have yet to result in any meaningful progress being made.
It also stands to reason Betts’s representatives don’t wish to commit their player to a long-term deal until they see what happens with this fall’s two elite free agents: Manny Machado and Bryce Harper.
If one or both players top $400 million on the open market – as has been speculated -- it would make sense for Betts to hold out and see what he could attract as a free agent in November of 2020. Why commit to a five- or six-year extension when there exists the possibility that Harper and/or Machado could establish a new standard in a few months?
In the meantime, Betts continues to reach new heights and put up astonishing numbers, ascending to an elite level. And even, as they marvel at his growth, the Red Sox have to be pondering the enormous costs of extending and retaining him.
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