McAdam: Red Sox cite sustainability - and not luxury tax - as prime motive for blockbuster deal

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- When Chaim Bloom was hired as the Red Sox' chief baseball officer last fall, it was with the stated intention of ending the franchise's cycle of boom-and-bust -- winning two World Series from 2012 through 2018, but also finishing last three times in that span and missing the playoffs four times -- and creating a more consistently, competitive team on the field.

So perhaps it shouldn't have come as any surprise that when the Red Sox finally got around to making their mega-trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers official, they framed the deal not as a cost-cutting measure, but rather, a way to create sustainability for the club.

So, it was out with two star players, and in with increased payroll flexibility and a deeper pool of prospects for the future.

That might not sound like much of a marketing slogan, but it does adequately explain the organization's thinking.



"This trade is a very hard one to make,'' acknowledged Bloom as the Sox shipped Mookie Betts and David Price to the Dodgers in exchange for outfielder Alex Verdugo, infielder Jeter Downs and catcher Connor Wong. "But our mission, our charge as a department is to compete consistently -- year in, and year out -- and to put ourselves in position to win as many championships as we can. That's behind everything we do. And we can only accomplish that goal with a talent base at all levels of the organization that is deep, broad and sustainable. Acquiring (these players) represents a major step forward for our talent base and will help us win consistently for many years.

"The goal to get under the CBT is not an end in itself. It's part of a larger goal, our biggest goal, which is to put ourselves in position to compete and win sustainably as many years as we can. Using our resources effectively, is a means toward that end. So we wanted to get under the CBT in service of that larger goal and we weren't going to do in a way to help us with that bigger goal. The CBT was not a major factor in us deciding to do this deal as much as it was a goal for us this offseason.''

Intended consequence or not, the move does reduce the Red Sox' payroll by $43 million in 2020 -- $27 million for Betts and $16 million (half of his $32 million salary). At the end of last offseason, the Sox stated that getting under the first CBT threshold of $208 million was "a goal, not a mandate.'' The team's payroll obligations for the upcoming season now stand at just over $190 million.

In announcing the deal, Bloom also said the Red Sox "expect to compete in 2020,'' and noted that within the organization, there's the belief that the 2019 edition of the Sox had more talent than their 84-win total reflected.

But later, Bloom acknowledged that the team might expect a step backward in the near future.

"I certainly think it's reasonable to expect that we're going to be worse without (Betts and Price),'' he said. "But we have real good talent coming back. The main purpose of today's trade is to help us compete and win as much as possible for many years.''

It may, indeed, take a while to field a playoff-caliber team again. But the allure of five-tool outfielder like Verdugo, and a middle infielder like Downs with both power and base-stealing capability, proved too enticing, especially since the Sox are getting a combined 11 seasons of control for the two young players.

(Wong's projection is less definite, though at very least, he provides some necessary depth in the organization currently woefully thin at the catcher position).

Bloom said that as hard it was for the team emotionally to part with Betts, "in terms of the big picture, in terms of our long-term future, was a large enough step forward that despite it being difficult, it was something we needed to do.''

It's here that the organization's ability to evaluate and project talent will hold the key to the success of the deal. If Verdugo plays at an All-Star level for the duration of the next five years and Downs becomes the team's everyday second baseman and delivers pop and speed, it will be easier to justify.

Still, it's hard to escape the notion that this deal was largely money-driven. Maybe the Red Sox got decent return and control in exchange for Betts, but Bloom hinted that the kind of deal the outfielder was seeking -- perhaps as much as $420 million over 12 years, by some reports -- was too problematic.

Bloom would not directly answer if the Sox made one last effort to get Betts signed to an extension before engaging teams in trade talk.

"I don't think it's appropriate to get into whether or when we had any contract negotiations with Mookie or any player,'' he said. "But I will say this generally: I think when you have a star player that's approaching free agency, you know that's it going to take a sizable commitment to keep him here and those commitments obviously have a lot of positives and they also have risks.

"And I think you have to assess the positives and the risks of that in the context of the larger picture of what you're trying to accomplish and how you think it's going to impact that goal of trying to compete and win as much as we can over the course of time. In the end, we felt what this move was able to do for us towards that goal was the most impactful, positive path for us.''

Time, of course, will tell.