McAdam: In explaining trade of Mookie Betts, Red Sox ownership trips up badly

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- "Follow the money'' is always a handy bit of advice for anyone looking to get to the root of an issue.

It gets used from Watergate to Wall Street. Want to know why someone did what they did? Follow the money.

The Red Sox tried, without much success Monday, to present the opposite viewpoint. They insisted -- time and time again -- that the reason Mookie Betts is now sporting Dodger Blue and not Red Sox red had little to do with money and more to do with positioning themselves for the future.

"We cannot shy aware from tough decisions required to aggressively compete for World Series,'' said principal owner John Henry. "That is what led to this trade. We have to make hard judgments competing for the future as well as the present.''

More than anything, they wanted it known that it wasn't about getting the payroll under the competitive balance tax (CBT) threshold of $208 million.

Technically, this might be true. The Red Sox were in a position to afford the $27 million salary for Betts in 2020 and dealing away David Price (due $32 million each of the next three seasons) and making some other in-season cost-cutting moves could have helped them achieve that goal.

But they were unsure of their ability -- or perhaps willingness? -- to afford him past 2020. Henry, chairman Tom Werner and team president Sam Kennedy all noted that the team had made repeated attempts to get an extension done with Betts after the 2016, 2017 and 2018 seasons.

Some careful listening, however, would have alerted you to the fact that there was nothing mentioned about negotiations from this past winter, with one year of control remaining. Perhaps that was because, as has been reported, Betts had asked for a contract commensurate with the one given to Mike Trout, or, more than $400 million.

Henry noted baseball's current economic system is not without its flaws, before noting: "It's not the system's fault that the Red Sox ended up in this position.''

That much is true, of course. It's their own fault.

Recall that, in September, when Henry let it slip that the Sox had a goal of getting under $208 million for 2020, he also added that that was known "for more than a year.''

Yet despite knowing that some financial reckoning was coming, the Red Sox gave then-president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski the green light to hand out $213 million worth of contracts to two pitchers -- Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi -- with durability issues, knowing they would soon have to address free agency for Betts.

"We've also said that was a goal, not a mandate (to get under the CBT),'' said Werner. "The more important issue for us what is it that we can do to make the Red Sox strong in 2020, 2021 and 2022. There are lots of hypotheticals here. We've pleased with the value we got back from the Dodgers.''

Most fans, by contrast, are not. While the Sox did get a total of 17 controllable seasons for the three players -- Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong -- what are the odds that any of them becomes close to the player Betts was while here? Already, Verdugo is dealing with a stress fracture in his back and is doubtful for his first Opening Day as a member of the organization.

In attempting to rationalize the deal, Henry noted that some 16 years ago, the Red Sox dealt away Nomar Garciaparra "who, like Mookie, was a hugely popular homegrown player.''

Again, this was a poor comparison. At the time of the trade, Garciaparra was two years older than Betts and by then had become injury prone. Only three years earlier, he had been limited to just 21 games in 2001 and in 2004, he had played a mere 38 of the team's first 101 games, while conveying to management he was unsure how much he would be physically available in the second half of the season.

Fairly or unfairly, Garciaparra had developed a reputation for being churlish, thin-skinned and, in terms of his skill-set, in decline. Worse, his unhappiness over a contract offer which was soon rescinded and the uncertainty over his future had turned him into a negative presence in the clubhouse, one the organization instinctively understood had to be removed for the betterment of the team.

It's worth noting that after he was traded. From 2005 through the end of his career in 2009, he never played more than 122 games in a season, and only twice played more than 100. Only once -- in 2006 -- did he have a season in which he posted an OPS of better than .800, after doing so nine straight seasons while with the Red Sox.

He was selected as an All-Star just once after he was traded by the Sox. Just a hunch on my part, but I'd venture that Betts will do better than that.

The Garciaparra comp, then, completely missed the mark.

After all the energy ownership spent Monday desperately trying to convince everyone that Betts wasn't traded because of the CBT or payroll, they failed to grasp the real issue. To wit: Red Sox fans don't care why Betts was traded; they're just furious that he was traded.

The Sox can spin this as they wish. They can explain, sympathize and hold counseling sessions for aggrieved fans and it won't change the fact Betts -- the best player the franchise had developed in decades -- is no longer here.

Perhaps, unwittingly, the most on-point thing came almost as a throwaway line from Henry.

"I understand that there is little that I can say today that will change how you feel about this,'' said the principal owner.

On that -- and perhaps only that -- we can all agree.