Boston Red Sox 2020 Outlook
Expensive contracts come back to bite
Chaim Bloom will inherit a Red Sox organization that does not have a lot of money to spend. According to Statista, the Red Sox had a payroll of $213.19 million on opening day last season, which the highest of any team in the major leagues. That put them $7.19 million over the luxury tax. The only other team to exceed the luxury tax in 2019 was the Chicago Cubs, who have many problems of their own.
A large chunk of that payroll belongs to their two former All-Star lefty starters, David Price and Chris Sale. Sale signed a massive 5-year, $145 million extensions last offseason, and is owed $117.5 from now until 2024. Price signed the largest contract for a starting pitcher in MLB history at the time in 2016. He is set to earn $32 million per year until 2022.
Others set to earn over $20 million next year is Xander Bogaerts, and J.D. Martinez, who decided not to opt-out of his massive contract.
The massive payroll paid off in 2018 but now makes the future beyond 2020 very uncertain. As a result, there has been a parade of trade rumors surrounding some of the BoSox’s best players. The guy in the middle of every rumor is former MVP, Mookie Betts. Betts is coming off another spectacular year, where he earned his fourth career Gold Glove and third career Silver Slugger. However, Betts is in his final year of arbitration and has made it clear that he won’t take a discount in order to stay with the Red Sox.
Thus, it makes sense for the Red Sox to try to move him. He would require a massive prospect package that could change the future of the organization. However, he is owed $30 million this year before he becomes an unrestricted free agent, so teams might be reluctant to give up their top prospects for one year of Betts. He has repeatedly turned down extension offers from the Red Sox, so there is no guarantee that Betts would sign long term with the team that trades for him.
Therefore, the Red Sox’ astronomically high payroll will prevent them from signing free agents that can help them today, and could possibly prevent them from moving heavy contracts that would help them tomorrow.