It is an unpopular opinion among baseball fans, but the Boston Red Sox did very well in all aspects of their three-team trade headlined by Mookie Betts and David Price.
Mookie Betts was going to get traded. I hope that Boston Red Sox fans were not surprised when alerts popped up on their phones on Tuesday evening that their former MVP was finally traded. But the only question was if the Red Sox would be able to get back a justifiable haul in return and save money in the process.
They passed the test.
Yes, it is nearly impossible to replace a potential Hall of Famer in Mookie Betts. In fact, it is impossible to replace Mookie Betts unless you acquire Mike Trout because he is arguably the only player that is better than Mookie Betts.
But the main point here was that Betts wanted to be a free agent and after 2020 he will earn that right, so Chaim Bloom needed to get something back that was more impactful than a compensation pick.
Not only did he and the rest of the front office need to get a good return, but they also wanted to get under the luxury tax threshold and have some flexibility heading into Bloom’s first season as the Chief Baseball Officer of the Boston Red Sox.
And while it might be overlooked right now, Chaim Bloom got a solid return and he created a lot of flexibility for his front office at the same time.