Los Angeles Dodgers: breaking down the blockbuster Red Sox deal
By David Rice
Los Angeles Dodgers
Receiving Betts and Price; sending Alex Verdugo and Kenta Maeda.
It seems so long ago now that the Boston Red Sox broke their 86-year World Series Championship drought. Now the Los Angeles Dodgers are trying to break a now 32-year World Championship drought and they turned to the Red Sox for help. The Dodgers have been so close in recent years to win the World Series they could taste the champagne.
The Boys in Blue made the World Series in both 2017 and 2018, but were denied by the Houston Astros and then the Red Sox, from completing their quest. All sign-stealing aside, the Dodgers only got two consecutive NL Pennants for their work which last happened in 1977 and 1978 (also both World Series defeats to the New York Yankees).
Many have said the Dodgers window of opportunity is slowing closing and the Dodgers front office seems to feel the same way. This trade definitely shows more of a win-now mentality than keeping the future intact.
So now the Dodgers outfield looks amazing with Cody Bellinger, A.J. Pollock, and Betts in the fold. The Dodgers rotation looks even more formidable as well with a top 3 Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, and David Price. The Nationals still have an edge with their top three pitchers of Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Patrick Corbin, but the gap is considerably smaller than it was.
Betts was widely considered the second-best player in the American League behind the Angels Mike Trout and he is only one season removed from being the AL MVP in 2018. He will now fight with Christian Yelich and now-teammate Cody Bellinger for NL MVP honors in 2020.
Betts has a career batting average of .301 with 139 homers and 470 RBIs with a .374 OBP, and oh by the way 126 stolen bases in five full seasons. Betts has won four Gold Gloves in right field and has finished in the Top 8 of the MVP voting in each of the last four seasons.
David Price, on the other hand, has been an enigma since the Red Sox signed him as a free agent before the 2016 season. The contract Price got was 7 years for 217 million dollars (average of 31 million dollars per season). In return, Boston got 46 wins and a 3.84 ERA, hardly a good return on their investment.
Price has neither been an all-star or a Cy Young candidate in any of those four seasons in Beantown. He did win 16 games in the 2018 World Championship season going 3-1 in the playoffs for the Red Sox, but this is still not enough to justify the money that was spent on him.
However, for the Dodgers’ sake they will only have to pay about half of the 96 million dollars still owed to Price by the Red Sox (16 million dollars for each of the next three seasons). He has a plethora of playoff experience pitching in 23 games in October pitching in two World Series and three ALCS. However, his overall postseason numbers are also very pedestrian going 5-9 with a 4.62 ERA. Price’s World Series numbers have been impressive going 2-0 with a 2.12 ERA.
The deal still looks good for the Los Angeles Dodgers as all they had to give up with Kenta Maeda, who has been very valuable as a starter and a reliever for LA but was expendable and an outfield prospect Alex Verdugo, who has good numbers so far in his career, but is not a proven commodity like Mookie Betts. They did not have to give up any of their top prospects such as Gavin Lux or Dustin May who should both be key contributors in 2020. Despite David Price’s declining numbers, it was still a good risk for the Dodgers as the cost was minimal (Verdugo and Maeda).
This move is the one that many Dodger fans have been waiting for this off-season that should make a huge impact in the drive to end the World Series title drought at 32 years. The subsequent deal of trading Joc Pederson and Ross Stripling will be analyzed in a later slide.