Los Angeles Dodgers: Dave Roberts confirms Mookie Betts trade as a steal

The Mookie Betts trade has been a hot topic this postseason, and Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made sure everyone knew it was an absolute steal.

It kind of feels like an understatement, but the Los Angeles Dodgers absolutely got the better end of the Mookie Betts trade. And Dodgers manager Dave Roberts wants to make sure everybody knows that.

Roberts is absolutely right. The Boston Red Sox traded a top three player in the league. They traded a guy who gave them an MVP performance and World Series title for salary relief. Salary relief. You just can’t do that.

Sure, the Red Sox were worried about losing Betts in free agency. It’s only natural to want something in return if you think you’re going to lose your best player.

But as the Dodgers proved, all the Red Sox had to do was give Betts a fair extension to keep him. Betts will probably play the rest of his career in Los Angeles as their franchise cornerstone.

Obviously, Dave Dombrowski is known as a free spender and he certainly lived up to that as General Manager of the Red Sox. He spent big on J.D. Martinez, Chris Sale, Xander Bogaerts, and Nathan Eovaldi, all huge parts of the team’s championship efforts.

But Betts is a transcendent talent and you absolutely need to plan your finances in advance to retain him. Even a team like the Red Sox, with seemingly limitless resources, has to work around avoiding luxury tax penalties. This is why handing out large contracts and extensions with no set plan for retaining your most valuable asset is absurd.

The point is that it doesn’t even matter who the Red Sox got in return for Betts. Acquiring the best right fielder in the game is a steal no matter who you give up. Especially when you put all doubts of a one and done season to bed by signing said elite player to a massive extension immediately.

So yea, Dave Roberts is absolutely right in classifying this deal as straight up robbery.