The Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers have reportedly agreed to trade former Most Valuable Player Mookie Betts and left-hander David Price to Los Angeles, according to two people with knowledge of the deal who spoke with The Associated Press.
News about the agreement to trade the players broke Tuesday night, according to USA Today, which reports the deal is part of a three-team trade involving the Minnesota Twins.
In giving up Betts and Price, Boston is potentially saving their team millions of dollars.
“In the future, the Red Sox want to be below the luxury tax threshold,” said Shira Springer, sports investigative reporter at WBUR. “And having Betts’s big salary would have made that difficult, if not really impossible.”
The future for the Red Sox seems uncertain, Springer said.
“This just makes an already tough off-season even tougher,” she said. “And it adds to all the uncertainty around the team. Obviously, from an on-the-field perspective, the trade leaves a massive hole in the lineup with spring training right around the corner.”
Betts, 27, was the fifth-round pick for the Red Sox in 2011. He won the American League MVP in 2018 with a batting average of .346, according to ESPN. That same season, the Red Sox were crowned World Series champions.
While Red Sox fans absorb the news, Los Angeles may have cause to celebrate. According to MassLive, the Dodgers were bet just behind the New York Yankees to win the National League even before the deal; now, they have a combination of Betts, the 2018 AL MVP, and Price — a former Cy Young winner.
The Dodgers finished the 2019 season with 106 wins and 56 losses, which is the most games won in their franchise's history, but failed to win a playoff series that year.
As for Boston: Not only did they lose their primary player, but they are currently without a manager. Red Sox now-former manager Alex Cora has parted ways with the team after being involved in a cheating scheme. The team starts spring training next week.
Kayla McMillan contributed to this report, which includes information from WBUR.
