The Red Sox need David Price and Mookie Betts to be competitive in 2020. Yet, the team may need to trade them both to be competitive in 2021 and beyond.
It's late January and the Red Sox have been unusually quiet on the free agent and trade fronts, unless you are inspired by the additions of Kevin Plawecki, Martin Perez and Jose Peraza.
With his hands tied by a payroll that remains about $27 million over the CBT threshold, Chaim Bloom has done nothing to improve an underperforming team -- at least as of yet.
Bloom is telling other teams that the cost of acquiring superstar Mookie Betts is taking on all or most of the $96 million owed to 34-year-old David Price, while also sending the Red Sox two top prospects. That’s according to ESPN’s Buster Olney.
Betts will make $27 million this season, and he surely expects his next contract to pay him at least $30 million per year for the next decade.
Unless the Red Sox can somehow unload Price, they can't likely afford to pay Betts next season or the following two years.
Why?
Price will make $32 million in each of the next three years, while Chris Sale will make $30 million in each of the next three years.
How many $30 million players can any team -- even a big market club like Boston -- bear?
Can the Red Sox really afford to have over $90 million dollars invested in just three players on an annual basis? My sense is no. It's just bad business.
At this moment, the 2020 team is largely the same group that won just 84 games and missed the playoffs last season. Yet, it's also mostly the same group that won the World Series the year before.
If ownership/management sense that this team is more like the former than the latter, then why not unload Betts and Price and reset the luxury tax?
The reality is this team has no shot in 2020, unless Chris Sale is fully healthy and pitching at a Cy Young level. Based on last year, that doesn't seem like a reasonable expectation.
If the Red Sox are able to unload Price with Betts, and get two top prospects, that's a deal they need to make. It's time to build for the future -- 2021 and beyond.
Hello, Dodgers?
