The Los Angeles Dodgers have sparked a debate amongst baseball executives with their usage of deferrals. Is it fair or not?
Zack Scott, former acting general manager of the New York Mets and a four-time champion with the Red Sox, described the process of negotiating with Mookie Betts and how things could have gone differently had Boston used the Dodgers’ creative contract method.
“Mookie Betts’ contract with the Dodgers offers another compelling example,” Scott wrote for MLB Trade Rumors. “He signed a $365MM deal with $115MM deferred. While the headline figure was impressive (second largest contract behind Trout!), the present value was $307MM, placing it below a few additional contracts (Bryce Harper, Giancarlo Stanton, and Gerrit Cole).
“This structure allowed the Dodgers to acquire a star player while satisfying Mookie and his agent’s desire to be seen as a top-two player. In Boston, we had tried to re-sign Betts, but our self-imposed $300MM limit wasn’t enough to meet this desire. A similar deferral structure to the Dodgers’ deal might have changed the outcome.”
Because the Red Sox and Betts couldn’t come to an agreement, Boston opted to trade him to the Dodgers before the 2020 season. At the time, he was a rental player entering the final year of his contract but the Dodgers persuaded him to stay for 12 more years.
Betts holds no grudges against the Red Sox. He fondly recalls his time in Boston, but during an appearance on the All the Smoke podcast, he described joining the Dodgers as “the best thing that’s ever happened” to him.
“People think I hate it. People think I didn’t want to be there and that was all a facade,” Betts said. “Like, it’s still business. Business is business. You have to be able to separate business from personal.
“Now, being personal and my personal relationship with Boston, as I said, I loved it, absolutely loved it. I still talk to front office people there and to AC (Alex Cora). I loved it. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love where I’m at now. I love Dave Roberts, being a Dodger, and being a Dodger has probably been the best thing that’s ever happened to my life.”
