MLB notebook: Mookie Betts, David Price officially Dodgers
Mookie Betts and David Price are Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Boston Red Sox are tax dodgers.
Boston and Los Angeles finalized the on-again, off-again deal that will send the AL MVP and AL Cy Young winner to the West Coast on Monday night – just hours before the Red Sox are scheduled to open spring training.
The Dodgers hope the players will be the missing pieces after seven straight division championships all ended short of their first World Series title since 1988. The Red Sox have already achieved their biggest goal of the offseason: Ditching more than $70 million in salary to get under baseball’s collective bargaining tax threshold for 2020.
“Our mission, our charge as a department is to compete consistently year-in and year-out, and to put ourselves in position to win as many championships as we can,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said. “That’s behind everything that we do. And we can only accomplish that goal with a talent base at all levels of the org that is deep, broad and sustainable.”
The Red Sox will receive outfielder Alex Verdugo and two prospects: infielder Jeter Downs and catcher Connor Wong. According to a person with knowledge of the deal, Boston will send cash to the Dodgers, reportedly half of the $96 million owed for the next three seasons.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the financial terms were not public.
In five full major league season, the 27-year-old Betts has received MVP votes five times, finishing as runner-up once and winning the AL honor in 2018; he is a four-time Gold Glove winner. But he will earn $27 million this season, the last before he is eligible for free agency, and he has already turned down a nine-figure extension.
“With Mookie, there was never a point where we were pushing him out there, shopping. We had to be open to all options,” Bloom said at the team’s spring training complex. “Once it was clear that the Dodgers in particular were going to be very aggressive, it made sense to engage.”
Price, 34, is a two-time Cy Young runner-up and 2012 winner. He was also the runner-up for the World Series MVP when the Red Sox beat the Dodgers in 2018 after their franchise-record 108 regular-season victories.
But he made just 22 starts last season – just two after July 30 – with wrist injuries. By shedding his salary along with Betts’, the Red Sox have dipped below the $208 million threshold that allows them to avoid paying baseball’s collective bargaining tax this year and lowers the rate if they go over it in 2021.
Owner John Henry said in September, after the team missed the playoffs for the first time since 2015, that the Red Sox “need to be under the CBT.” Team president Sam Kennedy later walked back the comments and said that was “a goal but not a mandate.”
“We fully expect to compete in 2020,” Bloom said Monday. “The front-line talent on our roster can play with anybody.”
Verdugo batted .294 with 44 RBIs and 12 home runs in 106 games before a back injury in August ended his season early. Downs batted .276 with 24 homers and 86 RBIs at Single- and Double-A last year.
“He’s got a chance to be a complete player that can really impact us,” Bloom said.
Wong hit .281 with 24 homers and 82 RBIs in Single- and Double-A.
“He’s made a lot of strides offensively,” Bloom said. “When you have really good athletes behind the plate, sometimes those guys can exceed what you expect offensively.”
The Red Sox remain without a manager three weeks after firing Alex Cora for his role in the Houston Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing scandal; Major League Baseball has not announced the results of its investigation into whether Cora implemented a similar scheme when he took over in Boston in ‘18.
Red Sox pitchers and catchers are due to report to spring training on Tuesday.
Angels back off deal to acquire Dodgers’ Pederson
The Los Angeles Angels’ proposed trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers is officially off.
Angels general manager Billy Eppler confirmed he won’t be making a widely reported trade, although he didn’t specify the deal or the players involved.
Multiple media outlets reported the Angels nearly acquired Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson and right-hander Ross Stripling last week in a deal that would have sent infielder Luis Rengifo to the Dodgers.
The deal apparently fell apart as a side effect of the Dodgers’ lengthy attempts to get outfielder Mookie Betts from the Boston Red Sox in a blockbuster trade. Eppler didn’t specify why the Angels’ deal with the Dodgers won’t be happening.
“There are a lot of components in deals that need to be satisfied before you get to a point where you are calling players and informing them,“ Eppler said. “We weren’t able to get to that point and, in fairness to our players and players with other organizations, we won’t comment further than that.”
Boston ultimately reworked the deal to send Betts and David Price to the Dodgers, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Sunday night. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal still needed the approval of Major League Baseball.
After parting ways with longtime right fielder Kole Calhoun during the winter, the Angels could have used Pederson in that position this season along with Brian Goodwin while they wait for top prospect Jo Adell to play his way into the majors. Pederson had 36 home runs and 74 RBIs last season for the Dodgers.
Stripling also could have been a valuable potential addition to the Halos’ starting rotation. He has a 3.51 ERA in a four-year career spent moving between the bullpen and the rotation with the Dodgers.
Nick Ahmed, Diamondbacks agree to four-year deal
The Arizona Diamondbacks capped a busy offseason by locking down their two-time Gold Glove shortstop, who has slowly turned into a solid offensive threat.
The D-backs announced Monday that they’ve agreed to a $32.5 million, four-year deal with Nick Ahmed that runs through the 2023 season. The 29-year-old Ahmed was eligible for salary arbitration and had his hearing scheduled for Wednesday, but that won’t be needed thanks to the deal.
Ahmed said his comfort in Arizona – along with the team’s offseason moves that included adding pitcher Madison Bumgarner and outfielder Kole Calhoun – made staying with the Diamondbacks very appealing.
“At the end of the day, I’d rather be here than anywhere else,” Ahmed said. “They presented me with an opportunity, I thought long and hard about it, and I took advantage of the opportunity.”
Ahmed has had a reputation as an elite defensive shortstop since his debut with the D-backs in 2014 and has steadily improved his hitting. He hit a career-high .254 last season with 19 homers and 82 RBIs in 158 games.
“We believe in him as an offensive player and a defensive player,” Arizona GM Mike Hazen said. “Sometimes he gets overshadowed as an offensive player because his defense is so elite, but we see the combination. He crushes lefties, he has power.”
The D-backs hope Ahmed can anchor the middle of the team’s defense along with Ketel Marte, who will likely split time between second base and center field. Ahmed won his Gold Gloves in each of the past two seasons.
Ahmed’s signing caps an active few months for the D-backs’ front office. The moves include signing Bumgarner (five years, $85 million) and Calhoun (two years, $16 million), re-signing outfielder David Peralta (three years, $22 million) and acquiring outfielder Starling Marte in a trade.
The Diamondbacks hope those moves can help them compete in the NL West, though they’re still chasing the Los Angeles Dodgers, who won 106 games last season and are adding star outfielder Mookie Betts. The Diamondbacks finished with an 85-77 record last year.
Hazen said the Dodgers have earned all the respect they get and remain a formidable opponent, but he’s pleased with the moves Arizona has made.
“We’re going to put our best foot forward every day we go out on the field,“ Hazen said.
Arizona’s pitchers and catchers have their first workout of spring training Wednesday. The full team has its first workout on Feb. 17.
MLB mulls playoffs expansion
Major League Baseball is considering expanding the playoffs to nearly half the 30 teams and allowing higher-seeded wild-card teams to choose opponents.
The playoffs would grow from 10 clubs to 14 under the plan, first reported Monday by the New York Post. There would be four wild cards in each league, up from two.
Details were confirmed by a person familiar with the proposal who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because MLB did not authorize any public comments. Another person, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said MLB has been looking at several plans.
Any proposal would have to be negotiated with the players’ association. The current collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2021 season.
“Expanding the playoffs in a sensible way is something worth discussing when part of a much more comprehensive conversation about the current state of our game,“ union head Tony Clark said in a statement.
Only the division winner with the best regular-season record would advance directly to the Division Series under the plan. The two other division winners and wild-card teams would start in a best-of-three round.
The division winner with the second-best record would choose its opponent from among the three lowest-seeded wild-card teams. The division winner with the third-best record would then get to pick from among the remaining two wild cards. The top wild card would face whichever team is left over after the division winners make their choices.
The selections would be made on a televised show.
MLB long restricted its postseason to just the pennant winners facing each other in the World Series. Postseason teams doubled to four with the split of each league into two divisions in 1969, then to eight with the realignment to three divisions and the addition of a wild card in 1995, a year later than planned due to a players’ strike.
The postseason reached its current 10 with the addition of a second wild card and a wild-card round in 2012.
A postseason of 14 teams would mean 47% of franchises reach the playoffs, which could cause some clubs not to go into rebuilding mode. The players’ association has criticized teams for what it calls “tanking.“
Twelve of the 32 NFL teams (38%) reach the playoffs, along with 16 of 30 in the NBA (53%) and 16 of 31 in the NHL (52%), which expands to 32 franchises next season.
Expanded playoffs would create more content for broadcasters. MLB’s contracts with ESPN and Turner run through 2021 and its deal with Fox goes through 2028.