Fan Interference

There are reports today that the Dodgers and Mookie Betts have agreed to a 13-year deal for $380million.  He was set to become a free agent this winter and had been clear with the Red Sox that he would test the market.  The Red Sox, wanting to get under the soft salary cap laughably called a competitive balance at, traded him and David Price to the Dodgers. The Dodgers, who could have lost Betts to free agency without him ever suiting up if he’d opted out of the season, have been determined to convince him to stay.  Putting a dollar sign and an integer on a piece of paper and then adding zeroes until the player blinks is a pretty effective tactic.  Now Betts will be a Dodger until he’s 40.  It is, of course, a gamble on the Dodgers’ part to lay out that much money for that long.  They are buying both his peak seasons and his inevitable decline years, and are no doubt praying hard that he doesn’t have serious injury problems.  However, right now they have one of the absolute best players on the planet on their roster for the foreseeable future.