NEWSLETTER
The Mookie Betts blockbuster remains not an actual trade. What a mess.
And now, three days after the trade was agreed to, and then held up by the medical review of Twins pitching prospect Brusdar Graterol, a lot of people are pissed that it’s still lingering:
MLBPA executive director Tony Clark issued a statement strongly urging the Betts/Price deal as well as the Stripling/Pederson deals be completed “without further delay.” pic.twitter.com/VqbYPYUF4j
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) February 7, 2020
Agent Scott Boras: Brusdar Graterol threw “without limitation” and 100 mph in majors for weeks to end 2019 and he has no great medical concern. “They’re relying on a cursory medical record review yet noted orthopedic doctors who saw him say there’s no issue going forward” #Mookie
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 7, 2020
Oh, and remember, the Angels were to be acquiring Joc Pederson and Ross Stripling as a secondary part of the three-team Betts trade, and their owner is pissed, too:
Hear Angels owner Arte Moreno hasn’t been happy about having their big trade for Joc Pederson and Ross Stripling with the cross-freeway Dodgers on hold while the Mookie Betts mega deal is in limbo. Not sure who his ire is aimed at but people in the know say he’s quite upset.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 7, 2020
It’s not hard to see why resolving the trade would be so challenging. In a typical two-team trade, if there was a legit issue with the medical review, you’d either call off the deal (because it hadn’t gotten so much widespread attention and reporting as a deal like this), or you’d just include another piece.
But in a deal involving superstars, widespread attention, and three teams (four if you count the Angels), it’s just so much harder to fix things. The toothpaste is much harder to put back in the tube at this point, and bridges have kinda been publicly burned. So each of the three teams knows that the other two teams have a strong incentive to just get the dang thing done … which means they all hold fast to their positions. Moreover, since it’s a three-teamer where the guy with the questionable medicals isn’t going to the team that is giving up the piece to get him, you’ve got an open question about which team should actually absorb the “loss,” and which team should add more value to the deal.
Throw in the fact that I would bet anything that the Red Sox are using this opportunity to try to grab a little more value in a deal that was widely seen as a salary dump involving a superstar, and you’ve just got a recipe for a really painful re-negotiation.
… but still. It’s been three+ days since the deal was agreed to. It’s pretty crazy that there hasn’t been a resolution yet, which tells me that there have been SUBSTANTIAL explorations of alternatives to getting the deal done, probably including discussions with teams other than the Twins. The problem there, of course, is that the Dodgers were probably tickled pink to be giving up Kenta Maeda (and not a top pitching prospect) as a prime piece to get Betts. How many other teams out there are willing to give up a great prospect that the Red Sox want in exchange for Maeda?
One of the Twins, Dodgers, or Red Sox is just going to have to bend on this one. I still tend to think a deal gets done because it would be too insane to try to unwind this thing and just have every one of these players act like nothing happened.
In any case, it’s a mess. It’s kinda funny as an outsider, but it’s a mess. I hope it’s resolved soon one way or another so that any after-effects, if any (and if any involving the Cubs) can play out. After all, the Cubs also have impactful position player(s) and useful pitcher(s) they could try to shop in the wake of this trade or the trade’s demise.
