Source: Boston Red Sox to trade Mookie Betts to Los Angeles Dodgers.
BOSTON — The Red Sox have agreed to trade 2018 American League MVP Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers, packaging the star outfielder with left-hander David Price in a salary dump that is expected to save Boston tens of millions of dollars, according to two people with knowledge of the deal.
The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday night because the trade had not been announced.
The Dodgers are sending outfielder Alex Verdugo back to the Red Sox. The deal also involves the Minnesota Twins, who are getting right-hander Kenta Maeda from the Dodgers and sending pitching prospect Brusdar Graterol to Boston.
Los Angeles will also get cash from Boston to offset some of the $123 million owed to Betts and Price, but the exact amount was not yet known.
Unable to sign Betts to a longterm deal, Boston decided to move him now rather than let the fourtime All-Star leave as a free agent after the 2020 season. He will earn $27 million this season and has expressed eagerness to test the market.
Los Angeles has won seven consecutive National League West titles but hasn’t celebrated a World Series championship since 1988. The Dodgers lost to Betts and the Red Sox in the 2018 Fall Classic, a year after being defeated by the Houston Astros in seven games.
Price is due $96 million over the final three years of a $217 million, seven-year deal he signed before the 2016 season. The 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner missed time last year with a wrist issue and went 7-5 with a 4.28 ERA in 22 starts.
The Dodgers finally pulled off the kind of splashy offseason deal that has eluded them in recent years. They lost out on two primary offseason pursuits when pitcher Gerrit Cole signed with the New York Yankees for $324 million over nine years and third baseman Anthony Rendon signed a $245 million, seven-year contract with the rival Angels.
Until now, the Dodgers’ top addition this winter was reliever Blake Treinen.
Adding Betts’ bat to a lineup that includes 2019 NL MVP Cody Bellinger, Justin Turner, Max Muncy and Corey Seager makes the Dodgers even more fearsome.
Verdugo, a 23-year-old left-handed hitter, batted .294 with 44 RBI and 12 home runs in 106 games before a back injury in August ended his season early.
The deal makes sense only in the complicated economics of baseball’s collective bargaining tax, which penalizes a team for spending over a preset limit — $208 million for 2020. What’s more, a ballclub that surpasses the threshold in three consecutive years pays a top rate of 95%; on the other hand, if a team goes under the limit for a season, the penalty for their next violation resets to the lowest rate of 20%.
This deal is expected to get Boston below that threshold.
Graterol is a hard-throwing righty who ranked 83rd on MLB.com’s most recent list of the top 100 prospects in baseball. He made his major league debut last season with the Twins and posted a 4.66 ERA in 10 relief appearances. A starter in the minors, he faces questions about his durability but could get a chance to pitch in Boston’s rotation. If not, he’s thrown as hard as 102 mph and could be an effective late-inning reliever.
In a separate deal Tuesday, the Dodgers traded outfielder Joc Pederson to the Los Angeles Angels for middle infielder Luis Rengifo.
Pederson hit a career-high 36 home runs last season and will make either $9.5 million or $7.75 million in his last year of arbitration, depending on an arbitrator’s decision.
Rengifo batted .238 with seven home runs in 357 at-bats as a rookie last season.