Superstar Mookie Betts says he never wanted to leave the Red Sox

By RON AGERS, MLBbro Special to the AmNews

Mookie Betts says he wanted to stay in Boston his entire career, but it just wasn’t in the cards.

Conversely, Shohei Ohtani, the 2021 American League MVP and frontrunner this season, hasn’t said publicly that he wants to remain a Los Angeles Angel. He is facing the same dilemma Betts did during his final year in Boston. The Angels held onto the two-way Japanese starting pitcher/designated hitter, who will be a free-agent after this season, as Tuesday’s MLB trade deadline passed. They decided to ride out their run for the playoffs with Ohtani and gamble on signing him in the offseason.

The Red Sox traded Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers on February 10, 2020, in a blockbuster threeteam deal that included the Minnesota Twins. The Dodgers received Betts and pitcher David Price; Price announced last December that he would not play this season.

In return, the Red Sox acquired outfielder Alex Verdugo, catcher Connor Wong, and infielder Jeter Downs (since waived).

The Dodgers won this trade with the eye test, particularly considering that Betts helped deliver the Dodgers Nation a long-awaited World Series championship in 2020. If a fan researched advanced stats, they would find that according to Baseball Reference calculations, Verdugo and Wong with a 10.5 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) for Boston. Since Opening Day in 2022, Betts has a 10.9 WAR for Los Angeles and 18.5 overall as a Dodger, nearly doubling Verdugo and Wong.

This season, Betts has played at an MVP-caliber level. Going into Tuesday’s game versus the Oakland A’s, the 30-year-old, seven-time AllStar was batting .277 with 27 home runs and 68 RBIs as of Tuesday. Playing in more than a recent 20game stretch, Betts hit a solid .373 with eight homers and 20 RBIs. More importantly, Betts has stayed healthy, playing in 99 games for the 59–45 Dodgers, who are in first place in the NL West He has become the most talented utility player in baseball with his move to second base this season in addition to being a six-time Golden Glove outfielder.

In an interview on the online show “Foul Territory,” Betts said that he wanted to stay with the Red Sox and would have accepted an extension if they would have one.

“Even though I wasn’t really ready for [the trade to the Dodgers]—I know people don’t believe me, but I wanted to stay in Boston my whole career,” Betts told former teammate Brock Holt during his appearance via MassLive. “That was my life. I knew everybody there. It was a short flight to Nashville [Tennessee, Betts’s hometown]. It was perfect.”

When Holt asked Betts if he would have signed a long-term deal for the $365 million he received from the Dodgers or a similar amount, he claimed that “didn’t happen.”

The Betts and Ohtani situations are different. Ohtani has made it clear that he wants to experience winning a World Series. The Angels are not considered a title contender this season and, at 56–52 as of Tuesday, were fourth in the NL West and three games out of the third wild card spot.

Even though Betts had his reservations about being traded, he said life in L.A. is great and he looks forward to being a Dodger, presumably for the rest of his career.

“It is what it is. But when that move happened, I was sad,” Betts said. “I was like, ‘Man, I don’t want to go out West.’...[But] it was kind of actually a blessing in disguise. My family loves it. It’s a different way of life. The weather is beautiful…Being in LA has been awesome. I’m really happy.”