Mookie Betts, Red Sox agree on $20 million salary for 2019
The Red Sox avoided a salary disagreement by lavishing a huge salary on the 26-year-old.
On the heels of a historic season, Mookie Betts will receive a historic salary bump: According to multiple major league sources, Betts and the Red Sox agreed to a one-year, $20 million salary for the American League MVP, the largest salary ever conferred upon a second-time arbitration-eligible player.
The $20 million figure represents a record for a player who is arbitration-eligible for the second time. Betts’s salary increase of $9.5 million — after receiving a $10.5 million salary last year — represents the largest raise ever for a player who had already been in his arbitration years.
The salary marks the first time in three years that Betts and the Red Sox have been able to come to an agreement on his salary for the following season. After the 2016 season, the Sox renewed Betts — who was not yet eligible for salary arbitration — at $950,000. After the 2017 season, the two sides agreed to go to salary arbitration, with Betts winning his case for a $10.5 million salary as a player with three-plus years of service time; the Sox had filed for a $7.5 million salary.
Betts earned the record-setting raise with a remarkable 2018 season in which he hit .346/.438/.640 with 32 homers and 30 steals while playing Gold Glove defense. While the MVP Award was his first, he finished second in 2016 and sixth in 2017, establishing his consistent excellence.
This year, the Red Sox avoided a salary disagreement by lavishing a huge salary on the 26-year-old, whom the team wants to retain beyond his eligibility for free agency following the 2020 season.
“There’s nothing more important in baseball operations than drafting really, really well, developing well, and then hopefully retaining some players who you draft and develop as superstars,’’ Red Sox CEO and president Sam Kennedy said in October. “To that end, John Henry, Tom Werner, Dave Dombrowksi, yours truly have made it crystal clear to Mookie that specifically we hope he is a member of the Boston Red Sox for his career. We want nothing more than that.
“We also understand he has to survey the landscape, and both sides need to agree that a fair outcome is doable. I hope that is the case. There couldn’t be a better representative of the Boston Red Sox. On the field speaks for itself, but off the field, he’s such a wonderful guy, such a great leader. He represents everything we want. But we also recognize it will be a difficult discussion at some point just given that you want to have a whole team. So, we’ll see when we get there, but we’re going to do everything in our power to keep him.’’
Whether they will do so remains to be seen, particularly given Betts’ soft-stated preference to continue the year-to-year negotiations that have served him well financially and have done nothing to detract from his on-field performance. But for now, the Sox made clear their recognition of Betts as a franchise-level talent with a historic deal.
Betts, Brandon Workman ($1.15 million), and Blake Swihart (a reported $910,000) all have reached agreements on Friday, the deadline for players and teams to file salary requests that would be used in potential arbitration hearings.
The Red Sox entered this offseason with 12 arbitration-eligible players. The Red Sox, like every other team in baseball, are taking a file-to-go stance in arbitration, meaning that if they are unable to settle with a player on a 2019 salary by this afternoon’s deadline, they’ll go to an arbitration hearing and let a three-person panel decide whether the player should be awarded his proposed salary or the team’s proposed salary.
Here’s where things stand with those dozen players:
UNRESOLVED (with projected salaries from MLBTradeRumors.com in paretheses)
Xander Bogaerts (5+ years service time, third-time arbitration eligible, $11.9 million)
Jackie Bradley Jr. (4+ years service time, third-time arbitration eligibile, $7.9 million)
Eduardo Rodriguez (3+ years service time, second-time arbitration eligible, $4.8 million)
Brock Holt (5+ years service time, third-time arbitration eligible, $3.4 million)
Sandy Leon (4+ years service time, third-time arbitration eligible, $2.3 million)
Matt Barnes (3+ years service time, first-time arbitration eligible, $1.5 million)
Brandon Workman (4+ years service time, second-time arbitration eligible, $1.4 million)
RESOLVED
Mookie Betts ($20 million, Jan. 11)
Brandon Workman, $1.15 million (Jan. 11)
Blake Swihart, $910,000 (reported by Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports on Jan. 11)
Steven Wright, $1.375 million (Jan. 10)
Heath Hembree, $1.3125 million (Dec. 21)
Tyler Thornburg, $1.75 million with up to $400,000 in incentives (Nov. 30)