#Mookie Betts’ MLB free agency hinges on a tense Dodgers season

MLB’s proposed 2020 season is filled with uncertainties regarding the coronavirus pandemic and ensuring player safety. For Mookie Betts, the free agent market following the shortened season adds another layer to that uncertainty.

One of the league’s most talented young stars, Betts turned down multiple extension offers reportedly worth at least $300 million from the Red Sox, whom he helped propel to a World Series championship in 2018. As a result, Boston sent Betts, with one year left on his contract, and teammate David Price to the Dodgers as part of a package in the blockbuster deal.

Price recently announced that he had opted to sit out the planned 2020 season in order to ensure his family’s health. Unlike Price, Betts had less of a choice in the matter – he needs to play in order to acquire the service time necessary to be deemed a free agent following the season.

“That’s definitely something to think about,” Betts told reporters Monday. “I’m not in the same predicament as someone who can opt out. I’m kind of in a different spot. My decision is gonna obviously be different. That’s the situation I’m in and whatnot.”

After spending nine years in the Red Sox organization, Betts arrived on a Dodgers roster that has stayed atop the NL West for seven straight years, but has notoriously come up short in October. The pairing of Betts and star Cody Bellinger – even for just one season – gives Los Angeles as good of a chance as ever to claim its first World Series title since 1988.

Instead, Betts will likely don the classic Dodgers uniform for just 60 games before he likely leaves for free agency. But what kind of free agent market awaits him at the conclusion of this makeshift season?

Betts reportedly asked the Red Sox for a 12-year, $420 million contract extension to stay with the team. After all the lost revenue from the 2020 season, the free agent market will likely be drier than the 27-year-old previously anticipated. Still, he does not regret turning down Boston’s offer.

“Free agency is like on the back burner,” Betts said. “That’ll come. That’s nothing I’m really thinking about right now. I think the main concern is the safety and health. There’s a lot going on. The market will be what the market is. We’ll just kinda cross that bridge when we get there.”

Beyond the questions surrounding his own future, Betts is seeking answers for how the league will operate the proposed 2020 season. Despite all the plans for a safe season, Betts won’t be convinced until he sees it can work firsthand.

“I can’t say I’m that confident because I haven’t been shown yet, it’s kinda tough to be confident in something that hasn’t proved to be foolproof,” Betts said. “There’s not a whole lot I can do. It’s not in my control. But it’s in somebody’s control. And whoever’s control it’s in just has to find a way to make it work or this whole operation may not be able to work.

“I know it’s hard. I’m not blaming or saying this, that or the other. It’s hard, but, you know, somebody’s gotta do it and we have to just figure out the right way to do it.”