A Red Sox-Dodgers Swap For Mookie Betts Is Reportedly 'Inevitable'
BOSTON (CBS) -- It feels like the Red Sox and Dodgers have been inching closer and closer to a Mookie Betts trade all winter. Now with spring training just over a week away, a trade may actually come to fruition.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic said a trade should happen Monday or Tuesday, with the momentum favoring the Dodgers. The San Diego Padres are still in the mix, but things are leaning heavily toward Los Angeles.
"This is going to happen, Mookie Betts is getting traded," Rosenthal said Monday morning on MLB Network. "The only question is when and where. I'm Betts-ing on the Dodgers, but that is based on instinct."
The Athletic's Peter Gammons reported over the weekend that three National League "folks" see a deal that sends Betts to Los Angeles as "inevitable." Gammons doesn't really explain what those "folks" do in the National League, but the veteran baseball reporter then gave a breakdown of who Boston would get in return, which hasn't really been done in other reports of the swap.
According to Gammons, the Red Sox would get outfielder Alex Verdugo, infielder Jeter Downs, a pitcher and a prospect. Gammons believes that pitcher would be lefty Caleb Ferguson, who is 15-11 with a 2.73 ERA and 1.264 WHIP in his minor league career, striking out 300 batters over 266.2 innings. He has pitched in 12 games in the big leagues, including five starts, going 8-4 with a 4.13 ERA and 1.292 WHIP.
Verdugo would be the centerpiece of the trade. The 23-year-old lefty outfielder played in 106 games for the Dodgers last season, clubbing 12 homers and 22 doubles with 44 RBIs while batting .294. He has appeared in 158 games in the majors over the last three years, slashing .282/.335/.449. He's played primarily in center field but can man all three outfield positions, and had six outfield assists in 2019.
Downs, a 21-year-old middle infielder, was a first-round pick by the Cincinnati Reds in 2017. He was sent to Los Angeles in Cincinnati's 2018 trade for Alex Wood, Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp, and has yet to appear in the majors. He spent most of the 2019 season playing for High-A Rancho Cucamonga, hitting .269 with 19 homers and 75 RBIs over 107 games. He played 12 games in Double-A, hitting .333 while clubbing five homers in 48 at-bats for Tulsa.
Betts will be a free agent after the 2020 season, and reportedly countered Boston's offer of a 10-year, $300 million deal last offseason with a 12-year, $420 million deal. The two sides agree to a record $27 million deal to avoid arbitration this winter, and Betts has made it clear that he wants to test the free agent waters next winter. Boston is looking to shed payroll this offseason, hoping to get under the luxury tax threshold.
There have been a lot of rumors swirling about a Betts trade over the last week, and it seems like a deal between the Red Sox and Dodgers is nearing a finish line. The Red Sox equipment truck leaves Fenway Park for Fort Myers, Florida on Monday afternoon, with pitcher and catchers reporting to spring training on Feb. 11.