*Photo from NESN*
Mookie Betts just cashed in big time. The Boston Red Sox have avoided arbitration with the star outfielder by paying him a whopping $27 million for the 2020 season, the final year of his contract with the Red Sox. ESPN's Jeff Passan first broke the news. Betts' $27 million salary breaks the record set last year by Rockies 3B Nolan Arenado at $26 million, but Arenado signed a massive extension that made that deal moot. Betts was projected to earn $27.7 million in arbitration, and he got what he was looking for.
This is Betts' final arbitration year, and his contract expires at the end of the 2020 season. He'll become a free agent for the first time. He has turned down multiple extension offers from the Red Sox, as he seems intent on testing free agency. There is still a possibility that an extension could be worked out before the season ends, although it's a slim one. Betts has been in many trade rumors since the winter began, as the Red Sox have a goal, not a mandate, to cut payroll under new chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom.
Betts helped lead the Red Sox to their 2018 world championship after a breakout season. In 2019, he took a step back, but was still productive, hitting .295 with 29 homers and 80 RBI, to go along with 16 stolen bases. Betts has hit three homers in a game three times, more than any other player since 2014. He also finished as the runner up to Mike Trout in the AL MVP race in 2016, and he took home the MVP in 2018. Betts, who plays in Fenway Park's notoriously difficult right field, has 4 straight gold gloves. Betts is a career .301 hitter with 139 homers and 470 RBI across 6 seasons, 5 of them full seasons, as he was called up in the middle of the 2014 season.
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