Will Mookie's big payday come off as planned?

One of the only upsides of the pandemic is that I don't have to read anything about former Red Sox darling Mookie Betts starring it up for the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team I despise almost as much as I despise the Yankees.

From 2014 when he made it to the pros, on through last's dud of a season, Mookie was pretty much my favorite Red Sox. Me and almost every other card carrying member of Red Sox Nation. Great both on the field and off, we all fell for Mookie. Plus he has an adorable baby, who I saw in the arms of her mother when they walked right in front of me at Fenway Park. So I felt terrible when he was traded to the Dodgers for next to nothing, even though I understand, roughly, the economics behind it on the part of both Mookie and the Red Sox.

Anyway, next year, Mookie becomes a free agent, and he was expecting a HUGE pay day. He is, based on his stats, at the very top of the game:

Mookie Betts is first in the majors in runs, fourth in hits, second in doubles, fourth in stolen bases, and leads all outfielders with 112 defensive runs saved since making his major league debut June 29, 2014.

Betts has accumulated 41.8 WAR since his first day in the majors. Only Mike Trout, with 52.9, has more over that time.

In short, Betts has been the second-best player in the game for 5½ years and the only player better is one of the all-time greats. (Source: Peter Abrahams, Boston Globe)

That first-best player, Mike Trout, was found worthy of a $426.5 12-year package by the Angels. The sort of walking around money that Mookie Betts might have expected.

But that was then and this is now...

For Trout, who agreed to his extension before last season, the timing was perfect. For Betts, who becomes a free agent after this season, it’s a disaster.

Mookie had turned down an offer in the $300 million range from the Red Sox so that he could test the waters of free agency. So off he went to LA, anticipating that, after one of his typically stellar seasons, he would be poised for a pay day's PAY DAY.

Just as the Internet changed everything, so did the coronavirus, especially when it comes to sports.

“It’s not a question of who will want him. Everybody would want him. It’s who can afford what he’s worth,” said an agent who is not affiliated with Betts. “This is a national crisis, I understand that. But he really takes a hit.”

...Unless a vaccine for COVID-19 is developed by the end of this season, season-ticket sales and renewals for 2021 will plunge. They could well nosedive even with a vaccine given how many people have lost their jobs or had their salaries reduced because of the pandemic.

...Even if teams can persuade people to come to a game, they may have to lower prices for tickets, concessions, and merchandise. However it all plays out, revenue will drop in 2021.

We learned last night that there will be a 2020 season, 60 games long, so less than half of a regular season. A definite drop in revenue - ticket sales, concessions, TV and radio - for the owners. (Expenses are, of course, lower, as the players will be receiving a prorated amount of their salaries.)

In any case, with less loot coming in, baseball teams will be a bit more cautious moving forward. 

Plus free agency rules may change when the players negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement at the end of the 2021 season.

Mookie's on the losing end of all this. He'll still get a whopping contract. But there's whopping and then there's WHOPPING. 

It may turn out that he would have been better off taking the relatively light (light only in baseball dollars; it was, after all, for $300 million) offer from the Red Sox. We'll see. 

Sports money is so crazy, and I especially love the argument that athletes have to compress their careers into a few short years while the rest of us get to work forever, and won't make over a lifetime what so many athletes make in a year. Not all athletes are crazily awarded. Especially in football, where there are so many players on the squad, and most of them are playing for short money and can get cut at any time. 

But when I think the sports money is crazy, I have to remind myself that it's entertainment, and if the great athletes make movie star money, so be it.

Meanwhile, I still harbor the fantasy that baseball will be back next year, and that the Red Sox will have a shot at getting Mookie back.

A girl can dream, can't she.