MLB 2020: Mookie Betts’ LA Dodgers contract will make your eyes water
The world might be suffering financially amid the COVID-19 pandemic but those hardships don’t extend to the top end of American sport.
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Baseball star Mookie Betts reportedly finalised terms on a mammoth 13-year $532 million (AUD) contract with the LA Dodgers on Thursday — and the most common reaction was to scorn his former team for refusing to pay him that much.
Betts still hasn’t played a regular season game for the Dodgers after being traded to LA from the Boston Red Sox, who reportedly baulked at his request for a 12-year extension in 2019.
But the Dodgers had no such misgivings about handing half a billion dollars over in a deal that won’t end until the rightfielder is 40 years of age.
Betts played his first six Major League Baseball seasons for Boston, helping the Red Sox win the 2018 World Series and earning American League Most Valuable Player honours and the AL batting title in the same season.
He was traded to the Dodgers in February for the final year of his contract, but then COVID-19 delayed the planned March start of the MLB season and there were worries Betts might never play a regular-season game for the Dodgers if the season was wiped out.
But the Dodgers have secured their man in a new deal that will include the 2020 season and provide Betts the second-biggest contract for any league player, trailing only the $597 million deal of Anaheim slugger Mike Trout.
It comes a fortnight after American football superstar Patrick Mahomes signed a record-setting $700 million extension with the Kansas City Chiefs that is the richest contract in sports history.
RELATED: Mahomes signs richest deal in sports history
Clearly there’s still plenty of money in the deep pockets of American sports team owners.
Betts’ deal, which comes on the eve of the Dodgers’ opening game in a shortened 2020 season, locks in a 27-year-old who figures to lead a talented young squad into title contention for the next decade.
Betts is a four-time All-Star and a four-time Gold Glove winner for his fielding skills.
His trade from Boston also brought left-handed pitcher David Price to the Dodgers in exchange for outfielder Alex Verdugo and prospects Jeter Downs and Connor Wong.
The Dodgers also have reigning National League Most Valuable Player Cody Bellinger signed through 2023 and a talented line-up that is aiming for an eighth consecutive NL West division crown in a season cut to 60 games per club due to the pandemic, all games played at home stadiums without spectators.
The Dodgers have not won the World Series since 1988 but reached the best-of-seven championship series in two of the past three seasons, losing to Houston in 2017 and Boston in 2018.
The Red Sox will be hoping that doesn’t change anytime soon.
The Red Sox could've paid Mookie Betts the $350-400 million he's about to get from the Dodgers. They chose not to. Don't ever forget that.
— Jerry Thornton (@jerrythornton1) July 22, 2020
Red Sox fans hearing about the Mookie Betts news
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) July 22, 2020
pic.twitter.com/bmpz4CJIUC
— with AFP
Originally published as MLB 2020: Mookie Betts’ LA Dodgers contract will make your eyes water