Three years ago, the immediate future of the Boston Red Sox became crystal clear.
They did not want to pay top dollar to retain their best player and the American League MVP in 2018, Mookie Betts.
They ended up trading him to the Los Angeles Dodgers for an underwhelming return for a player of his caliber.
The Dodgers later extended him to a 12-year, $365 million contract that made him one of the highest paid players in the league.
The Red Sox, one of the teams with the most profit in baseball, certainly did have the means to extend Betts, they just didn’t want to.
Since that trade, they have alternated bad seasons with good ones, but the former have been more frequent.
Happy anniversary Red Sox fans https://t.co/5RWR44j4s2
— Starting 9 (@Starting9) February 10, 2023
It doesn’t matter how good you are, as a franchise, at scouting and developing stars if you can’t retain them when it’s due time.
It happened with Jon Lester back in the day, as they let him leave when he was in his prime.
It happened with Betts in 2020, and it happened with Xander Bogaerts this offseason.
Red Sox fans are not so thrilled about the situation.
Extending Rafael Devers is a good step in the right direction, but fans didn’t expect to lose Bogaerts in the winter.
They thought that after losing Betts, they could sign Bogaerts and make him a part of their future.
That clearly wasn’t the case, as he went to San Diego.
As long as Boston keeps making the same mistakes over and over again, they probably won’t win another World Series in the near future.
NEXT: Red Sox Fan Recalls A Terrible Free Agency Bust
