Among the many moves the Boston Red Sox could have made before Wednesday's MLB trade deadline, dealing Mookie Betts obviously would have been the most eye-opening.
But there's a reason why we're even broaching the subject: Betts will enter his final year of arbitration in 2020 and become an unrestricted free agent following the 2020 season. If the Red Sox don't want to pony up hundreds of millions of dollars for a new deal, it would make sense to move the All-Star outfielder before he becomes a free agent.
Speaking Thursday on WEEI's "The Greg Hill Show," Red Sox president Sam Kennedy admitted that while the club didn't specifically discuss trading Betts, no player was off the table in pre-deadline talks.
"No specific discussions about Mookie Betts or any other player. Just a general discussion, which I think is healthy,” Kennedy said. “About a week before the deadline, ownership and Dave and the team, we sit down and just kind of go, 'All right, what are things looking like?’
"... We said to ourselves, 'Let’s see what’s out there on the market' and 'Would there be a willingness to listen to any deal?' And the honest answer to that is yes. I think it would be irresponsible to not at least listen. Were there any substantive discussions or actually any discussions that got to any type of ownership level on any of our more elite players? No, there were not."
The Red Sox haven't offered Betts a contract extension, meaning there's a good chance the 26-year-old tests free agency in 2020. But Kennedy made it clear the team wants its franchise player to stick around.
Boston Red Sox
"We would love for Mookie Betts to be a Red Sox forever," Kennedy said.
" ... There have been substantial conversations over the past three years about what we may do that may work with him. We are not engaged in any type of contract discussion during the season. We wouldn't do that because of the distraction it could cause. We would love to have him here for the long term and remain hopeful that may be possible."
If Betts indeed reaches free agency, the Red Sox have a big decision to make. In the meantime, they'll hope their lack of action at Wednesday's deadline doesn't shut them out of the 2019 postseason.
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