{"id":34970,"date":"2020-07-22T20:29:25","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T00:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=34970"},"modified":"2020-07-22T20:29:25","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T00:29:25","slug":"mookie-betts-and-dodgers-reach-mega-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/07\/22\/mookie-betts-and-dodgers-reach-mega-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"Mookie Betts and Dodgers Reach Mega Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday afternoon ESPN&#8217;s Jeff Passan broke the news that\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bettsmo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mookie Betts<\/a><\/strong> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/los-angeles-dodgers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> have reached an agreement on a contract extension. The deal is worth $365 million over the next 12 years making his current contract 13 years and $392 million. The signing bonus will be a record $65 million according to Passan.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Outfielder Mookie Betts and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in agreement on a 12-year, $365 million contract extension, sources familiar with the deal tell ESPN. Combined with the one-year, $27 million deal he\u2019s currently under, the total is 13 years and $392 million.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/1286042491171504130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 22, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>According to Ken Rosenthal, the record-breaking bonus intends to make up for the first two yearly salaries of his deal. This bonus will also protect Betts against any pandemic-related issues or lockouts. There is neither an opt-out or a no-trade clause involved in the deal.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">More details on Betts deal, per source: $65M signing bonus, which is not taxable for him as a non-California resident. Bonus helps compensate for relatively low salaries of $17.5M in 2021 and \u201822 and also protects Betts against lingering pandemic issues and potential lockout.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ken_Rosenthal\/status\/1286080672000618502?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 22, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Outlook<\/h2>\n<p>This is a tough pill to swallow for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/boston-red-sox\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Boston Red Sox<\/a> if they were holding out any hope of re-signing Betts in free agency. NBC Sports Boston analyst Lou Merloni <a href=\"https:\/\/boston.cbslocal.com\/2020\/07\/22\/rumor-mookie-betts-dodgers-close-to-massive-contract-extension\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported that the Red Sox <\/a>offered a 10-year, $300 million extension when he was with the club. The distance between both sides in negotiations led to him being traded this past winter in exchange for <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/verdual01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alex Verdugo<\/a><\/strong> and prospects.<\/p>\n<p>Betts led Boston to their World Series title in 2018, winning American League MVP in the process. That year he won the batting title, hitting .346, and he led the league in runs scored and slugging percentage. He has finished top-ten in MVP voting each of the last four seasons winning a Gold Glove in each. Betts is a career .301 hitter who averages 28 homers, 96 RBI, and 26 stolen bases per 162 games.<\/p>\n<p>The Dodgers, who won seven consecutive NL West titles before the addition of Mookie Betts, have a boatload of young talent. 2019 NL MVP <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bellico01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cody Bellinger<\/a><\/strong> and CY Young candidate <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/buehlwa01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Walker Buehler<\/a><\/strong> will need to be paid in the near future. Meanwhile,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kershcl01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clayton Kershaw<\/a><\/strong> hits free agency after the 2021 season. Just as everyone has been saying for years now, the window is now for LA.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: <a id=\"-f7YmGBJS8B74NlQgtoHAw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1257132543\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'-f7YmGBJS8B74NlQgtoHAw',sig:'Nz2_6Oq5rvtrfbL9m34n4f6ILpTltZyZ9vEVsInUSqQ=',w:'594px',h:'441px',items:'1257132543',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday afternoon ESPN&#8217;s Jeff Passan broke the news that\u00a0Mookie Betts and the Los Angeles Dodgers have reached an agreement on a contract extension. The deal is worth $365 million over the next 12 years making his current contract 13 years and $392 million. The signing bonus will be a record $65 million according to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3441,"featured_media":34982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,2,35],"tags":[900,240,97,899,2444,3048,92,250,2265],"class_list":["post-34970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dodgers","category-featured","category-news","tag-alex-verdugo","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-contract-extension","tag-jeff-passan","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mookie-betts","tag-walker-buehler"],"modified_by":"DJ Kleinbard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3441"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}