Dodgers: Andrew Friedman Reveals He Tried to Trade for Mookie Betts Last Summer
The Dodgers making the huge trade for Mookie Betts in February of this year was the headline of the decade. Every fan in Los Angeles immediately started to pencil in a championship for 2020, not knowing what was to come.
The world obviously shut down and the excitement quickly turned to anxiety. Dodgers fans’ worst fears of losing Mookie before playing a game got very real. But as it always does, baseball found a way to come through for all of us.
And because of that, we get to see Mookie Betts in a Dodgers uniform for a very long time now. But as it turns out, Mookie was very close to being in Dodger blue last year. President of Baseball Operations mentioned a possible trade on the Off-Air podcast with Joe Davis and Orel Hershiser this week.
We did[try to trade for him before the deadline in 2019], and they were open to it but wanted to push pause and see how things went in their series in Tampa…I think they went in there and swept the Rays and after that said ‘You know what to give it a run here over the last two months’ and kind of shut down talks at that point.
The series that Friedman is referring to was in late July of last year against the Rays. The Red Sox actually took 2 of 3, but that put them in a spot where they felt they could compete. Boston would go on to lose their division by 19 games and miss the playoffs altogether. And the Dodgers…well we all know what happened.
It just goes to show you how badly the Dodgers and Andrew Friedman have wanted Mookie Betts in Los Angeles. He continues to talk about the trade and how it went down, so if you have time I highly recommend giving it a listen.
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I wonder if Brook Smith knew that Betts has completely lost his power to right field. Hit one homer to right field last year 302′ off the bottom of the foul pole This year with his pitiful start hasn’t even reached the warning track in all fields yet. Oh, he will get his 6 or 7 dingers but pitchers know where his weaknesses are and he has no answer.
His power doesn’t matter because he has already created runs with his base running in several instances. Betts will not hit a lot of HRs in Dodger stadium – maybe 20 in a typical year – but he’ll hit north of 300, create opportunities on the bases, and play gold glove defense. The Dodgers are justifiably happy to have him.
Not a lead off batter. Those extra at bats are costly to someone trying to hit .300. 100 rbi is also out of reach in a normal year batting first. He needs to bat 3rd maybe 2nd since you have that better player in Bellinger. How much can they pay him and when. I wouldn’t do handstands over his defense either. Slightly above average out there. Just expect a .286 15 74 line for the next 4 years. Then falling steadily down for the 8 after that.
Bob. Little jealous
Mookie Betts is an over rated, overpaid ball player, long term contract a big mistake
I liked what Mookie Betts was. But I don’t like what he is right now. But, that goes for anyone else that’s slumping right now. The Dodgers are winning but not the way they’re used to. Where are the big bats? Corey just came around, hoping he’ll do more. Bellinger 1 homer, many expected more from him. Mad Max is starting to come around. It looks like the whole team has to get their grove back. I’m worried about Barns, I like him, he was showing great potential last year until he went into a slump. Now he’s slumping again, but he shouldn’t feel that bad because the whole team isn’t to par yet either. Hope and expect everyone to start picking it up soon rather than later. It’s there, they just have to open their eyes as a team and do what they have to do, and not necessarily with homers. I believe that was one of the things that hurt the Dodgers last year and other years, they all were going for the home run. They get their minds set that they can hit the homer any time they want, and they can’t. Pitchers get smart along the year, they remember what the batter was hitting, so they change it a little, just enough to make a difference and make it a game-changer. Roberts and coaches need to get smarter too. Sit down players that are consistently not doing well no matter how much money the team is paying him. Some players will agree they need to step back and see what has to be done.