Mookie Betts agrees to $365 million extension with Dodgers

For a while, it appeared Mookie Betts might never play with the Dodgers. Now, it looks like he will spend the rest of his career in blue.

Betts and the Dodgers on Wednesday agreed to the largest extension in terms of total dollars in history at 12-year, $365 million — a contract that has a $65 million signing bonus.

Mike Trout had signed a 10-year, $360 million extension last offseason with two years left on his contract. Betts’ new pact begins next year and extends through 2032. He was due $27 million this year and if the 60-game season is played to conclusion he will receive the prorated amount of $10 million.

Betts was due to be the biggest free agent in the coming offseason. But the disruption in play and revenue caused by the shutdown of the game due to the COVID-19 pandemic has cast doubt on how much teams would spend, especially with an expectation that attendance will be impacted next year due to lingering impacts of the virus and/or the financial hit taken by the nation.

Betts had turned down multiple forays by the Red Sox to sign him long-term. Without an extension in place and with the desire to drop under the luxury tax threshold, Boston controversially traded its best player to Los Angeles in February in a maneuver that had fits and starts and ultimately included the Twins, but not the Angels, who dropped out of it. The Red Sox received Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong from the Dodgers.

When the game was shut down with no promise of re-starting, the Dodgers looked as if they had given up future talent in exchange for Betts potentially never playing for them. Now, though, the season re-starts Thursday with the Dodgers hosting the Giants after the Yankees open the schedule in Washington against the Nationals. And Betts will be in right field in possession of long-term riches.

Betts, who won the 2018 AL MVP in helping the Red Sox capture the World Series that year, does not turn 28 until October and in the last four seasons has won a Gold Glove each year while never finishing worse than eighth in the MVP balloting.

The questions that hover on this deal:

1) Is Betts a unique contract in this environment? The Dodgers are well-positioned even in a troubled time to give out a large contract because of their finances. They have led the NL in attendance in each of the last seven years (winning the NL West title each of those seasons), including a franchise-record 3,974,309 fans in 2019. Plus, the Dodgers have an $8.35 billion local television rights deal with SportsNet LA that runs through 2038.

But, in addition, the Dodgers do not have a guaranteed contract on the books beyond 2022. Players such as Kenley Jansen, Clayton Kershaw, David Price and Justin Turner have their contracts expiring in the next season or two. The Dodgers worked to cleanse their long-term obligations so that if they wanted to secure a prime star for an extended period they could. They made a strong run at Gerrit Cole in the offseason before he signed with the Yankees and have now extended Betts to join Cody Bellinger and Walker Buehler as the Killer Bs cornerstone for the future.

2) So is this just Los Angeles betting on itself and that the sport will rebound and all will be fine? Or are the Dodgers — even in a troubled time for MLB — a bellwether of most of the industry. That will impact how the next level of potential free agents this offseason are treated, a group that includes the Phillies’ J.T. Realmuto, the A’s Marcus Semien, the Astros’ George Springer, the Reds’ Trevor Bauer, the Mets’ Marcus Stroman and the Yankees’ D.J. LeMahieu and James Paxton.

Mets fans were probably dreaming that new ownership would mean making a quick, large “We are not the Wilpons” statement when it comes to finances and nothing would have done that like signing Betts. So much for that. On to Springer.