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Red Sox’ route to bridge year all clear

By Alan Greenwood - Staff Writer | Feb 5, 2020

Alan Greenwood

They used to call them rebuilding years. The obvious inference was that a team’s talent level had sunk to a certain depth that it needed to stock up on better players before declaring itself a legitimate contender.

Then someone coined the term bridge year. The murky inference there is that a

contender is going to step back, take a season-long breath and come back ready to contend again.

Coincidentally or not, bridge years became the norm about the same time someone looked at a batter’s on-base percentage, then looked at his slugging percentage, and proclaimed their sum to be the supremely illuminating OPS.

(Think of the TV ads in which someone chomping on a chocolate bar slams into someone wandering the streets with an open jar of peanut butter and creates peanut butter cups.)

Be it a rebuilding year or a bridge year, it is fair to say that the Red Sox have declared 2020 a season to simply enjoy the beauty of baseball, soak in the glory of America’s Most Beloved Ballpark, and don’t get too worked up as the Yankees disappear over the horizon by July 4.

Trading Mookie Betts and David Price to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a burgeoning 23-year-old outfielder named Alex Verdugo and a Minnesota Twins pitching prospect named Brusdar Graterol.

In time it may end up being one of the great trades of all time. Or not. Who knows?

The one message that is irrefutable is that the Red Sox had no desire to guarantee Betts lots and lots of money for lots and lots of seasons. One of the reported proposals from the Betts camp logs in at $420 million spread over 12 seasons.

Presumably this is based on Angels outfielder and three-time MVP Mike Trout’s contract, which reportedly is paying him $426 million over 12 seasons. That includes signing bonuses and other legal minutiae that is irrelevant when discussing the money big-league owners toss to big-league players.

For fans, it is Monopoly money, until they show up at the ticket window and have to fork over two monthly car payments to seat a family of four.

The focus of baseball’s salary insanity is no longer the dollar figures but the years of guaranteed money. Guaranteeing any ballplayer 12 years of incredibly large paychecks is, on its face, absurd.

It is not unlike taking retirement savings, plopping the whole bundle on red and prayerfully watching the little ball bounce around the wheel.

Awaiting the arrival of pitchers and catchers for spring training, it is inarguable that the Yankees are a better ballclub because they added Gerrit Cole to their pitching staff. Is it safe to assume that they will get nine seasons of Cy Young-caliber pitching for which they are obligated to pay him $324 million?

Memo to anyone answering an unqualified “Yup” to that question: The roulette tables are over there.

Contractual obligations, luxury taxes and other financial folderol aside, the Red Sox are a worse club today than they were yesterday. They still don’t have a manager, and now they are minus one starting pitcher and an All-Star outfielder.

If 2020 isn’t a bridge year, what is?

We’ll wait and see if it is a bridge to nowhere.

Contact Alan Greenwood at 594-1248 or agreenwood@nashuatelegraph.com.

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