Who won the Mookie Betts Trade?

After complications with the original trade for the Los Angeles Dodgers to acquire Mookie Betts, the deal has been finalized and the 2018 AL MVP will be heading to California set to join a squad looking to win their first World Series since 1988. Along with Betts, the Boston Red Sox have also sent left-handed pitcher to the Dodgers as well. In return, the Red Sox will receive the 23-year old outfielder Alex Verdugo along with Jeter Downs who is a prospect in the Red Sox system. Now the age-old question asked after a trade is who is the winner and that question does not have a clear winner.

Initially, many would believe that the Dodgers fleeced the Red Sox. However, this is not the case. Mookie Betts is scheduled to become a free agent by the end of the 2020 MLB season and it is unclear what team he will be apart of for 2021.

Mookie Betts looks to bring a title to Los Angeles. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

In my opinion, we do not yet know if the Dodgers won this trade and we will only know if one or both of these outcomes happen. The first is if the Dodgers win the World Series, if trading for Mookie Betts brings the Los Angeles Dodgers a World Series it would be 100% worth it. The Dodgers have not hoisted the Commissioner's trophy since 1988 which is a significant drought for such a big market team. The other outcome is if he resigned with LA. If the Dodgers fail to complete either of these tasks then the Mookie Betts trade was an outright failure.

The Red Sox, while getting the short end of the stick, did manage to come out with quite a bit off of this trade. Despite being one of the best players in the league, Betts is only under one year of control and is getting paid $27 million dollars this season. The value for a player like that is not very high. They did manage to get a left-handed bat with potential in Alex Verdugo and another young prospect in Jeter Downs. They were also able to dump off the monstrosity of a contract they were previously paying to David Price. While the Red Sox are not at the championship level they were at in 2018, they are for sure heading in the correct direction.