Did Dodgers, Red Sox trade in 2012 lead to Mookie Betts?

The Los Angeles Dodgers have a history of conducting blockbuster trades with the Boston Red Sox. What would you say if we told you that one such trade ultimately led to the Mookie Betts deal?

When the Los Angeles Dodgers agreed to a trade for Mookie Betts, David Price, and cash from the Boston Red Sox over the winter, it made huge waves for both organizations. The Dodgers were acquiring two significant pieces of the puzzle in what could (still?) be a World Series run in 2020. Meanwhile, the Red Sox got some much-needed salary relief and were also able to stock up on a few solid prospects to help rebuild their farm system.

Sound familiar? It should. Los Angeles and Boston came together on a similarly monumental deal in August 2012, when then Dodgers’ general manager Ned Colletti swung a deal that rang in the arrival of the new ownership group in L.A.

The 2012 Trade

Just prior to the waiver trade deadline, the Red Sox agreed to send Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Nick Punto to the Dodgers in exchange for a slew of prospects that included Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster Ivan De Jesus, James Loney, and Jerry Sands.

At the time, the deal was considered a huge win for Boston. The Red Sox were getting a bevy of young talent (in particular the arms of De La Rosa and Webster) and in exchange were shedding bad contracts in Beckett, Crawford, and Gonzalez, with the first two essentially wearing out their welcome in Beantown. The Red Sox then used that financial freedom to re-sign David Ortiz, and sign free agents David Ross, Jonny Gomes, Shane Victorino, Koji Uehara, Ryan Dempster, and Stephen Drew. That proved to be a winning recipe, as Boston won its third World Series of the century in 2013.

Meanwhile, the 2013 Dodgers overcame a slow start on the season to make it to the National League Championship Series, where they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, preventing a match-up with those same Boston Red Sox.

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So what does this all have to do with the Mookie Betts trade? To fully understand that, we have to look again at the players the Dodgers picked up in the trade.

Josh Beckett would spend two and a half seasons with the Dodgers before hanging up his cleats after the 2014 season. He would give Los Angeles just 35 total starts, going 9-14 with a 3.35 ERA, a 4.29 FIP, and an 8.3 K/9 mark.

Carl Crawford’s time was even less enjoyable. After not playing at all in 2012 with Los Angeles, Crawford’s career would be sunk with injuries and ineffectiveness during his tenure in Dodger Blue. He would ultimately appear in just 320 games over four-plus seasons, slashing .278/.320/.400. After appearing in just 30 games in 2016, the Dodgers opted to eat the final $35 million owed to Crawford and ultimately released him. He would never play another inning in Major League Baseball.

Aside from solid utility work by Nick Punto, the one player acquired that gave the Dodgers solid value was first baseman, Adrian Gonzalez. Gonzalez spent five and half years as the Dodgers’ primary first baseman, hitting .280/.339/.454 with 101 home runs, 448 RBI and generally above average offensive play. He would be shipped out of Los Angeles in a trade with the Atlanta Braves in December 2017.

The Butterfly Effect

Alright, to fully understand how these deals intersect with each other. We have to examine the moving pieces. It starts with Gonzalez.

In the 2017 trade with the Braves, the Dodgers themselves needed to unload some salary and flipped Gonzalez, Scott Kazmir, Brandon McCarthy, and Charlie Culberson to Atlanta in exchange for Matt Kemp and his bloated deal. Kemp would have a career resurgence in 2018, becoming an All-Star again on the heels of a .290/.338/.481 season, with 21 home runs and 85 RBI. However, his return to L.A. would be short-lived.

Seeing the growth of their up-and-coming young outfielders and trying to pare down even more salary, the Dodgers sent Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Alex Wood, and Kyle Farmer to the Cincinnati Reds on December 21, 2018. In exchange, the Dodgers received shortstop prospect Jeter Downs, pitching prospect Josiah Gray and the husk of Homer Bailey.

See where we are going here?

The Mookie Betts Trade

And now we’ve come full circle, in a sort of six degrees of Kevin Bacon way. By acquiring Adrian Gonzalez in 2012, the Dodgers turned him into Matt Kemp, then into Jeter Downs, who then was part of the prospect package (along with Alex Verdugo and Connor Wong) that Los Angeles used to acquire Mookie Betts and David Price from the Red Sox. It just took eight years, two general managers, and a bevy of player movement to get us here.

BOOM!

Now, all things are definitely not equal, and I’m sure the Dodgers would have preferred to be the team that won two World Series titles in the span between trades. However, all good things come to those who wait. And with the season on hold, that’s what the Dodgers (and the fans) can hope for, both in seeing the return on the Mookie Betts trade and potentially a World Series of their own.

If not, we can always go back down the rabbit hole and see where this trade ultimately connects.