Dodgers: Why Mookie Betts is more valuable over a shortened season

The Los Angeles Dodgers need Mookie Betts more now than ever.

When the Los Angeles Dodgers swung a trade for superstar Mookie Betts in the offseason, unless you were an epidemiologist tracking the novel coronavirus in the Far East, there was no way of knowing a pandemic would put the 2020 season in peril.

Dodgers president Andrew Friedman forfeited a young outfielder in Alex Verdugo, along with two prospects (Jeter Downs and Connor Wong) to secure Betts’ services for the season leading up to his free agency campaign.

With MLB owners and players wrangling over a financial structure, let alone important health protocols, in order to start the 2020 season, many have suggested the Dodgers fell into bad luck in dealing for Betts before the current situation.

Starter David Price, who was acquired alongside Betts, believes Los Angeles wouldn’t have completed the deal had they known what was coming.

"“Yeah, that sucks,” Price recently told The Athletic. “Seeing into the future and knowing coronavirus was right around the corner, they wouldn’t have done that. I’m sure a lot of people made big changes in their lives, and it’s put a wrinkle in a lot of people’s plans. That’s part of it, and it stinks.”"

But if a shortened season is ultimately played is the addition of Mookie Betts really a waste?

In fact, if Friedman was given the same opportunity to pull the trigger on a deal today, given the current risk profile for the season, would it be wise for him to do it again?

I think so. Let me explain why.