Dodgers fans should use Mookie Betts anniversary to point 'ruining baseball' blame at Red Sox

There are many different ways the "Los Angeles Dodgers are ruining baseball" argument can be discredited. The Dodgers have turned heads with their spending in recent years, but that shouldn't take away from how sound they are as a baseball organization. Other teams can truly be defined as ruining baseball, and it all starts with the team that traded Mookie Betts to Los Angeles.

This week marks the sixth anniversary of the Dodgers' straight-up fleecing of the Boston Red Sox. It was a deal that put Betts and David Price in Dodger blue while parting with Jeter Downs, Alex Verdugo, and Connor Wong.

Mookie Betts anniversary reminds Dodgers fans who really ruined baseball

The trade for Betts is certainly what set the stage for the Dodgers to become "THE DODGERS." But here's the thing — that trade also revealed the team that is truly ruining baseball: the Red Sox.

At the center of their decision to trade Betts was the fact that Boston was unable (or unwilling) to sign him to a long-term contract. Betts was a homegrown MVP for the Red Sox, and instead of rewarding his loyalty to Boston, they shipped him out for the package of prospects that turned out to be complete busts.

One would think that such a colossal mistake would lead to Boston changing their ways. They haven't. The past five years have seen Boston wave farewell to franchise cornerstones Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers. Like Betts, the Red Sox seemingly had no interest in paying Bogaerts. As for Devers, self-inflicted drama created by Craig Breslow led to a trade with the San Francisco Giants.

The drama hasn't ended there. Alex Bregman was essentially the straw that broke the camel's back with Devers, and as it turns out, he only spent one year in Boston.

Rather than pursue Kyle Schwarber, Ketel Marte, Brendan Donovan, Pete Alonso, or Eugenio Suárez to replace Bregman, Boston oddly chose to sign Isiah Kiner-Falefa to a one-year deal.

Those are the decisions that are ruining baseball. Boston is supposed to be one of the noise-makers every offseason, and the only noise they have been making is defending their poor decisions over the past six years.

Another reminder that the Dodgers are not the ones who are ruining baseball. It's teams like the Red Sox, refusing to dance in free agency, that are creating baseball's biggest headache ahead of the CBA expiring next offseason.