{"id":298335,"date":"2025-11-21T02:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/298335\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T02:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:05:11","slug":"red-sox-make-decision-on-last-player-from-mookie-betts-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/298335\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Make Decision on Last Player From Mookie Betts Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">The Boston Red Sox have made some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/stories\/mlb\/culture-trades-red-sox-history-wild-moves-after-rafael-devers-trade\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">notably infamous trades over their<\/a> 125-year history, most notorious of all the 1920 deal that sent a 24-year-old pitcher and outfielder named George Herman &#8220;Babe&#8221; Ruth to the New York Yankees for nothing but cash in a catastrophic move that changed the course of baseball history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Then there was the 1972 trade that brought mediocre, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/sports\/2008\/08\/some_baseball_deals_like_danny.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">32-year-old first baseman Danny Cater<\/a> from the Yankees to Boston. In exchange the Red Sox shipped out 26-year-old relief pitcher Albert &#8220;Sparky&#8221; Lyle \u2014 who became the Yankees closer, immediately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lylesp01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">leading the American League in saves (35)<\/a>, then again in 1976 (23) while helping to pitch the Yankees to two World Series championships in 1977 and 1978. Lyle even won the AL Cy Young Award in 1977, only the second relief pitcher to win the honor.<\/p>\n<p><img id=\"11084621\" alt=\"Connor Wong slides.\" caption=\"SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 10: Connor Wong #12 of the Boston Red Sox gets tagged out at home plate by Willie MacIver #65 of the Athletics in the top of the fourth inning at Sutter Health Park on September 10, 2025 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson\/Getty Images)\" credit=\"\" sourcealt=\"\" sources=\"[]\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"6000\" height=\"3999\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Connor-Wong-contract.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">In 1990, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/mlb\/news\/five-worst-red-sox-trades-in-team-history-could-rafael-devers-join-mookie-betts-babe-ruth-on-infamous-list\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Red Sox traded 22-year-old<\/a> prospect Jeff Bagwell to the Houston Astros at the trade deadline for right-handed reliever Larry Andersen. Bagwell went on to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bagweje01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a Hall of Fame career<\/a>. Anderson pitched 22 innings over 15 games for the Red Sox, who then let him go to free agency after the 1990 season, and he signed with the San Diego Padres.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">But for the current generation of Red Sox fans, no trade stings like the Feb. 12, 2020, deal that sent outfielder Mookie Betts \u2014 who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bettsmo01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">won the AL MVP and led<\/a> the Red Sox to a World Series title in 2018 \u2014 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Starting pitcher David Price also went to the Dodgers in the deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">In return the Red Sox received three players. One, outfielder Alex Verdugo was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/yankees\/onsi\/news\/atlanta-braves-cut-former-new-york-yankees-alex-verdugo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">released by the Atlanta Braves <\/a>in July and has been without a team ever since. Another, infielder Jeter Downs, appeared in 14 games for the Red Sox in 2022 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2024\/07\/jeter-downs-signs-with-npbs-fukuoka-softbank-hawks.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">now plays for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks<\/a> in Japan\u2019s Pacific League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">More MLB: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/sports\/mlb\/chadwick-tromp-free-agent-braves-11053102\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Red Sox Say Goodbye to 6-Year Veteran Catcher Joining Braves as Free Agent<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Finally, the Red Sox obtained catcher Connor Wong. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Almost <a href=\"https:\/\/dodgers.mlblogs.com\/five-years-ago-the-game-changing-mookie-betts-trade-dodgers-625b94d3d8a1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">six years after the trade<\/a>, Wong stood as the only player remaining with Boston from the Betts trade.  But on Friday, the deadline day for teams to formally inform players who are still under team control whether or not they will be offered new contracts, the Red Sox would face a decision on whether they wanted to keep Wong for at least one more season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">The answer was clearly yes, because Boston did not wait until Friday to make a decision on Wong&#8217;s future with the team. On Thursday <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RedSox\/status\/1991551444110164009\" rel=\"nofollow\">the Red Sox announced<\/a> that they had signed Wong to a one-year contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">According to Red Sox <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RedSox\/status\/1991551444110164009\" rel=\"nofollow\">beat reporter Chris Cotillo of MassLive<\/a>, the Red Sox signed Wong to a deal that will pay him $1.4 million, with opportunity to earn another $75,000 in incentive bonuses. That represents a substantial raise <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotrac.com\/mlb\/player\/earnings\/_\/id\/23311\/connor-wong\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">over the $790,000 he earned this season<\/a>, according to Spotrac. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">But the sum is slightly<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2025\/10\/projected-arbitration-salaries-for-2026.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> less than the $1.7 million<\/a> he was projected to earn by the mathematical formula developed by MLB Trade Rumors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Wong <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/press-release\/free-agent-hitter-power-rankings-2025-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">underwent surgery<\/a> on his right hand Oct. 9. The hand injury was clearly a drag on his performance this season, when the 29-year-old drafted in the 2017 third round by the Dodgers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wongco01.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">managed only a .500 OPS<\/a> without a single home run and only 32 hits in 168 at-bats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">More MLB: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/sports\/mlb\/miguel-bleis-unprotected-red-sox-11077445\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Red Sox Expected to Cut Ties With $1.5 Million, 21-Year-Old Outfielder<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boston Red Sox have made some notably infamous trades over their 125-year history, most notorious of all&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,5156,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-298335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}