Interesting Kris Bryant and Mookie Betts Connection
Attention! Attention! Read all about it! Both, Kris Bryant and Mookie Betts are really good at baseball. I think we also know fans judge players against each other, and teams will use certain level players to justify salary arbitration figures. What is strange, perhaps in hindsight, is the Boston Red Sox used video of Bryant in Betts’ arbitration hearing. Here is what ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote.
With $3 million at stake, the Boston Red Soxwanted to create the most compelling argument possible against Mookie Bettswithout alienating or insulting him. So last January, as they tried to convince a three-person arbitration panel that Betts deserved the $7.5 million salary they were offering and not the $10.5 million he requested, the Red Sox fashioned a novel approach in the typically staid, lawyerly arbitration room: They played a video talking about how good Kris Bryant was.
The purpose, multiple sources in the room told ESPN, was not simply to lavish praise on the Chicago Cubs‘ third baseman but to make their case: As great as Mookie Betts may be, he isn’t Kris Bryant. And in the world of arbitration — an opaque, wonky process that determines salaries for about a quarter of the league every year and has taken on significantly more meaning as economic turmoil roils the baseball landscape — the single most important factor is comparable players.
Now we know, teams do use other comparable players in this process to calculate salary. While it’s not a perfect science, it’s the best way to calculate things like this. It’s likely how your salary is computed (unless you create your salary, or own a business). The ironic part here is, the Red Sox we’re fighting over $3 million, Betts was valued at around $81.5 million – on the low end!
Equally ironic is, the Red Sox used Bryant in regards to Betts wasn’t near his level of a player, and now you’d be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn’t say Betts is clearly better than Bryant.
Now, a little of that is a slight power regression for Bryant in 2017, and of course missing several months in 2018 and playing hurt in the final month and a half. Many baseball people were putting Bryant in the top five in regards to best in baseball. Some had him jumping the likes of Betts and Bryce Harper after his 2016 MVP season and backing it with a solid 2017 season. But after Betts 2018 campaign, which he won the AL MVP. And since Betts has been a regular, he has received MVP votes and has finished in the top six in each seasons.
Conversely, last season was the first year Bryant hadn’t received MVP votes.
Cubs fans should feel comforted, most projections show Bryant returning to be the most valuable NL player in 2019 (Steamer, Depth Charts, etc). Plus, at the start of 2018, when Bryant was healthy, he was pacing a MONSTER season. I guess what I’m saying here is, regardless of where Bryant falls in the pantheon of great players, he’s really freaking good. So good, it sounds like the Red Sox valued him higher than possibly the second best player in baseball.
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