It was June 28th and Terry Francona was just a few weeks into his new gig as the purported savior of a struggling Mets clubhouse culture and one super star in particular was notably absent from the gushing reviews of his tenor and tone. Mookie Betts. No matter where you turned you had stars like Pete Alonso or Jacob Degrom noting that Terry had fit right in and they felt empowered by his track record. When Mookie Betts was asked about Francona he seemed to want to focus on how he was saddened the team had “pulled the rug” out from under Omar Vizquel who had gotten the team to the NLCS the year before. “I think things would have straightened themselves out, man. I just wish we hadn’t done that to Omar.”
That was not the best start for the relationship between Francona and the man the Mets had just one year prior made the highest paid player in the iMLB. As the Mets never did find the footing they were looking for in 2020, Betts once again called back on what Vizquel firing as they were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs in September, “you’re telling me we couldn’t have gotten to this point with Omar around?”. It seemed that the fate for one of these two not being with the club was sealed and traditionally in these circumstances it is not the manager who winds up remaining associated with the franchise. But today, there was certainly a buck to the system when the Mets announced they have come to terms with the Los Angeles Dodgers on a deal to that sees Mookie Betts heading out West with pitcher Zack Wheeler and two minor leaguers, netting them young stars Cory Seager and Julio Urias.
Betts was not without blame for the Mets disappointing season by any means as he posted half the WAR (wins above replacement) that he posted in 2019 in his campaign for the mega-contract. It is a slight possibility that the managerial change had some effect on Betts, but one source with the Mets organization cited that as a major problem. “When you are paying a guy over forty million dollars a season you don’t expect moping over an executive decision to ever be a reality. You have to be what you are paid to be and that’s a bonafide superstar. This whole season was one troubling affair after another and we truly at one point considered him the stalwart guy in terms of leadership. Once we didn’t feel that way it was apparent that it would be best if we could find a new home for him.”