On Wednesday the Dodgers officially introduced Mookie Betts and David Price to LA media at Dodger Stadium. As the organization went “full-court press” and brought out most, if not all the stadium staff as part of the welcome party, it was clear that the Dodgers are very happy to have the new guys in town.
Moreover, with his impending free agency, some of the showing of support and excitement probably had an added message for Mookie Betts…
We like you, please re-sign with us after the season.
Assumptions aside, there is more than enough reason for excitement — the Dodgers picked up two exceptional players. Most importantly, they picked up the second-best player in baseball (by WAR) from the past five years. And LA’s president of baseball operations couldn’t be more excited.
He’s elite in every facet of the game. The way he can impact a game on the bases, defensively, in the batter’s box… he’s one of the best players in all of baseball. He’s a complete player in that respect, so adding him to an otherwise talented group of position players is something that’s going to make us that much deeper and better.
It’s a universally accepted fact that Mookie is a gifted baseball player. In fact, earlier, Andrew Friedman called Betts the best player he had ever traded for. For an executive that has acquired names like Machado, Darvish, Archer, and more over his career, that’s very high praise.
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And on that note, after being asked to hone in on something Betts does particularly well, Friedman wasn’t done praising the newest Dodger.
He can literally do everything so well. Fortunately we don’t have to pick [one thing] because he’s so elite at everything, and that’s what kind of puts him in rarified air. In terms of position players, most can impact the game in different ways; the fact that he can in every aspect is something that we’ve admired a lot from afar.
Earlier in the day, the president of baseball ops talked about how much the other new guy, pitcher David Price, means to the clubhouse aspect of a team. While he knows what Price can do first hand, he also understands what Betts brings to the team beyond his play on the field.
He competes and he plays hard and he cares about his teammates … we talked about it last year, the clubhouse culture that has been created here and through last year was the best I thought we ever had. Obviously it didn’t end up mattering at the end of the day, but I think [Betts] is going to fit in extremely well on that front… ‘Make up’ for me in a lot of ways is about how dependable is someone, how much can you count on them giving everything they have to go out and win on a nightly basis — to put us in a position to win a championship, and Mookie’s at the top of the list when it comes to that.
If you’re not excited to see Mookie Betts playing at Dodger Stadium this summer, you’re either a Red Sox fan, or there’s something wrong with you.
NEXT: Dave Roberts Talks Mookie Betts and the Lineup
