Los Angeles Dodgers made the final splash of the Major League Baseball offseason. They traded for Mookie Betts and pushed all-in on a chance at the World Series. Betts reportedly will still look to free agency next year, which is interesting, to say the least. There are some doom and gloom there for National League teams. For me, the thing I’m wondering about is what this could mean for Brewers and Christian Yelich. The team still has three more years of control. Yelich could be traded before the deal runs out, but this is the exact reason why the Brewers didn’t overspend in the offseason.

Betts and Yelich are in different situations despite being similar impact players. Red Sox overpaid countless guys before Betts, but they should have made an effort to sign him versus trading him away to cut salary. They’re the Red Sox and have copious amounts of money. What screwed Boston over is not looking at the long view of their franchise. They wildly spent money on players like Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi. Red Sox also chose to pay J.D. Martinez at age 32 versus paying for Betts. This seems to be the opposite of what the Brewers are doing right now.

Milwaukee seems to be keeping cap space open much to the ire of Brewers’ fans. That’s fair, but if you pay guys like Yasmani Grandal, Mike Moustakas and maybe a random free agent, let’s say, Zach Wheeler, where do you get the money to pay for Yelich? The money runs out at some point. Brewers could net a World Series appearance or trophy but it is really fucking hard to win World Series. More so than any other spot in my opinion. And if you don’t win a World Series then cannot afford Yelich because you paid these other guys, what happens then?

Boston and Milwaukee are weirdly similar, even though, the markets are vastly different. Red Sox tried to pay everyone, and it ended up costing them their franchise, most well-liked player that should have been a Red Sox for life. It is much harder to convince Yelich to stay in a city like Milwaukee, but Brewers are going to make damn sure they have a chance.

Charlie.