Dave Serrano reveals Red Sox offered additional $300,000 for Mookie Betts to turn pro over Tennessee
Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts is, today, one of the biggest names in all of MLB. However, he very nearly had a very different career trajectory in his professional baseball career.
Mookie Betts started his career with the Boston Red Sox. That’s the organization that developed him and he won his first MVP and World Series with the Red Sox in 2018. There was just a chance that he never was going to sign with Boston and was going to go to college to be a Tennessee Volunteer instead.
A native of Nashville Tennessee, Betts was going to go to Tennessee before, as former Tennessee baseball coach Dave Serrano recently revealed, the Red Sox offered him $300,000 additionally for him to turn pro.
“Yes that was a tough loss. Truth of the deal was I spoke to Mookie at 11:35pm that night,” Dave Serrano posted to social media. “He said he was coming to school. Then at 11:55pm my phone rang and Boston had raised their offer by 300k since they didn’t sign a higher pick and he was signing. He was at home in Nashville.”
Dave Serrano was quoting a series of posts about Tennessee missing out on Mookie Betts, including one from a fan account with him in Vols gear.
The Red Sox drafted Mookie Betts in the fifth round of the 2011 MLB Draft. His total initial contract with the team was $750,000, which includes the $300,000 increase that Dave Serrano noted. From there, he quickly moved up through the team’s system and got called up to the majors in 2014.
While with the Red Sox, Betts became one of the biggest stars in baseball. That culminated in the 2018 season when he won the AL MVP and led Boston to a World Series win. He hit .346 that season with 32 home runs, 80 RBIS, 30 stolen bases, a .438 OBP, and gold glove defense. That season was also the winningest season in the franchise’s history.
His time in Boston would come to an end shortly after that. Going into the 2019 season, he and the Red Sox got into fairly contentious contract negotiations, with the team failing to meet his asking price. That ended in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Along with David Price, the Red Sox sent Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers. In return, Boston got Jeter Downs, Alex Verdugo, and Connor Wong.
Mookie Betts shortly after that signed a contract extension with the Dodgers for 12 years and $365 million. It also included a $65 million signing bonus. By 2024, the only player the Red Sox received in return for Betts still in the organization was Connor Wong.
Today, the Red Sox trading Mookie Betts is seen as one of the worst decisions in recent franchise history and signaled a change in approach from ownership, from being willing to spend to being tighter with their finances. Meanwhile, Betts won a World Series with Los Angeles and has continued to be a perennial All-Star.
For his part, Dave Serrano was the coach at Tennessee from 2012 through the 2017 season. During that time, he led the team to a 157-163 record. He’s now the head coach of Johnson University.
Tennessee replaced Dave Serrano with Tony Vitello. Since then, he’s gotten the program going in a major way, with two trips to the College World Series.