Interesting tweet from Speier:
Before Bogaerts extension, Red Sox had been trying to preserve flexibility, eyeing possibility of going under the $208M luxury tax threshold in 2020. With Bogaerts, doing so would be hard barring a Martinez free agent departure or trade of arb-eligible player(s)
To date, every deal they’ve struck has also been done with an eye towards keeping flexibility to try to sign Betts long-term. They still have that, but if not resetting lux tax rates in 2020, a deal for Betts is more expensive for them.
Reading what Dombrowski had to say today, it sounds like they really weren't expecting Bogaerts to sign an extension, and financially speaking, weren't planning on it. The ability to extend Bogaerts has somewhat changed their 'reset' plans.
Without a reset, Betts is going to be even more expensive than the mega contract already will be.