But by the time Bloom got hired, it was too late. The Sox leverage with Betts did drop with every passing season. You rarely if ever see a player of Betts’ caliber sign with one year to go.
For comparison, Cashman went public with his initial offer to Judge which was 7 years $30.5mill because he wanted it known he was trying. That offer was roughly the same AAV as the alleged Betts’ offer but 3 years shorter, which makes sense since Judge was older (and had not yet hit an AL record for home runs). Was that offer so crazy for their generational talent? Similar AAV, better years, but Cashman was confident enough in its market value to go public…