It is no sense keeping Mookie if that means that you cannot afford a top notch supporting cast to go with him. But was that really the case? We need to remember that the luxury tax was the owner's ploy to get around the lack of a salary cap. It is not some burden that has been imposed on them. The owners want to maximize their profits , just as the players want to maximize their earnings. That is understandable. But as fans , we just want a team we can get behind. Having a Mookie Betts makes that more likely . Without that , fan interest wanes , as was certainly obvious this year. The fans do not want to be the ones in the middle of the fight between the owners and the players. We are paying the bills , but we do care about our money also. And we don't have nearly as much of it as the players , much less the owners. And we do not have to spend it on baseball. Losing a player like Mookie most definitely does nothing to excite the fans. Nor does hearing that the " luxury tax " was the reason for it.