Mookie Betts is off to a legendary start with the Boston Red Sox
It is often foolish to make predictions about young ballplayers with a paucity of big league experience, but anybody who has watched the opening salvo of Mookie Betts' career knows just how much the kid makes you dream.
Barely 60 games into his enthralling Red Sox tenure, the 22-year-old Betts has already left a significant footprint in Boston sports lore. For instance, last August, he became the youngest Red Sock to hit a grand slam in 49 years. Similarly, just last week, he became the teams’ youngest Opening Day leadoff hitter since Rico Petrocelli in 1965, and its youngest Opening Day centre fielder since Tony Conigliaro in 1964.
Moreover, Betts' bomb off Cole Hamels made him the third-youngest player ever to homer for the Red Sox in a season opener. Quite simply, he is doing things that very few players his age have ever done, setting the tone for the fabled Red Sox and garnering nationwide attention.
More than that, though, Mookie is chasing history, thanks to an awe-inspiring start that has the baseball universe wondering just how far this precociously talented starlet may go. Accordingly, it is only appropriate that we have a little fun with the numbers, and try to project what records Betts may break, and where his career may wind up in a historical context.
Right now, through the first 59 games of his major league career, Mookie has a .281/.355/.446 slash line, with 63 hits, 14 doubles, 7 home runs, 26 RBI, 10 stolen bases, 24 walks and 38 runs scored. By extrapolating that performance to represent a typical 162-game season, we see that Betts will, on average, produce 173 hits, 38 doubles, 19 home runs, 71 RBI, 27 stolen bases, 66 walks and 104 runs scored per year – numbers that will garner him MVP votes.
However, the real fun begins when we expand that baseline seasonal output to represent a 15-year career. For instance, if he played 15 full seasons at the present rate, Mookie would wind up with 2,595 hits, 570 doubles, 285 home runs, 1,065 RBI, 405 stolen bases, 990 walks and 1,560 runs scored. Presuming he stays with the Red Sox for life, those numbers would place him 3rd, 2nd, 6th, 7th, 1st, 5th and 3rd in franchise history in the respective categories.
Yet due to his early arrival in the major leagues as a 21-year-old, Betts figures to have a legitimate opportunity to play more than 15 full seasons. Thus, for arguments sake, let's extrapolate his average baseline numbers to encompass 20 full big league seasons. The results? A remarkable 3,460 hits, 760 doubles, 380 home runs, 1,470 RBI, 540 stolen bases, 1,320 walks and 2,080 runs scored. That is more home runs than Joe DiMaggio; more RBI than Mark McGwire; more stolen bases than Ichiro Suzuki; and more hits than Honus Wagner, Willie Mays or Tony Gwynn.
Of course, I'm aware the math is more than a little flawed. And yes, I know it is highly unlikely that Betts' career will follow such a linear track. But just for a moment, as he blazes a trail through the American League, it is fun to marvel at the numbers and daydream about the potential.
According to the somewhat skewed, yet nonetheless entertaining projected career stats, right now, in Mookie Betts, the Red Sox have a cornerstone player with Jeter's stroke, Manny's patience, Rice's power, Bonds' speed, and Vlad Guerrero's clutch production.
Which begs one question: who on earth would trade all that for Cole Hamels?