Mookie Betts disagreed with the salary the Red Sox renewed him for this season, but as a non-arbitration-eligible player, there's nothing he can do about it.
Betts, 24, the American League MVP runner-up to Mike Trout last season, when he hit .318 with 31 homers and an .897 OPS, is set to make $950,0000 in 2017, according to the Boston Globe's Alex Speier.
That's the second-highest salary ever for a non-arbitration-eligible player. Only the Angels' Trout had a higher pre-arbitration salary at $1 million in 2014.
The major league minimum is $535,000. Betts, the Red Sox right fielder, made $566,000 last year. So, he still got significant raise.
"We just couldn't come up with a number that he thought was the right number for him," Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters at spring training of the negotiations with Betts and agent Steve Veltman. "We didn't feel like there were any animosities involved. He just had a different number in mind than what we had."
Betts said there are no hard feelings. He's eligible for arbitration next year and can become a free agent in 2020.
"It's a business side, and there's no animosity, there's nothing going on. They didn't let my hopes down or anything. Now we're just focused on baseball and we'll go from there."