I have nothing left to say.
Not exactly the most enticing hook to keep reading, but the Red Sox have officially reached the (bleep) or get off the pot stage of Mookie Betts' future.
Trade him. Keep him. Stick him in carbonite like Han Solo. Just do something, because this storyline has dragged on long enough.
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Spring training starts in a little over a week. It's unfair to the second- or third-best player in baseball to leave his fate still hanging, just as it's unfair to his teammates and fans.
I understand Chaim Bloom wanting to nail his first major transaction as chief baseball officer, but the longer this lingers, the greater the likelihood the Red Sox end up with nothing.
Since the season finale, I've written more than 20 columns about Betts, and I'd love to write about something else, but the appetite for Mookie news and opinion is insatiable, so typity-type-type.
I'm tempted to compare the following to a clips episode of a particularly lazy week of "Family Ties," but that reference is probably lost on half the readership. So let's describe it in 21st century Information Age terms, which is self-aggregation, a conceit that can be likened to a snake eating its own Google search ranking.
Whatever there is to say about a Betts trade as we sit on the cusp of February, I've already said it. I've consistently argued I wouldn't give anyone a 10-year contract, but that might be because I'm naturally risk-averse, which came in really handy when I opted against purchasing Amazon stock at $17 a share in 2001 because who can afford that gamble?
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That said, I'm comfortable with my position. I've argued that Betts should be traded to the Dodgers. Repeatedly.
I've laid out what the Red Sox could receive in return from L.A.'s loaded farm system, not to mention Atlanta's and San Diego's, too. I've made the case for packaging him with David Price for the long-term health of the franchise, and as a straight salary dump.
I've suggested the Red Sox should trade him right now. I've suggested they should trade him because he's too short, which sounds kind of ridiculous now that I read those words aloud, but my logic is sound, I swear. I've suggested they should trade him before it's too late.
I've given all I have in service of this interminable game of will they or won't they.
The time has come to make a decision, halt the endless speculation, and give us concrete news, because I'm done breaking down what might happen and ready to move on to the reality of whatever comes next.