Yeah, how dare a player want to make what other similar players are getting.
We don't know the numbers he's looking for, but we all assume that if he were offered $1 less than Trout's deal, he would take it right now. I'm not sure that's the case. I think there's been reading between the lines by some that he just isn't interested in staying in Boston, unless it's a ridiculous overpay.
Now, from a capability standpoint, there's no one in the league who should be able to actually outbid you for someone, not even the Yankees.
Here's the thing with Betts, he's probably worth whatever you paid him, even an overpay, from an analytics perspective.
Let's say you pay him $355 million over 10 years. The expected $ value for 1 WAR is $8 million. That increases every year, but holding it static, he'd need to average 4.4 WAR per season, something he's exceeded in each of the five "full" MLB seasons he's played. He's averaged 7 WAR per year, so even if he could do that for just the next 6 years, and fell off a cliff after that, you'd break even. That's the secret with the true cream of the crop MLBers. It takes a lot for them to not be worth these massive contracts.
I mean, look at Pedroia, for instance. Assuming he doesn't play another game, he won't have even played 500 regular season games over the life of his contract. He's still had 12.4 WAR valued at $98.3 million, so it's barely an overpay at the actual $110 million you're paying him.