Betts: Red Sox and I aren't talking extension

Mookie Betts' breakout season isn't going to cost the Boston Red Sox any extra money just yet.

Betts, who finished second in AL MVP voting last season, is still one year away from entering arbitration for the first time. And while many teams would jump at the chance to buy out those arbitration years with a long-term deal, it doesn't appear the Red Sox are in any rush to do that with their 24-year-old star. Betts revealed Thursday that he and the Red Sox have had no extension discussions this winter.

"Not a peep. Not a peep. Nothing at all," Betts told WEEI's Rob Bradford when asked if the team had approached him about a long-term deal.

Many of baseball's young arbitration-eligible stars have chosen to take a long-term deal over going through the tedious process of exchanging figures for three years. One of the largest pre-arbitration extensions was the six-year, $144.5-million extension signed by Mike Trout - who bested Betts in this year's MVP race - ahead of his first arbitration hearings in 2015. This year, the largest such deal was signed by Wil Myers, who covered all his arbitration years and his first three years of free agency by signing a six-year, $83-million deal with San Diego.

While Betts and the Red Sox could easily go that route, he doesn't feel the timing is right to sign a long-term agreement. Though he's happy in Boston, the Nashville native appears fine with letting his contractual situation settle itself on a year-by-year basis for the time being so that he can focus on helping the defending AL East champions keep on winning.

"One year at a time and we'll go from there," Betts said. "I'm going to go year by year and worry about one year at a time.

"I know what me, my parents and my agents talk about. We have one view and I don't want to have three or four different views on that thing. I just want to have one view and kind of stick to it."