MLB MVP Markus Lynn “Mookie” Betts is returning to his old stomping grounds, and he is doing so by building a gargantuan house. Franklin, Tennessee is known for many things: history, golf, and the annual Dickens of a Christmas festival all top the list. However, the MLB star is changing the conversation with his new mega-mansion.
Betts, who plays right field for the Boston Red Sox, began building a massive new home in Franklin back in January 2019. Betts originally bought 8.5 acres of land in the gated Grassland community back in 2017, at the price of $1.25 million, but hadn’t started on the construction of his house until this year.
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According to documents submitted to the Williamson County building codes department, Betts will be building 20,000 square feet on the property, which will run $4.5 million for construction costs. This project also resulted in $62,697 in building fees to the county.
Originally a graduate of John Overton High School in Nashville, Betts landed with the Red Sox as a fifth-round pick in the 2011 draft. He had an existing scholarship offer from the University of Tennessee but turned it down in place of a $750,000 bonus and an opportunity to begin his professional career.
In his six years with the Red Sox, Betts has been named All-Star four times, won the World Series (2018), and has been named MVP once.
Williamson County, where Betts will reside, is rich with history due to the existence of Civil War battlefields and graveyards, but this area south of Nashville is also known to be one of the wealthiest counties in the nation.
In 2017, Forbes ranked the 10 richest counties in America as part of an annual exercise. Williamson cracked the list at seventh overall, largely due to a median household income of $104,367.
“The fastest-growing county in Tennessee, over half of the 489,250 residents are college-educated. The biggest employers in the county are Community Health Systems Inc., United Healthcare and Nissan North America. Williamson County attracts new business with low costs — it has the lowest county tax in the Nashville area, no state income tax and the Nashville area has a 4% lower cost of living than the national average,” Rebecca Lerner wrote in the article.
If Forbes takes Betts’ salary of $20 million for the 2019 season into account, it’s very likely that Williamson will shoot up the list even further. His salary will change the balance of the list, causing the median to move away from the current number.
