BOSTON — Mookie Betts won his arbitration case against the Red Sox on Wednesday, meaning the star outfielder will make $10.5 million in 2018.

The Red Sox had offered Betts $7.5 million.

Betts’ $10.5 million is the most won by a first-year arbitration-eligible player in a trial. Chicago’s Kris Bryant had settled with the Cubs for a record $10.85 million earlier this winter. Bryant and the previous record-holder, Ryan Howard, had each won MVP awards by that time; Betts has finished second and sixth the last two seasons.

His $10.5 million filing was higher than expected, though Boston’s $7.5 million number also was a touch lower than projections.

Within that context, Betts’ victory is a little surprising. However, the arbiters merely have to rule that Betts is worth $1 more than Boston’s offer to award the player his chosen salary. And while arbitration has a tendency to prioritize older-school counting statistics, Betts does about as well in those – 24 homers, 102 RBI, 26 steals last year – as he does in more advanced metrics.

The contracts earned by Betts and Bryant help set a new, higher precedent for players before free agency. That’s not a small development at a time when the veteran middle class and even top-flight players are getting squeezed in free agency.

Betts has been aggressive in seeking near-record salaries for a player of his service time. Last season, his $950,000 salary was the second-highest ever for a prearbitration player, and even then Betts didn’t agree to the salary. (Prearbitration salaries are dictated by the team; a player can either agree to the salary or simply have his contract renewed at that number.)

The Red Sox are more or less over the luxury tax threshold now with Betts’ salary on the ledger, though that was going to happen regardless of the outcome of this specific hearing. It does influence Betts’ earnings capacity over the next two seasons, as future arbitration salaries are founded on previous years’ salaries.

Toronto’s Josh Donaldson set a record this year by agreeing to a $23 million contract in his fourth and final year of arbitration eligibility. (Donaldson had been a SuperTwo candidate, thus giving him an extra year of arbitration.) Betts could conceivably make something like $50 million over his three years of arbitration now.

That likely lessens even more Betts’ willingness to sign a long-term extension with the Red Sox before entering free agency after the 2020 season. Betts has appeared on track to simply go year-to-year in arbitration with the Sox until that point. Whether attending an actual hearing this winter impacts his desire to remain with Boston beyond 2020 is unclear. At the same time, Betts does not seem to be the type of player who would hold this against the Red Sox three years down the road.

(After the inability to come to an agreement last winter, both Betts and the Red Sox said there was no lingering animosity.)

This is the second time in the last two years the Red Sox have gone to an arbitration trial under president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. Last year, the Sox won their case against lefty reliever Fernando Abad.