3 teams that could steal Xander Bogaerts from the Red Sox
Xander Bogaerts is a Red Sox icon, but his time in Boston might soon be coming to end. The Red Sox loss would be a massive gain for whatever team signs him
The Boston Red Sox recent hot streak has helped push aside a question that threatened to overwhelm their season: what is the future of Xander Bogaerts in Boston?
Bogaerts signed a six-year, $120 million contract extension with the Red Sox in April 2019. But it contained an important clause, namely that Bogaerts can opt-out of the deal after this season and test free agency. He’s making $20 million per year over the course of the deal, but he’s seen shortstops such as Corey Seager and Carlos Correa sign massive contracts for more than $30 million. Bogaerts wants that kind of money, and the Red Sox might not be able to give it to him.
The Red Sox slow start to this season sparked rumors that they would consider trading Bogaerts before he was able to opt out. On May 8, when the Red Sox had lost their fifth game in a row to drop to 10-19 on the year and already 10 games out of the AL East lead, Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom recognized those rumors and reiterated it was too early to panic.
“We have to play better. We put ourselves in this situation. But if we’re going to get out of it, we’re going to get out of it by doing those things that we know we can do well. There’s a difference between urgency and panic,” Bloom told MassLive.com at the time.
The Red Sox responded. The club is 10-4 since then, the best record in the American League. Trevor Story, who signed a $140 million deal with Boston in the offseason and was forced to move to second base due to the presence of Bogaerts, has suddenly shown he was well worth the money with six home runs and 17 RBI over his last six games.
Climbing back into contention has quelched talk about moving Bogaerts, but that doesn’t mean the franchise icon will still be around in 2023. Bogaerts is fast approaching Everett Scott’s franchise record for games played by a shortstop. He has more hits and home runs than any Red Sox shortstop other than Nomar Garciaparra; only Garciaparra and Joe Cronin have more RBI.
Bogaerts is the only link between multiple generations of great Red Sox teams. He won the World Series with David Ortiz and Mookie Betts. He was the only Red Sox player to appear in both the 2013 and 2018 World Series. Since he debuted as a 20-year-old in 2013, the Aruba native has etched his name among the legends of Red Sox history.
That could come to an end after this season if the Red Sox don’t give him the money he thinks he deserves. If Bogaerts does decide to leave Boston, then these three teams will be waiting to snatch him up.