Red Sox: John Henry’s message to Xander Bogaerts is clear, and infuriating

Red Sox owner John Henry pissed a lot of fans when he talked about negotiations on a new contract for shortstop Xander Bogaerts.

Xander Bogaerts has won two World Series championships with the Red Sox while earning four All-Star nods and four Silver Slugger Awards all before the age of 30.

He has been in the Boston organization since he was a teenager and he has previously stated that he wants to be a Red Sox for life.

The question is whether or not the Red Sox are going to make a serious enough effort to keep him. Based on recent comments by owner John Henry, there’s serious doubt on that front.

Red Sox: John Henry’s message to Xander Bogaerts is clear, and infuriating

Here’s what Henry told Alex Speier of the Boston Globe:

"“It takes two to make a deal. I think it’s clear both of them [Bogaerts and Rafael Devers] want to be here. We want them here. We made efforts in the past to try to sign players that we weren’t able to sign.“It’s not 100 percent our fault when we don’t end up signing a player. We’ve signed players where it’s really worked out. We’ve signed others that, it’s our job to try to sign the right players. Frankly, over the last 20 years, we haven’t done it [every time], so we’ve had to break teams up.“The key thing I think with a long-term deal is to make it with the right players. For us at this point, both Raffy and Xander are two players we would love to have. In Xander’s case, it could be till the end of his career. But players have rights and you have to respect that.”"

Henry can try to make this out to be an issue on the player’s side, but it’s hard to believe that’s the sticking point when the Red Sox reportedly offered Bogaerts a paltry deal earlier this year.

According to reports, Bogaerts and Boston are $100 million apart in terms of contract value. The deal they supposedly offered was for just four years and $90 million, which is just barely more than what he would make if he opted into the remaining years on his contract.

Bogaerts is a 29-year-old shortstop. Players at his position like Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor and Corey Seager have signed massive contracts in recent years, worth up to $35.1 million per year and $341 million in total. Four years for $90 million is flat out insulting.

It would be understandable if the Red Sox didn’t want to give Bogaerts a $300 million contract. They haven’t even gotten over $100 million.