Late Wednesday night, early Thursday morning here on the East Coast when the news broke that Xander Bogaerts was signing an 11-year 280 million dollar contract with the San Diego Padres. I was shocked, stunned, heartbroken, and furious. The reports I was hearing all day was how talks had intensified between the Red Sox and Bogaerts. It appears as if that was just John Heymen being Scott Boras's puppet again.
I am happy for Xander. 280 million is a lot of money, and I do not fault him one bit for taking that deal. There was a video circulating from a club in Phoenix, where Xander was in town watching the Celtics-Suns game with his now former teammates, where Bogaerts is scrolling his phone looking to be in his feels. It is clear he would have loved to stay in Boston. Reports have come out that, even after it, Bogaerts wanted to let the Red Sox counter. The gap between the two was just too large to the point where he couldn't take the Padres' offer. There was a zero percent chance the Red Sox would match the 11 years on the deal. That seemed to be a big difference, as the Sox were offering a higher AAV than the Padres, just over a shorter span.
4 years 90 million dollars. Just a joke of a contract to even think about offering to someone like Xander Bogaerts, especially with how much he has meant to your franchise. It was just a slap-in-the-face offer that started this whole saga off on the wrong foot back in spring training. If you just offer him a fair deal, 5-year-150 million, hell even the 6-160 that Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reported was the current offer, would have gotten it done. Then instead of all this, we are dealing with, the Red Sox are instead focusing on other big-name free agents.
This goes so much farther past letting Xander walk. It is the reality of the Boston Red Sox that has been happening way too often under this ownership group. Just two years ago they did not want to pay Mookie Betts, shipping him off to Los Angeles. Now, Xander, another homegrown talent is gone because you didn't want to pay him. This issue goes well beyond Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom, whom many will pit the blame on for this. This is an ownership issue. Despite all the success they have had in Boston, the Red Sox are now on the back burner. Fenway Sports Group, as ironic as it sounds, is more concerned with everything non-Fenway right now. With the Washington Commanders up for sale, and the NBA looking to potentially expand to Las Vegas, or back to Seattle, it is clear those priorities are at the top of FSG's list.
The next order of business is to get Devers locked up for as long as possible. I could care less how much it is for, as long as he is here for the long run. By letting Xander go, that just got more difficult, and even more expensive. If you fail once again, just sell the team. You would become so unserious that no one would care anymore. This pattern of paying random players to come to Boston, but then not paying your homegrown guys needs to end. It starts with Devers. I am already ready for the news that the Red Sox have signed either Dansby Swanson or Carlos Correa. It would be the most on-brand thing of all time. They essentially did it last year with Trevor Story. That money that will go to them should have gone to Xander.
I shouldn't be surprised that this happened. Still does not mean it hurts my heart and soul. You got rid of Mookie so you could pay Xander. Now you have both. In a perfect world, FSG goes the Steve Cohen route, and Mookie, Xander, and Devers would all be here, rich, and under contract for years. Instead, we just have Devers who remains unsigned. The only hope this team has left is to sign him. So get it done.
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