Red Sox Rumors: Xander Bogaerts Contract Offer Seen as 'Serious Mistake' Within Team
May 18, 2022
Some within the Boston Red Sox organization reportedly hope the front office will admit it made a mistake with shortstop Xander Bogaerts.
"There are voices in the organization who really, really hope that the team's ownership is willing to admit the spring offer to Bogaerts of a one-year extension was a serious mistake and pay the homegrown shortstop," Buster Olney of ESPN reported Wednesday.
While Bogaerts signed a six-year, $120 million extension in 2019, he can opt out of the deal after this season. Boston offered him the one-year extension in spring training that would have locked him into a new four-year, $90 million contract.
The writing may be on the wall for Bogaerts' future with the Red Sox, considering Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported one of the shortstop's friends said, "He's going to leave," earlier this month.
Heyman also noted one of Bogaerts' friends called the one-year extension offer a "slap in the face."
Bogaerts' agent, Scott Boras, told Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe on Tuesday that negotiations will "definitively" wait until after the season. That echoes what the player said in April.
"I can't do nothing about it right now," Bogaerts said, per ESPN's Joon Lee. "I got a season coming up in front of me. I don't want to put my teammates with that kind of distraction. They don't deserve it. We had time to get something done. It didn't work out."
Lee reported Bogaerts sought a deal from the Red Sox that would pay him around what Carlos Correa ($35.1 million annually with the Minnesota Twins), Francisco Lindor ($34.1 million annually with the New York Mets) and Corey Seager ($33 million annually with the Texas Rangers) make.
Despite previous assertions that Opening Day was something of a deadline for the negotiations, Bogaerts recently told Abraham the Red Sox could come up with "something that's fair" in discussions with Boras.
From Boston's perspective, it has Trevor Story, who can slide from second base to his natural shortstop position next year if Bogaerts doesn't return.
Still, the incumbent shortstop is a four-time Silver Slugger and three-time All-Star who helped lead the Red Sox to two World Series titles. He is also off to an excellent start to the season while slashing .338/.399/.466 and posting three home runs and 15 RBI.
Considering he is just 29 years old and playing at such a high level, he will likely make more on the open market if he opts out of his deal, which would otherwise run through 2026 and pay him $20 million per year, after this season.