Xander Bogaerts Reflects on Red Sox Contract Talks: 'I Didn't Get My Hopes Up'
Xander Bogaerts spent the first 10 years of his Major League Baseball career with the Boston Red Sox, so when chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said in December that extending the star shortstop's contract was a "top priority," there was at least some hope the two sides could hammer out a deal.
Bloom even went as far as to say the Red Sox wanted to build around Bogaerts and keep him in the fold for years to come, per Sean McAdam of Boston Sports Journal:
"That's no different than where we've been. Our position hasn't changed on that. I've said this before, but nothing I say really matters unless there's a deal. But our position has been the same—that we want to keep him here for a long time and we want him here on a deal that we're going to look back on and say, 'This was great for everybody.' ... We want to build around him and win."
The Red Sox ultimately never made a competitive contract offer to Bogaerts, who opted out of the final three seasons and $60 million on his Red Sox contract following the 2022 campaign.
The two-time World Series champion went on to sign an 11-year, $280 million deal with the San Diego Padres as a free agent in December.
Reflecting on negotiations with the Red Sox on Baseball Isn't Boring with WEEI's Rob Bradford (h/t WEEI's Ryan Gilbert), Bogaerts said Boston had a weird way of showing that he was their top priority this winter:
"Saying it and showing it I think it's two different stuff, and obviously they have a little different way of showing it. I didn't get my hopes up. I remember in spring training, Scott [Boras, his agent] approached me about an extension offer. I was like 'Alright, let's see what's going on,' and then when he came back with the offer it's like 'Aw s--t, this is pretty rough.' A little disappointing, to be honest…
"With them saying top priority and they're so interested, they want you back. Showing it is a little different."
Before the 2022 season, the Red Sox offered the five-time Silver Slugger a contract that would have paid him $90 million over four years. The deal would have went through 2026 and paid him just $2.5 million more than the $20 million he was making last season.
One of Bogaerts' friends told Jon Heyman of the New York Post in April that the four-year offer was viewed as a "slap in the face."
Shortly after the 30-year-old's deal with the Padres was announced, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reported Boston's final offer to Bogaerts was "really far" from the deal he agreed to with the Padres and that the Red Sox did not even offer the shortstop a deal worth $200 million.
Bogaerts had been a staple in Boston's lineup since 2013, and he was the second star player after Mookie Betts that the franchise let walk away, seemingly unwilling to meet the contract demands.
The Red Sox likely figured they could plug that hole with Trevor Story, a lifelong shortstop who played second base for the franchise in 2022, but the former Colorado Rockie underwent elbow surgery in January and it's unclear if he'll play this season.
With Bogaerts in San Diego and Story on the injured list, the Red Sox are expected to start Kiké Hernández at shortstop. Hernández isn't bad by any means, but he's certainly no Bogaerts.
