Boras: Blue Jays, Cubs, Twins “Were Really After” Xander Bogaerts

Xander Bogaerts’ first visit to free agency resulted in an 11-year, $280MM deal with the Padres that greatly exceeded projections, even for a player who was expected to land one of the offseason’s biggest contracts.  Agent Scott Boras discussed some of the twists and turns of Bogaerts’ free agent trip with USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, and Boras identified that Bogaerts was San Diego’s second choice, once Trea Turner rejected a reported $342MM offer from the Padres.

Once Turner turned down the Padres’ offer to sign with the Phillies, “we kind of knew the Padres’ guy was Bogaerts,” Boras said.  “They wanted that personality, that leadership in that locker room.”  Left unspoken by Boras was the fact that the Padres were clearly itching to land a big target of some kind, even to the point of considering a $400MM bid for Aaron Judge.  With Judge and Turner off the board, the Padres may have been more willing to go above and beyond to sign Bogaerts, and ensure that their offseason endeavors would include at least one superstar name.

The Red Sox reportedly made a last-ditch effort to sign Bogaerts in the hours preceding his deal with San Diego, though Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom later downplayed the chances that a reunion between Bogaerts and the Red Sox was becoming a possibility.  There were mixed signals from Boston’s ownership and front office all season long about the franchise’s willingness to retain Bogaerts, and from Boras’ perspective, the Red Sox weren’t ever a major bidder.

Inside the Red Sox’s free agency plans after Xander Bogaerts

The ownership group fired Dombrowski before the end of the 2019 season, less than a year after winning the World Series, and mandated the team cut salary in order to reset the luxury tax penalties. In came Bloom—whom Boston hired from the Tampa Bay Rays—with a vision of creating a Dodgers-style of sustained success, spending big money on star players while consistently developing top prospects to fill out the lineup.

It’s pretty funny saying they want a “Dodgers-style of sustained success” when the Red Sox traded Mookie Betts to the Dodgers who signed him. You keep your young superstar players and get them locked up early, you don’t let them dangle until they get close to free agency. (Also see Bogaerts.)

According to multiple sources, Boston’s ownership group did not mandate that Bloom trade Betts to get under the luxury tax. But that is what Bloom ultimately decided to do, with an eye toward increasing the Red Sox’s options in the future. The team traded Betts and Price to Los Angeles for Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong. And Betts eventually signed a 12-year, $365 million contract with the Dodgers—a deal he told ESPN in August that he would have accepted in Boston.

I hope Bloom likes the criticism from multiple sources in the know. I’m sure those sources aren’t owner friendly. /s

Of course, if this is true, Bloom shouldn’t be in charge.

Have we made wrong decisions in the past? Lots of them,” Kennedy said. “You can’t sit around regretting mistakes of the past. That’s not a good recipe. We respect Mookie and it’s a hard decision, but we’ve moved on.”

Sure, you “can’t sit around regretting mistakes of the past.” But, you should remember and learn from them. Repeating the same mistakes over and over don’t point to the latter.

As the team builds the roster for 2023, some within the Red Sox front office have questioned Bloom’s decision-making process, team sources told ESPN. One front-office official said Bloom’s deliberate process toward making moves—asking many people for their input before making a decision—can put the Red Sox in a position to fall behind, reacting to other teams versus setting the market.

“I think we have a culture where people can and do express directly to me when they disagree with something,” Bloom said. “We have a lot of people in the loop on transactions that we make and we have a lot of really good debate. We have a place where people can share their opinion and have it be heard.”

More anonymous sources laying the groundwork for the future.

Anyway, there is a lot of other good stuff in the article, including info about Bogaerts willingness to take an extension after Story signed.

“I’m not sure how to respond to that,” Bloom said. “I certainly think we’ve made some large commitments in the time I’ve been here. For people who would’ve liked to have seen more, that’s their right. I think a lot of circumstances under which I joined the organization really precluded that for a period of time. I would argue we would’ve been worse off certainly prior to 2021 had we listened to people who wanted to see us make a splash instead of building a good baseball team.”

It’s not about the spending for me. It’s about the right spending. A team has to properly evaluate their best young players and get them signed as soon as they can. They can’t fritter away cash on mediocity and not spend money to keep their best homegrown players.

Betts and Bogaerts should have been able to fit within the Red Sox long-term budget. Alas, they can’t go back. Now they either have to overpay to keep Devers or be doomed to repeat the same mistake, again.

Ugh.

Xander Bogaerts, Padres agree to 11-year, $280M deal, sources confirm

Shortstop Xander Bogaerts and the Padres agreed to an 11-year, $280 million contract late Wednesday, sources confirmed to ESPN, a monumental move that brings the longtime Boston Red Sox luminary to a team already laden with star talent.

The stunning deal, consummated as an especially active winter meetings came to a close, adds Bogaerts to a Padres team that already includes Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. Boston, meanwhile, was left lamenting the loss of a homegrown talent who made his major league debut at 20 years old and leaves at 30 after opting out of the final three years of his contract.

Bogaerts won a pair of World Series and made four All-Star teams, including in 2022, when he hit .307/.377/.456 with 15 home runs and 73 RBIs in 150 games. The expectation is he will remain at shortstop, with Ha-Seong Kim—who took over at the position in 2022 when Tatis was injured and suspended for a positive performance-enhancing-drug test—moving to second base, incumbent second baseman Jake Cronenworth sliding over to first, Tatis shifting to right field and Soto going to left field.

Padres, Diamondbacks Among Teams Interested In Xander Bogaerts

Xander Bogaerts is part of a loaded shortstop class, and a number of teams have checked in with his representatives at the Boras Corporation. Jeff Passan of ESPN reports the Diamondbacks and Cubs have expressed interest, while adding that previously-reported suitors like the Phillies and Dodgers are in the mix. Meanwhile, Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reports Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller recently checked in with Scott Boras about Bogaerts’ willingness to play a position other than shortstop. Boras, however, flatly rejected the possibility; the agent tells Rosenthal “Xander is playing shortstop” and denied that San Diego would prefer to move him off the position.

San Diego’s interest in Bogaerts isn’t a new development. Marino Pepén listed the Padres as a suitor last week, while Jon Heyman of the New York Post has suggested they’re involved in the top of the shortstop market more generally. The Friars are seemingly serious enough in their pursuit to gauge Bogaerts’ amenability to move off the position.