Report: Red Sox offer to Bogaerts felt like 'a slap'
The Boston Red Sox could have kept Xander Bogaerts but instead made him an offer that felt like "a slap," a source close to the shortstop told ESPN's Joon Lee.
Last season before spring training, Bogaerts would have seriously considered accepting an extension similar to the six-year, $140-million contract the Red Sox gave Trevor Story, a source told Lee. Instead, the Red Sox offered Bogaerts an additional year and $30 million on top of the three years and $60 million left on his existing deal.
Bogaerts didn't sign an extension and exercised an opt-out in his contract to join free agency this offseason after putting together a solid 2022 campaign, posting the fourth-highest fWAR among shortstops.
The 30-year-old wound up signing an 11-year, $280-million contract with the San Diego Padres on Dec. 7 after spending his entire career with Boston, where he won two World Series titles.
Bogaerts is the second homegrown star the Red Sox have lost since Chaim Bloom took over as chief baseball officer in 2019. Bloom traded superstar outfielder Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers prior to the 2020 season.
The Red Sox and another of their star players, Rafael Devers, are also "galaxies apart" in contract negotiations, according to Lee's sources.
Devers and his camp expect he'll become a free agent at the end of the 2023 campaign.