Xander Bogaerts Rejected A Contract Offer From Red Sox, Won't Negotiate New Deal During Season
BOSTON (CBS) -- The last time Xander Bogaerts signed a contract extension with the Red Sox, he signed on the dotted line after the season began. That will not be happening this time around.
Bogaerts can -- and will -- opt out of the final four years of the six-year, $120 million extension that he signed with Boston in 2019. The two sides could not reach an agreement on a new deal for the shortstop this offseason, and Bogaerts made it clear Thursday that negotiations will not continue once the season gets underway.
"Nah. Nah," Bogaerts said inside Yankee Stadium when asked if an in-season extension was possible.
This feels a lot like the Mookie Betts situation of a couple of years ago, which ended with Betts being dealt to the L.A. and signing a massive new deal with the Dodgers. Chances are Bogaerts won't be traded anytime soon, but this likely means that he won't be returning to the only team that he's ever played for in 2023.
"I can't do nothing about it right now. I got a season coming up in front of me and I don't want to put any of my teammates in that type of distraction," Bogaerts said Thursday, as he prepares for Friday's Opening Day tilt with the Yankees. "They don't deserve that. We had time to get something done and it didn't work out."
Bogaerts said that Boston did make him an offer this offseason. But it clearly wasn't enough to keep him from hitting the free agent market next winter.
"It didn't work out and we'll see how it goes from here," said Bogaerts.
Chances are he is looking for a much bigger deal than the bargain pact he signed with the Red Sox three years ago, which would pay him $20 million per season through 2026 if he opts back in. That's a bargain for a player of Bogaerts' caliber, and he's likely looking for a bigger deal than what Chaim Bloom and company were offering this spring.
We'll see if the Red Sox are willing to up the ante in the offseason, or if Bogaerts has a change of heart after his 10th season in Boston.
The Red Sox initially signed Bogaerts as an amateur free agent in 2009 when he was just 16 years old. He debuted for Boston in August 2013, and a few months later helped the club win a World Series.
He's been Boston's starting shortstop since 2014, earning three All-Star nods, four Silver Slugger awards and another World Series ring in 2018. For a while, it seemed like Bogaerts would be in Boston for the rest of his career, but that no longer seems like the likely outcome.