By: Harold Klapper
Xander Bogaerts was the secret weapon of the magical 2018 season for the Boston Red Sox. He quietly posted the best season of his career and was one of the best shortstops in the league. Due to the presence of MVP winner RF Mookie Betts and MVP candidate DH J.D. Martinez, his work didn’t gain the attention it deserved. In this article, we’ll break down his contributions last season, what he means to the team, and his recent contract extension.
To put it simply, Xander Bogaerts had the best year of his career in 2018. He had a batting average of .288 and had 103 RBI’s. This, paired with 23 HR’s, an OBP of .360, and .522 SLG made his season very accomplished offensively. Not to mention that all of these categories were career high numbers for Bogaerts. Just by looking at his stats it’s clear that he was extremely valuable to his ball club. But, not only was Bogaerts consistent last season, he was clutch as well. His batting average with two outs and runners in scoring position was .309 and his batting average in the ninth inning was .371. His consistency and clutch factor make him an asset that the Red Sox needed to win games. If Betts or Martinez couldn’t step up for any given reason, Bogaerts was there to either get a hit or come through in a clutch moment.
Consistency and a clutch factor are both very important, but what does Xander Bogaerts exactly mean for the Red Sox? He is the player that turns a great lineup into a championship caliber one. The Red Sox have players such as Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez who are in a class of their own, but Bogaerts is arguably the third best player in the lineup. Unlike other players such as LF Andrew Benintendi and CF Jackie Bradley Jr., Bogaerts didn’t go through cold streaks and always stayed relatively productive. Even more important than the regular season, Bogaerts has had meaningful postseason play. In the 2018 World Series run he had a batting average of .307 and knocked in 7 RBI’s. His contributions in both the regular season and postseason make Xander Bogaerts a necessary asset for the Red Sox if they want a chance at repeating as champions this year.
Six years, 120 million dollars. This is the contract Bogaerts agreed to on April 1st, 2019. This move is surprising for a couple of reasons. The first one being that Bogaerts is set to be a free agent next offseason. As next winter rolls around, Bogaerts would be the best shortstop available on the market and would have been able to get a larger contract than the Red Sox gave him. It’s confusing as to why he would take the six year extension when he could get much better value in the upcoming offseason so long as he has a similar season to the one he had in 2018. The Red Sox definitely got a team friendly deal with Bogaerts and slightly undervalued him. The second reason this deal comes at an odd time is that Betts and J.D. Martinez both have the option to go onto the market soon as well. With 20 million dollars a year allocated to Bogaerts it seems that it would be hard to keep both MVP caliber players. The Red Sox decided they should keep their budding star in Bogaerts and play the waiting game in regards to Betts and Martinez. No matter what the motive was for both parties, the Red Sox scored a team friendly deal and secured the shortstop that played a large part in them winning the World Series for the next six years.
Xander Bogaerts will be the ‘X’ factor for the Red Sox for years to come.
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