DHL Dan CXLIX - Swing And A Miss On Bogaerts

Shank covers the recent signings (and non-signings) of the Boston Red Sox as they gear up for 2023:

Xander Bogaerts leaving is the latest blow to an enraged Red Sox Nation, and other thoughts

TUCSON — Picked-up pieces while contemplating an Opening Day lineup of Yoshida, Hernandez, Devers, Story, Verdugo, Casas, Hosmer, Arroyo, and Wong.

Yuck.

▪ A lot of you went to bed Wednesday night feeling better about the Red Sox. They’d picked up a legit closer in Kenley Jansen and spent some real money to acquire outfielder Masataka Yoshida from Japan. There was even word from the Winter Meetings of new contract talks with Xander Bogaerts.

Then, while you were sleeping, it was reported that Bogaerts agreed to an 11-year, $280 million deal with the Padres.

An abused and enraged Red Sox Nation awoke to soul-crushing news of another cornerstone player gone with little coming in return. The notion that ownership cares more about money than winning was reinforced.

The Red Sox can afford to keep their best players. They just won’t do it anymore.

Not if it's going to be a contract lasting over a decade, which ought to be understandable. Three other teams are supposed to have been ready with similar bids but a 10+ year contract for a guy who's 30 isn't very logical. Let the other teams chase and likely overspend.

DHL Dan CXXV - Goners?

Shank takes a look at the contract situations of key members of the Red Sox:

It already seems impossible to get away from Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts contract talk, and other thoughts

NEW YORK — Picked-up pieces while back in New York for the first time in 2½ years …

▪ Two days into a new baseball season and it seems impossible to get away from contract talk. Is Xander Bogaerts going to opt out at the end of this season? Is Rafael Devers gone after 2023? Why won’t the Red Sox just pony up and sign their homegrown stars to whopping contract extensions?

Fair or unfair, this is a reality as the Red Sox start their season in Yankee Stadium. It’s been hard to focus on competitive baseball issues — such as the questionable quality of Alex Cora’s starting rotation and bullpen.

Money was on everyone’s minds at Yankee Stadium for Friday’s opener. Bogaerts and Devers had acknowledged that spring negotiations with the Sox went nowhere. Both said they didn’t want to negotiate during the season. And once the game started, everything they did felt like a referendum on their worth to the franchise.

I get the feeling neither one of them will re-sign with the Sox, the way it's going now.

DHL Dan CXXIII - Show Him The Money!

Shank's latest 'effort' takes a look at Xander Bogaerts and whether he'll get a nice new contract:

Xander Bogaerts deserves a lucrative extension from the Red Sox, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while watching the NCAA basketball tournament …

▪ “We Take Care of Our Own.”

Rock bard Bruce Springsteen wrote this in 2012, and there are varying interpretations, but in the baseball spring of 2022, it’s clear that the Boston Red Sox — finally again spending like the big-market team they are — need to take care of their own as they prepare to launch the new season.

Sign Xander Bogaerts to a contract extension. As soon as possible. Lock him down from now until the end of the decade. Keep him in the fold.

Bogaerts is the Red Sox’ Patrice Bergeron. He is their Steve Grogan. He is their John Havlicek (OK, not quite that talented or impactful, but you get the idea).

Nice backhanded compliment!

A reader noted Shank's 'efforts' since the baseball work stoppage was resolved. We now have four columns in just under two weeks, for those keeping score at home.

DHL Dan CIX - The Next Guy Outta Town?

The leadoff subject for Shank's latest Picked Up Pieces column is Xander Boagerts and whether he's going to stay with the Red Sox:

A sweep for Boston, but here’s hoping Xander Bogaerts doesn’t get the Mookie Betts treatment

Pretty good Wednesday. The Bruins closed out the Hurricanes, 2-1, to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Celtics spanked the Sixers, 128-101, to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round series. And the lowly Red Sox snapped a nine-game losing streak with a 6-3 win at home against the Phillies.

Some picked up pieces from three games in front of the flat screen . . .

▪ Mookie Betts. Now Xander Bogaerts? Say it ain’t so, Red Sox.

The estimable Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic floated the trade rumor this week, noting that the period between now and Aug. 31 represents Boston’s last chance to move Bogaerts without the shortstop’s approval. Bogaerts will reach seven years of service Sept. 6, which means he can veto any deal after this trading deadline passes.

Bogaerts is signed to a team-friendly six-year, $120 million contract, but has an opt-out after 2022. If things don’t improve on Jersey Street, abandoning the Red Sox might be an attractive alternative to any good player who’s still here in 2022.

Sox CEO Sam Kennedy and baseball boss Chaim Bloom say no Sox player is untouchable. Kennedy is quick to remind us of the Nomar Garciaparra bombshell from 2004.

And we're quick to remind you about Shank's involvement in that whole shitshow.

The rest of the column is what you'd expect - lots of subjects covered in minute form, plenty of grousing, etc.

Fake Praise?

I'm inclined to think that columns like this one are designed to lessen his reputation as a relentlessly negative asshole.

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Red Sox made it official Monday. They have extended the contract of Xander Bogaerts to the tune of six years and $120 million.

I love this move. It works on every level.

Bogaerts would have been a free agent at the end of this season. The Sox have no ready backup in their system. Letting Bogaerts play out his contract was a big risk. Now they know who’s going to be playing shortstop through 2025, potentially 2026. Ambassador Bogaerts will join Johnny Pesky, Rico Petrocelli, Rick Burleson, and Nomar Garciaparra as Red Sox shortstop royalty.

You can almost see Shank gritting his teeth when he typed out 'Nomar Garciaparra', can't you? I know I can!

Don't Bogaerts Our Joint

Are you scared yet?

You should be. At least that's what The CHB thinks.

"Where’s the panic" over the pending free agency and potential departure of Xander Bogaerts, he demands. "Where’s the outrage?"

Uh, we're Red Sox fans. Our boys are starting the current century much like we started the last one. They've won four World Series in 15 years, the same pace as in the 1900s, when they won four between 1903 and 1917. We have nothing to fear, except overwrought sports hacks.

So who cares if the Sox lost Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester and Mo Vaughn to bigger deals in other towns? Ellsbury and Vaughn were busts. We could have used Lester, but would anyone today truly trade Lester for Sale?

And when Danny boy refers to Red Sox management as "smarter-than-everybody," the snark is meaningless. They are smarter than everybody. Or did the glow reflecting off the four World Series trophies induce momentary insanity in our resident critic?

No, "Nomar Garciaparra is not walking through that door." Ignoring, for the moment, that The CHB whined incessantly that Nomar was an untouchable fraud, let's just thank god Shank is, for once, correct. After all, Nomie is 45 and has been out of baseball since 2009.

But those who actually, you know, watch the games instead of the beer line have long since figured out that the Red Sox are the best organization in baseball. Hyperventilating over what could happen is no longer necessary.

Oh, and in case history repeats, the Red Sox were champs again in 1918. But I think The CHB already knows that.

If You Dig Deep Enough You'll Hit Some Rocks

He really is a relentlessly negative asshole, isn't he?

FORT MYERS, Fla. — So there. It’s all true. We weren’t making it up last summer/fall when we told you that the first-place 2017 Red Sox were sour, unhappy, dysfunctional, and headed for a fall. A couple of Sox everyday stalwarts gave voice to it Thursday morning at JetBlue Park before the second official workout for pitchers and catchers.

“We had a lot of stuff going on last year,’’ acknowledged Xander Bogaerts, a veteran of the 2013 world champion Red Sox.

Could he be a little more specific?

“I mean, we all know,’’ Bogaerts said. “We all know what was going on. I don’t think I want to get into details, but that’s what I said.

“The quicker we move on, the better for all of us. We should look forward to this year. It’s a new year. We should try to reach the playoffs again and get over that first round.’’

The problem right now is that Shank will not move on, until John Henry calls Shank into his office and tells him to knock this shit off.

The Obligatory Xander Bogaerts Column

Now that Shank's doing his second Florida go-round, expect him to do what he does every year - focus on one Red Sox player when writing a column.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — He’s still only 24 years old, but we think of him now as almost part of the Fenway furniture. There’s the Green Monster in left, the Citgo sign behind the Monster, Pesky’s Pole in right, and Xander Bogaerts anchoring shortstop for the Boston Red Sox.

Bogaerts and Dustin Pedroia are the only remaining veterans from the 2013 World Series roster, and young Bogey trails only Pedroia in continuous service with this Boston ball club.

Don't Bogaerts His Thunder

Xander Bogaerts is "as close to a sure thing as you'll get in baseball."

So sayeth The CHB.

He also sayeth, "The last Sox player who came to the big leagues with this much expectation was Roger Clemens."

Huh. Doth he forget Frankie Rodriguez, who was Baseball America's College Player of the Year and who led college baseball in homers and RBIs in 1991, and whom the Red Sox had to agree that he could play shortstop and pitch in order to sign him? Ellis Burks? Mo Vaughn, who like Rodriguez was a Baseball America Top 10 Prospect? Trot Nixon, the Baseball America High School Player of the Year the season the Red Sox signed him?

The last Sox player who came to the big leagues with this much expectation was Roger Clemens, and Clemens wound up winning 192 games for Boston," Shank says.

Wrong again. Two words: Daisuke Matsuzaka.