One closing homestand.
One final probability to let him really feel the love.
At some level Wednesday night, Xander Bogaerts will step to the plate for maybe his final time in a Red Sox uniform.
The crowd will stand, folks will cheer, some will cry. Bogaerts will take his time moving into the field and tip his cap.
Chances are, he’ll cry too.
“It will be emotional but I hope we don’t get too emotional,” Red Sox supervisor Alex Cora instructed reporters in Toronto this weekend. “I hope he’s my shortstop for however long I want to manage. That’s the goal here.”
Then Cora stated one thing that should make Red Sox followers sick.
“We like him, we like him a lot, and obviously he has a decision to make first,” Cora stated.
A choice to make? Stop it.
This concept that the Red Sox have been pushing that “Bogaerts has a decision to make” is lunacy. It’s inauthentic. And it’s downright unfair.
Imagine if Bogaerts went to the Red Sox this 12 months and requested for a $50 million annual wage for the subsequent eight years.
The Red Sox would clearly say no. Nobody makes that form of cash in baseball. It’s a ridiculous factor to ask for.
Now think about if Bogaerts spent his closing 12 months with the Red Sox telling newspaper reporters, radio stations and TV channels that hey, possibly he’ll be in Boston, however the Red Sox have a choice to make first.
If they wish to pay him $400 million, he’ll be right here. He’d like to be right here. But the Red Sox have a choice.
Would we take him severely or giggle in his face?
For the Red Sox to proceed espousing this ridiculous concept that Bogaerts goes to remain in Boston with a contract that pays him far lower than what he’s price as a result of the Red Sox are too low cost to provide him a good deal is mistaken.
It’s not honest to the followers, who’re smarter than that. It’s not honest to the crew, which deserves extra honesty from its leaders. And it’s definitely not honest to the participant, who has given every little thing he has to this group and metropolis for greater than a decade.
“We’ve been open about this, we want him back, we want him here,” Cora stated. “Whatever decision he makes and whatever happens after that, we’ll see. It should be fun. We’re not closing the door on a lot of these guys. Everybody thinks that everybody is going to be gone. Some of them are going to be here, some of them aren’t going to be here.”
Fun? Does Cora get it?
Usually he does. He’s a player-first supervisor who does no matter it takes to keep up a wholesome and completely happy clubhouse. But to counsel that these previous couple of days earlier than Bogaerts says goodbye to Boston as a result of they’re too low cost to pay him goes to be enjoyable is completely nuts.
As if the Red Sox didn’t study with Jon Lester or Mookie Betts.
As in the event that they didn’t know what occurs if you preserve attempting to stress a participant into staying in Boston for much less cash than he’s price simply because they know he’s comfy right here, likes it right here and actually needs to remain right here.
Decades in the past, it was much less egregious to counsel that gamers stick with one crew and take rather less cash to take action. Things have been completely different. The sport is completely different now.
Teams personal their very own TV stations and are price billions of {dollars}. Players desire a honest piece of the pie. If superstars take team-friendly offers to remain in a single place eternally, they damage the subsequent man behind him.
That’s why Lester left. That’s why Betts was traded. And that’s why, except the Red Sox come again with an inexpensive supply, Bogaerts will say goodbye to Boston this winter, irrespective of how troublesome that’s for him to do.
It isn’t a choice. It’s a foregone conclusion.
Do we actually must recap the stakes?
He’s the perfect shortstop in franchise historical past. He ranks within the top-10 or top-20 in nearly each statistical measure there may be. His subsequent double, his 309th, will push him previous Dom DiMaggio for ninth in Red Sox historical past behind Jim Rice. His 155 homers rank sixteenth, simply behind Tony Conigliaro and Carlton Fisk. No shortstop in crew historical past has performed in additional video games.
He has two World Series titles.
He’s the man who stands up in entrance of his locker when the crew is in final place and solutions troublesome questions for the group that failed him. He’s the shortstop who recruited Trevor Story to Boston, regardless of realizing very properly that Story would probably change him at his place the next 12 months.
He’s a 30-year-old who continues to be in his prime and solely getting higher. He’s coming off the perfect defensive season of his profession whereas rating within the top-10 in WAR (5.8) and, regardless of enjoying by means of accidents this 12 months, is main all MLB shortstops in nearly each offensive class: common (.305), on-base share (.376), and OPS (.826).
And he’s the man who the Red Sox assume goes to remain in a contract that’ll pay him simply $60 million over the subsequent three years.
It’s a contract that’s lower than half of what he’s price, and Red Sox followers know that.
Bogaerts doesn’t have a choice to make. The Red Sox have a choice to make.
And their disingenuous speaking factors aren’t serving to anyone.
Source: www.bostonherald.com