Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom went to work on the workforce’s looming public relations catastrophe on Monday in Las Vegas.
After Xander Bogaerts opted out of his team-friendly contract and formally turned a free agent, Bloom informed reporters on the GM Meetings that Bogaerts stays the workforce’s “first choice; that’s not going to change.”
But Bloom additionally informed reporters that the Sox have explored the thought of Trevor Story or Kiké Hernandez taking part in shortstop, simply as they’re exploring different free agent shortstops like Trea Turner, Carlos Correa and Dansby Swanson.
“He’s our first choice. That’s not going to change,” Bloom mentioned of Bogaerts. “But part of our jobs is to explore every option to field a contending team next year and put together a really good group. We need to explore every possible way to do that, but Bogey’s our first choice.”
In addition to Bogaerts, the Red Sox made some information concerning a number of different gamers on Monday:
The Sox declined a $12 million mutual possibility on outfielder Tommy Pham and paid him $1.5 million in a buyout, as first reported by the Globe. Pham was acquired by the Reds mid-season and hit .234 with a .672 OPS. The 34-year-old had a .686 OPS total on the yr.
Bloom informed reporters the Sox declined a two-year workforce, $26-million possibility on lefty James Paxton, who made $6 million in 2022 however didn’t throw a single pitch whereas recovering from Tommy John surgical procedure. He now has a $4 million participant possibility he can decide into, however Paxton would possibly be capable to fetch extra from a workforce on the lookout for a buy-low possibility. The 34-year-old final pitched a full season in 2019, when he went 15-6 with a 3.82 ERA for the Yankees.
Chris Sale and Eric Hosmer each declined to decide out of their remaining offers, which was no shock. Sale has two years, $55 million remaining on his contract whereas Hosmer has three years, $39 million, although the Padres are paying the whole lot of Hosmer’s wage.
Source: www.bostonherald.com