The Red Sox have insulted their two best players with absurd low-ball contract offers, according to reports. They are apparently $100 million apart from Rafael Devers, and offered Xander Bogaerts a lone additional year instead of an actual extension, says MLB Insider Jon Heyman. So here we are: On the morning of Opening Day, there is an ominous cloud hanging over Fenway.
And the Red Sox are seemingly content to let it sit there. They’re losing the perception war, just like many times before.
Heyman’s bombshell report in the New York Post about the Red Sox dissing Devers and Bogaerts was presented in contrast to the Yankees, who also haven’t re-signed their big homegrown star, Aaron Judge. The Yankees and Judge are reportedly $75 million apart in their negotiations — a hefty gap indeed.
But Heyman’s story is far more sympathetic to the Yankees. He quotes a friend of Bogaerts’ who called the Red Sox’ offer a “slap in the face,” while remarking the Yankees’ bid to Judge is “almost universally seen as reasonable or better by folks around the game.”
Unlike Brian Cashman, who told reporters last week the Yankees offered Judge an extension of $230.5 million over eight years, Chaim Bloom hasn’t confirmed the Red Sox’ offers to Devers and Bogaerts. On “The Greg Hill Show” Thursday, Bloom acknowledged the Red Sox couldn’t “find alignment” with their two All-Stars, but didn’t provide specifics about the talks.
While most executives understandably don’t prefer to negotiate with players in public, the downside of secrecy is that hearsay often fills the information gaps. Maybe the Red Sox really did only present Bogaerts with an additional year at $30 million, on top of his three remaining years at $20 million per, making their offer four years and $90 million.
If that’s the case, they deserve to be excoriated. As the Globe’s Alex Speier notes, Bogaerts outperformed Corey Seager and Francisco Lindor from 2019-21 — in terms of batting average, on-base and slugging percentage — and they’ve each recently signed deals north of $300 million. It’s almost unconscionable that Bloom, a Yale graduate, would misread the market that badly.
That’s one reason why Lou Merloni says he isn’t buying Heyman’s report. “It doesn’t make any sense,” Merloni said on his show Thursday. “Who in God’s name is going to offer Xander a deal for four years, $90 million?”
The Red Sox don’t have anybody — surreptitiously or publicly — making their case. Heyman reports Devers is looking for an “ultra-long deal that would have made him a ‘Red Sox for life.’” But what does that mean? Maybe Devers wanted a 14-year commitment, ala Fernando Tatis Jr. That information would change the calculation.
Instead, the Red Sox are getting walloped — just like when they traded Mookie Betts.
Ultimately, none of this early season perception will matter if the Red Sox reach agreements with Devers and/or Bogaerts. But they can make it easier for themselves. That’s what Cashman did: the Yankees GM fired a preemptive strike. He knew information about Judge’s negotiations would likely leak out, so he shared the Yankees’ offer himself.
The Red Sox would be wise to try some more forthrightness, unless they’re embarrassed to tell their side.
