Shortstop Xander Bogaerts and the San Diego Padres agreed to an 11-year, $280 million contract late Wednesday, sources confirmed to ESPN, a game-changing move that brings the longtime Boston Red Sox leader to a team already overloaded with star talent.
The surprising deal, consummated as an especially active winter meetings came to a end, adds Bogaerts to a Padres team that already includes the likes of Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. The Red Sox, meanwhile, were left mourning the loss of a talent they drafted and molded, who made his major league debut at the tender age of 20 years old and leaves a decade later at 30 after choosing to opting out of the remaining three years of his contract.
Bogaerts was a key contributor on two World Series teams and selected to four All-Star games, including in 2022, when he hit .307/.377/.456 with 15 home runs and 73 RBIs in 150 games. The thought going forward is that he will stay at the shortstop position, with Ha-Seong Kim, who took over at the position in this past season when Tatis was injured and suspended for a positive performance-enhancing-drug test, moving to second base, incumbent second baseman Jake Cronenworth sliding over to first, Tatis shifting to right field and Soto going to left field.
The deal, which runs through Bogaerts’ age-40 season, capped a winter meeting during which organizations signed 18 players for nearly $1.6 billion, including the New York Yankees locking up outfielder Aaron Judge for $360 million, the Philadelphia Phillies signing shortstop Trea Turner for $300 million and the Red Sox spending more than $105 million, between his salary and the posting fee to his former team in Japan, to add outfielder Masataka Yoshida.
Bogaerts came into the winter as one of the highly sought-after prizes of a deep free agent class. After making attempts to acquire Turner and Judge, the Padres turned to Bogaerts, not deterred by the cost to sign him nor the domino effect his arrival might cause.
With this contract, the Padres’ payroll grows exponentially to more than $250 million, a startling number for a team with the 27th-ranked media market in the country.
Boston, which more often than not, has among the largest payrolls in the game, declined to pay anywhere near the financial avenue to which the Padres were willing to go. On a day in which the Red Sox agreed to a deal with Yoshida as well as a two-year, $32 million pact with closer Kenley Jansen, they found themselves having to part ways with another high-profile, popular player just two after trading outfielder Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The whispers that Bogaerts could leave Boston had percolated after he turned down a contract extension earlier this year. The opt-out in Bogaerts’ six-year, $120 million contract extension hung over the Red Sox head like the sword of Damocles, threatening to take away another crucial piece of the team that won the World Series in 2018 and made the American League Championship Series in 2021 before falling to last place in the AL East this year.
As the Red Sox went into rebuild mode, the Padres ascended into championship contention, with a number of moves bigger and bolder than the last. First, they signed Machado to a 10-year, $300 million free agent contract prior to the 2019 season. Two years later, they gave Tatis a 14-year, $340 million extension. And at the trade deadline this year, they dealt five prospects for Soto, who turned down a $440 million contract extension offer from his previous team, the Washington Nationals, and can reach free agency after the 2024 season.
Without the services of Tatis, the Padres won 89 games and secured a wild-card berth, finishing 22 games back of the first-place Dodgers in the National League West. San Diego pulled off a stunner, defeating the 101-win New York Mets in the wild-card series, vanquished the Dodgers in the division series and lost the NL Championship Series to the Phillies, who lost the World Series to the Houston Astros.
The Padres last trip to the World Series was back in 1998, getting swept 4-0 by the Yankees, and have yet to win a championship since their inception in 1969. Now the only major men’s professional sports team in San Diego, the Padres have monopolized the city, capping season-ticket sales and regularly filling Petco Park as they fell just shy of 3 million attendees, the fifth-highest number in baseball behind the Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, Yankees and Atlanta Braves.
The amount the Padres were willing to spend to sign Bogaerts nevertheless, sent shockwaves through the baseball community. While Machado can opt out of his contract after the 2023 campaign and the Padres are expected to shed nearly $60 million in payroll beyond him with the impending free agencies of pitchers Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Josh Hader and Drew Pomeranz, the financial three-card monte in which they are engaging left rival executives questioning their long-term plan.
The Padres pay no attention to outside opinions. Moving Kim and his elite glovework at shortstop to second for Bogaerts, who scouts and defensive metrics agree is inferior defensively? No problem. Depleting their elite farm system for the final 2½ years of Soto’s club control? The price of building a championship-caliber team.
Bogaerts is no stranger to what World Series rings look like, collecting a pair in his 10-year career, during which he has hit .292/.356/.458 with 156 home runs and 683 RBIs while being durable, playing at least 136 games in each of his eight full seasons. The ability to stay healthy proved a hallmark for Bogaerts, who signed with the Red Sox out of Aruba as a 16-year-old, fast-tracked to the major leagues and became a staple in the lineup with a sweet right-handed swing oriented for contact and damage.
Now he will join a lineup that, despite the star power, ranked only 13th in the major leagues with 705 runs. The addition of Bogaerts and return of Tatis should supercharge it.
Boston, meanwhile, faces serious questions about its present and future.
The Red Sox could move second baseman Trevor Story to his natural position at shortstop, though the velocity on his throws, according to scouts, could hinder his effectiveness there a year after he signed a six-year, $140 million free agent deal. Boston also needs to figure out the future of star third baseman Rafael Devers, a 26-year-old who can hit free agency market at the conclusion of the 2023 season and is expected to garner over $300 million. The Red Sox and Devers remain far apart in their negotiations, sources said.
MLB Network first reported the agreement between Bogaerts and the Padres.
