Xander Bogaerts is a client of Scott Boras. The infamous agent typically does not have his clients sign contract extensions before they hit free agency, but it appears he could be open to the idea for Bogaerts and the Boston Red Sox.
Rumors prior to the 2015 season surrounded Bogaerts and whether or not he was poised for a breakout year. The 22-year-old made a name for himself during the 2013 postseason, but followed that up with a less-than-stellar 2014 campaign, during which he batted .240/.297/.362 with 60 runs scored, 12 home runs and 46 RBIs in 144 games.
In 2015 the shortstop is hitting .325/.356/.429 with 77 runs scored, 7 home runs, 78 RBIs and 10 stolen bases in 144 games.
And now, even though he can't become a free agent until after the 2019 season, rumors will perhaps focus on his future with the team after Boras' comments.
"Look, I always tell every team and every player, we're an open door," Boras told Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. "Anything they want to look at and offer, and then the player just has to make his judgments, so we evaluate that."
However, if that were to be a realistic option, it won't be cheap.
"So I did all of these studies of him and even a great player like [Derek] Jeter, he was more home runs, more RBIs, and he's made more playing time in the big leagues at 22 than Jeter had. So when you're talking about a player at that level, that great, to be ahead of him in many ways, you can really see where Xander and the organization in combination have worked hard to get him to that level, so it's nice to see."
Aside from that, Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe points out some pretty impressive statistics that fall in favor of the 22-year-old.
"Bogaerts is hitting .322. His 180 hits are the most for a Red Sox player before turning 23 since Ted Williams had 193 in 1940," he wrote earlier this week.
"Bogaerts has the highest batting average and OPS (.771) among qualified AL
shortstops.
"He also is among the leaders in defensive efficiency, having saved the Red Sox two runs with his glove, according to data collected by Baseball Info Solutions."
Obviously the Red Sox have nothing to worry about for the next four seasons, but either way they'll be paying for Bogaerts whether it's through a contract extension in the near future or when he hits baseball's lucrative arbitration system.
It's just interesting to think if new president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski would be open to giving Bogaerts a long-term deal that covers the youngster's arbitration years as well as some of his free agency years.
We'll see if anything comes out of Boras' comments.
