The Red Sox historically haven’t been shy about signing young players to long-term contracts to potentially save money down the line, begging the question of whether Boston will take a similar approach with shortstop Xander Bogaerts and/or outfielder Mookie Betts.
Dave Dombrowski said Wednesday at the Major League Baseball winter meetings the club hasn’t explored such deals with either player, though the Red Sox president of baseball operations remains open to the idea. If Dombrowski’s track record is any indication, he’ll likely continue to focus on other issues before circling back to potential negotiations with Bogaerts and/or Betts.
“Dave is rather patient about that,” agent Scott Boras, who represents Bogaerts, told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford of his experiences with Dombrowski about signing players before their free-agent years.
“Dave has always worked for organizations that can sign their players, at any time, whether it be in the fourth year, fifth year, sixth year and free agency. He’s always done that. Because of that, I don’t think there’s any sense of urgency on his part to do things as he goes forward. Obviously, if he thinks it’s time to do something, he will. But he’s the kind of guy, if he values players, he usually retains them, truthfully.”
Bogaerts isn’t set to hit free agency until after the 2019 season and Betts isn’t scheduled to become a free agent until after the 2020 campaign, so there’s certainly no rush, even though signing those players to long-term contracts now, rather than later, could save the Red Sox a few bucks in the long run.
Dombrowski seems more apt to pursue contract extensions once players reach their arbitration years. As Tim Britton of the Providence Journal points out, Dombrowski signed Curtis Granderson to a five-year deal when the outfielder was going into his first year of arbitration with the Detroit Tigers. Dombrowski also gave Miguel Cabrera an eight-year deal when the slugger was two years away from free agency.
Either way, the Red Sox have shown a willingness to explore contract extensions with certain homegrown players well before they hit the open market — see Dustin Pedroia, Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester and Kevin Youkilis — so it’ll be interesting to see if that trend continues under Dombrowski.
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@projo
