The Boston Red Sox’s front office has kept busy in the early goings of the season.
Boston came to terms on a five-year contract extension with ace lefty Chris Sale before the start of the regular season. At that point, Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski seemed to hint that Opening Day would be the cutoff for any contract talks.
But the Red Sox announced Monday that they also have extended shortstop Xander Bogaerts to a six-year, $120 million deal. Those talks, Dombrowski told the Boston Herald’s Jason Mastrodonato, started before Opening Day, with only a few final details needing to get sorted out once the season started. Dombrowski was not sure if the deal would get done.
“We really didn’t bend it very much because it started Opening Day, the negotiations,” Dombrowski said. “They were still taking place during Chris Sale’s press conference. I didn’t think we’d get this deal done. It started coming into focus a couple days beforehand. So, we had basically said Opening Day it would be done. We did close it off Opening Day. It was Opening Night. We played the game. Then it was getting the physical done, then we had to wait to get the physical results back because we were on the West Coast.”
Now with the shortstop locked up, Dombrowski confirmed that the Sox are done with contract talks for the time being.
“No, I am pretty certain,” Dombrowski said. “We have no ongoing conversations.”
Rick Porcello headlines players set to hit free agency at the end of the season, while J.D. Martinez also can opt out of his deal at season’s end. And lest we forget Mookie Betts’ impending free agency after the 2020 season.
But at the moment, it seems the Red Sox’s focus has shifted toward defending their world championship.
