Xander Bogaerts has it better than most during the coronavirus pandemic. After all, he’s staying in his native Aruba, a tropical paradise many quarantined citizens can only dream about right now.
The Boston Red Sox shortstop isn’t without restrictions, though, which he explained last week in an interview with GQ.
“It’s not as bad because we don’t have so many people, but they’ve locked down almost everything,” Bogaerts said. “You’ve got to be home at 9 p.m. If the cops see you on the road, they pick you up. There are strict guidelines.”
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So, what’s an “average day” look like for Bogaerts?
Well, GQ posed that question, and Bogaerts’ routine doesn’t sound all that different than what everyone else has going on nowadays: Basically, a whole lot of nothing.
“I don’t wake up at 8 a.m. doing workouts no more because we don’t have a timetable for returning,” Bogaerts told GQ. “I usually wake up and go to my PlayStation right away, playing lots of FIFA and Fortnite. Then I have breakfast, maybe some eggs or cereal, and do a workout afterwards in the afternoon. I don’t have much to do. If it’s not a workout or PlayStation, I’m playing dominoes with my buddies. Here in Aruba, they want you to social distance, so no more than four people in a group.”
The extra downtime doesn’t mean Bogaerts isn’t staying in shape. While it’s unclear when the 2020 Major League Baseball season will begin, Bogaerts told GQ he’s following workouts provided by the Red Sox and throwing with his twin brother, Jair, as much as possible to avoid any rust.
Bogaerts, 27, is coming off an impressive 2019 season in which he batted .309 with a career-high 33 home runs and 117 RBIs en route to a fifth-place finish in American League MVP voting.
