Protect Xander Bogaerts at all costs.
The Boston Red Sox shortstop is just about everything you'd ever want in an athlete -- an All-Star on the field (literally) and off it. And the team gets him well below market rate.
Bogaerts in April 2019 signed a six-year extension with the Red Sox worth $120 million guaranteed over the course of the deal. The contract allows him a player opt-out in 2022, suggesting that Bogaerts was willing to take a discount deal in order to stay in Boston.
His agent Scott Boras confirmed as much, telling MLB.com's Ian Browne that Bogaerts made it clear he'd sacrifice to stay with the Red Sox.
"Our job is to listen to our clients," Boras told Browne. "The one thing Xander did for me with that deal is, I said, 'I'll go along with this with you but that opt-out (is a must) where we can take you and put you on the market really before most college players get there.' The contract with (Anthony) Rendon, he was 30. Xander is going to be 29. He still has a very good bite at the apple at a very young age compared to most college players. I think he'll be fine."
If his season next year looks anything like the one he's having in 2021, it's a safe bet Boston will have to dish out a little more to keep the 28-year-old around.
Bogaerts just was named to the All-Star team for the third time in his career, in addition to his two World Series titles, three Silver Slugger Awards and one All-MLB First Team distinction in 2019.
But he also brings a few intangibles, Boras believes.
"Our algorithms are very different from what teams use," he said, via Browne. "For Xander, we have a component, it's kind of a character/skill component. He has one of the highest grades in the Majors. There's nothing about what Xander does that creates interference. He's able to come with a focus and a smile and determination every day. That sounds rather simple, but when you're middle of the lineup and you hit fourth for the Boston Red Sox ... you think about what he's done really four of the last five years, he's a rare Red Sox player.
"There's some great players that you mention to meet that standard, so the fact that these last three years have been better just tells you ... I mean, this guy doesn't go home (to Aruba) in the offseason. He works out. He does all those things to be the best player he can be every day."
Whatever Bogaerts is doing, it's working to make him absolutely beloved in Boston as a player and leader.
Entering the Red Sox's game against the Angels, Bogaerts is batting .321 with 53 runs and 48 RBIs.
