All the talk for the Red Sox has been Xander Bogaerts for the shortstop’s performance at the plate and his future in Boston.
Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom has said the team’s offseason plans have the 29-year-old’s All-Star future in “front of mind.” Bogaerts and his agent, Scott Boras, have decided not to discuss plans in-season — the shortstop has the option to opt out of his deal in the winter and test free agency. Other Major League Baseball teams, of course, would be interested in Bogaerts.
Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy praised Bogaerts’ impact on the organization Wednesday.
“First of all, what a great, consistent performance we’ve seen from the class of the Red Sox organization in Xander Bogaerts,” Kennedy told NESN’s Tom Caron, as seen on the network’s pregame coverage. “Ever since he’s came to this organization in 2013, he’s been so reliable and just a mainstay for us. We appreciate him so much. Actually saw him this afternoon and had a chance to just chat a little bit, reinforced the direction of where we’re going and trying to do. We’ll try to continue to have conversations with and his representatives.”
While Kennedy could not say what was being said in conversations with Bogaerts, Caron asked if there is a positive takeaway from the talks with the four-time All-Star and Silver Slugger.
“He’s unbelievable. He’s such a first class professional,” Kennedy said. “He actually asked me what was going on with (manager) Jürgen Klopp over in Liverpool. He’s just dialed into everything that is going in the Fenway Sports Group world. We were just talking about ideas of how we can improve, how we can get better as a front office, things we can do to improve in every area and just wanted to reinforce to him how we feel about him. He means a lot to us, but I think even he is tired of hearing the talk. The fans are probably tired of it, so we’ll let Chaim and his representatives have negotiations at the appropriate time.”
Bogaerts and the Red Sox will hope to finish the season strong as the shortstop noted it could be an emotional finale to the 2022 season. The 29-year-old hopes to become the American League leader in batting average.
