On Opening Day 2019 the Red Sox batting order looked like this:
Andrew Benintendi LF
Mookie Betts RF
Rafael Devers 3B
J.D. Martinez DH
Xander Bogaerts SS
Mitch Moreland 1B
Eduardo Nunez 2B
Jackie Bradley Jr. CF
Christian Vazquez C
Let’s update that list for today:
Andrew Benintendi LF (Traded to KC – Made an all-star team and won a gold glove)
Mookie Betts RF (Traded to LA – Won a World Series, 2X All-Star, 2x Silver Slugger, 2x Gold Glove 2x Top 5 MVP finishes. The Red Sox TRADED MOOKIE BETTS)
Rafael Devers 3B (Still with the team)
J.D. Martinez DH (Most likely won’t be re-signed but his contract was worth it)
Xander Bogaerts SS (Signed with SD)
Mitch Moreland 1B (Traded to SD in 2019, solid player when he was in BOS)
Eduardo Nunez 2B (Played 60 games and was done after 2020)
Jackie Bradley Jr. CF (Signed with MIL in 2021, had the worst hitting season of any batter that year, re-signed by Boston in 2022, released)
Christian Vazquez C (Traded to HOU, won World Series)
The 2019 Boston Red Sox hit a club-record 245 home runs. JD Martinez led the team with 36. Rafael Devers broke out that year with 30. Mookie Betts eventually settled back in the leadoff spot and added 29.
2019 was also the year when Xander Bogaerts established himself as a top 3 player at his position. His numbers were .309/.384/.555 33 HR 117 RBI 141 OPS+ and a 5.9 fWAR. He finished 5th in MVP voting. It was the best year of his career thus far. In 2021 his fWAR was 6.1 and he finished 9th in MVP voting.
Bogaerts signed a hefty 11-year $280 million dollar deal with the San Diego Padres (good for Don Orsillo). I am not really upset that the Red Sox didn’t match that. That is a huge deal. I’m upset that the Red Sox bungled their way into this mess in the first place by lowballing him along the way with bullshit extension offers and flat-out lies to the fanbase that he was the top priority this off-season. He never should have reached free agency and he should have been locked up for life.
This is the most infuriating part. Beginning with Mookie Betts in 2020, the Red Sox have shown an unwillingness to pay their stars what they deserve. An ownership group that is happy to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins, an F1 team, and until recently owned a Premiere League team. The rumors are flying around that they want to own the NBA expansion team rumored to be heading to Las Vegas. So where do they get this extra cash? They are gouging Red Sox fans with ticket prices and then not paying their best players.
Overpaying David Price, Nathan Eovaldi, and Chris Sale, three injury-prone starters has caused a ripple effect that has sent two of the best Red Sox players this century across the country. The Red Sox are valued at $9 Billion dollars. Trailing only the Dodgers and Yankees. But, ownership is not willing to pay into the competitive balance tax. Yet this year they allowed GM Chiam Bloom to build a last-place team this year that was above the tax. This begs the question, what direction is this team going in?
Do the Red Sox have a plan? That is what all of Red Sox Nation© is wondering. Where are you going? The Mookie Betts trade is far enough away that you should have something to show for it. Verdugo is a fine player but not the haul you want from someone like Betts. The prospects in the deal aren’t it. You let Bogaerts walk because you have Trevor Story? Chiam Bloom has committed $240 dollars to Story and Masataka Yoshida, who I am interested in watching but is unproven in Major League Baseball. Here is what I am getting at when asking about a plan:
That list is damning. Does Bloom have dirt on ownership? Did he promise them he could turn the Red Sox into the Rays? What is going on here?
According to FanGraphs’ Roster Resource, the Red Sox right now have money committed to 11 players. 11! Two of those players are Sale and James Paxton so, it’s really 9. The roster is a mess, you traded your catcher last year but held onto Eovaldi and Martinez. It seems like the front office is throwing darts at the wall and seeing what sticks. There was no reason to not be under the luxury tax last year. There was no reason to let Xander Bogaerts reach free agency. If Devers isn’t extended I think it will be the last straw for Red Sox fans with attendance and interest starting to dip in a real, noticeable way. Figure out your plan and do it.
I love Xander Bogaerts and I cannot believe that he is no longer the shortstop. The Red Sox messed this up and they really need to make a change before it snowballs on them.
Photo by Jim Davis/Boston Globe
The Never Weres 
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