The question of whether or not Boston will re-sign the infielder next year looms over the team's season. When asked on Thursday if he expected to sign a contract extension with the Red Sox before the season starts, he didn't hesitate.
"No, no, no", Bogaerts said.
The 29-year-old turned down an extension from Boston. The highest-paid infielders are Carlos Correa of the Minnesota Twins and Francisco Lindor of the New York Mets.
The request was not matched by the Red Sox.
"I can't do nothing about it right now, I have a season coming up in front of me." I don't want my teammates to be distracted. They do not deserve it. We had time to do something. It didn't work out.
When Boston discovered him and his twin brother, Jair, in Aruba at 16 years old, they discovered one of the game's top prospects. He signed a six-year, $120 million contract with the RedSox at the start of the season despite opting out of free agency, because he wanted to remain a RedSox for the rest of his life.
But in the media conference room at Yankee Stadium, he seemed resigned that he wouldn't be able to work out a deal with the Red Sox.
After the 2020 season, Boston will have a lot of money left over, with several players set to hit the open market. The team's top priority is to re-sign third baseman Rafael Devers to a contract, placing a higher priority on keeping second baseman Brock Holt, who will turn 30 next year.
One front-office official said that the team remained open to bringing back the current leader of the Red Sox, but also stated that if he has a strong season in the future, his price on the open market would go up even more.
A front-office member said that they are not in the business of signing 10-year deals for a lot of money because they don't work out well for teams.
The front office of Boston was influenced by the contract situation with Bogaerts. According to team sources, the team initially circled Corey Seager as its top free-agent target before his contract negotiations exceeded what the team felt comfortable extending to a player. Seager signed a 10-year contract with the Rangers.
Seager was out of Boston's price range. The Red Sox signed Story to a six-year, $140 million contract after the front office identified the former Colorado Rockies infielder as one of the most under-valued players on the open market with the belief that other teams were overstating the impact of the transition away from Coors Field on The team projected that the spray chart would translate well to Yankee Stadium, which has a short right-field porch.
The team signed Story content with the idea of him playing second base for the entirety of the contract, but felt comfortable moving him back to the infield if he left.
The signing of Story marked the first free-agent signing with a long-term financial investment by the team. According to sources in the Red Sox front office, there was growing discontent about the lack of willingness to invest significant amounts of money in free agency by Bloom. Sources said that the signing of Story calmed any front-office tension about the willingness of baseball operations leadership to invest in star players.
The team has shown a reluctance to give large amounts of money to one player over a long period of time since they hired Bloom to run the baseball operations department. Mookie Betts was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers after he signed a 12-year, $365 million contract. Critics in Boston have referred to the RedSox as the Tampa Bay East because of the team's refusal to invest significant amounts of money.
According to front-office sources, the Red Sox are considering making Devers an exception to that philosophy. The team sees a longer-term investment as a safer bet because of the youth of Devers.
The team is considering the cost-benefit analysis of signing the third baseman to a long-term contract that would pay him along the lines of the game's richest third basemen.
In spring training, he and his agent talked with the team about an extension, but they couldn't come to an agreement.
I have one more year and the other one next year. I am ready to play with Boston. We are not going to talk about it this spring. Let's see how this season goes.
The tone from the two men was very different.
"It didn't work out, we'll see where it goes from there."
As the days go on, it appears that the future of the player appears less likely to be in Boston.
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