The Boston Red Sox are slated to soon face quite a dilemma regarding the futures of Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers with the team.
Bogaerts currently has four more seasons remaining on his contract, where he is set to earn $20 million in each of the coming years. However, he will have an opportunity to hit free agency later this year, as he has a player opt-out in his deal for after this season. On the other hand, Devers is under team control for a mere one more year, as he is set to be arbitration-eligible for the 2023 campaign.
In the last decade, former starting pitcher Jon Lester dealt with a contract dilemma with the Red Sox, having turned down a four-year, $70 million extension offer from the team ahead of the 2014 season. In the end, Boston decided to ship him off to the Oakland Athletics before that season’s MLB trade deadline.
From Lester’s standpoint, as he told NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran, he well understands the business perspective when it comes to contract situations.
“I think the hardest thing for any player to understand is the business,” Lester said. “Especially those two guys. Those two guys are lifelong Red Sox guys. I know Bogey obviously pretty well from playing with him in '13 and '14 and you guys know, you've watched him for forever long, super talented. I've gotten to watch Devers from afar.
“But the big thing is, man, is you've got to realize it's a business, it's not personal. And that's really hard to do. You're trying to think with your brain and not your heart and that's a difficult thing to do sometimes, to separate, ‘Well I've given so much to this organization, so much to this team,' and this is the business side of it that you've got to try to understand.”
Bogaerts and Devers have at the least upped their market value over the course of this season, which includes ranking in the top 10 in batting average in the American League.
The Red Sox sure have shifted their attention to the upcoming stretch run of the season, which comes as they currently hold the second wild-card spot in the AL.
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