Should the Red Sox trade Xander Bogaerts this offseason?
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I know you’re a Xander Bogaerts guy, and I get it. He’s a talented young player who has had success in the majors already. And he plays an important position. But shouldn’t they consider trading him in the offseason if it brings back a middle-of-the-order bat? He did have a poor year, and if he has another one next year, his value will be in the basement. Wouldn’t you rather move on a year too early than a year too late? – Jose Iglesias Guy
I am a Bogaerts guy, though I don’t think that entails defending him at all costs. He did have a down year (.273/.343/.403, 10 homers, 95 adjusted OPS), and it followed up a subpar second half in ’16 when he hit .253 after the All-Star break. All of that should be acknowledged.
But it also must be acknowledged that a surprising number of Red Sox fans seem to overlook (or is it ignore?) his successes at the major league level at such a young age (he turned 25 on October 1). And I don’t really get that. He hit .320 with 196 hits two years ago. In ’16, even with that mediocre second half, he hit .294/.356/.446 with 21 homers, 89 RBIs, 192 hits, 115 runs scored, and 34 doubles. That was a season that wouldn’t look out of place on Barry Larkin’s baseball reference page.
Bogaerts won Silver Slugger awards both years. Yet I’ve had so much correspondence with Red Sox fans in which they discuss him like this season was the norm. It’s bewildering. He’s a likable person and player, and yet there’s almost an urgency among – well, at least a large minority, if not a majority of the fanbase — to trade him.
I get the cliché. No one is untouchable. And I’m sure Dave Dombrowski thinks the same way. And free agency is sneaking up – he hits the market after the 2019 season, provided he doesn’t sign a long-term deal in the interim. (He is a Scott Boras, so that’s unlikely.) But trading him now, after a bummer of a season in which he wasn’t the same after getting hit in the hand with a pitch in July, would be selling low. It’s foolish. And that especially goes for dealing him a Giancarlo Stanton blockbuster. The Marlins slugger likely just had the best and healthiest season of his career, and he’s got roughly $295 million left on his contract.
I say keep Bogaerts, unless an exceptional player who is cheaper and less risky than Stanton is part of the return. And that’s probably not happening.
But what do you guys think? Should the Red Sox trade Bogaerts this offseason? I’ll hear you in the comments.
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