Get the latest Boston sports news
Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.
MLB insider questions Carlos Correa’s free-agent fit with Red Sox
The Red Sox might be interested in free-agent shortstop Carlos Correa, but would signing him simply raise more roster questions instead of answering them?
Recent Links
When the MLB lockout officially ends, the Red Sox will revisit a question fans and pundits alike have been asking for a while: should the team make a serious push to sign free-agent shortstop Carlos Correa?
On the surface, the answer is, “Why not?” Correa posted the third-best WAR among MLB shortstops (5.8) last season — Xander Bogaerts ranked just two spots behind him at 5.2 — and was fourth at his position with a 134 wRC+ mark (again, just ahead of Bogaerts’s 130 wRC+).
He would also make the Red Sox better defensively at the shortstop position than Bogaerts typically does. If Bogaerts is willing to change positions, which he reportedly is, what’s not to like?
Advertisement:
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal suggests the equation might not be that simple for the Red Sox after all, though, and it could make Correa a less sensible target in the grand scheme of things.
“With Correa at shortstop, the Red Sox could move Xander Bogaerts to second base and keep Rafael Devers at third. Or, they could shift Bogaerts to third and Devers to first,” Rosenthal wrote in a column Friday morning. “But asking established players to change positions in a month’s time — maybe less than a month, considering Correa first would need to agree to a contract and pass his physical — would be problematic, to say the least.”
Advertisement:
If the Red Sox really wanted Correa, Rosenthal continued, the team should part with Bogaerts, who has all but guaranteed he will opt out of the remaining years on his contract at the end of the 2022 season and seek free agency. (Bogaerts has noted he would like to remain in Boston, but keeping a player of his caliber would undoubtedly be expensive.)
Of course, signing Correa wouldn’t be cheap, either, and Rosenthal notes chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom has so far been reluctant to shell out big money in his brief tenure with the Sox.
“Bloom, since joining the club in Oct. 2019, has yet to award an extension of more than $18.75 million (Matt Barnes) or sign a free agent for more than $14 million (Kiké Hernández),” Rosenthal explains. “Suddenly a guy who previously worked for the low-revenue Rays is going to start throwing money around as if he was auditioning for the Mets’ free-spending owner, Steve Cohen?”
With Correa reportedly switching his representation to notorious big-money hunter Scott Boras, Bloom would almost certainly have to break precedent to sign a guy who’s been among the top-five shortstops in baseball for a while now. Interestingly, Boras also represents Bogaerts, which could make for some high drama.
Advertisement:
Correa has already turned down a five-year, $160 million offer from the Astros, so any dream of getting him or Bogaerts at some kind of discount isn’t coming to life.
Rosenthal also suggests Bogaerts’s poor defensive performance, along with his full no-trade clause, could deter teams from trying to grab the Red Sox star, whose offense still makes him a premier player at the shortstop position. As such, the insider hints moving Bogaerts to a new position — say, second base — and retaining him might be a solid move.
One way or another, though, the question of what to do with Bogaerts and third-baseman Devers, who will soon command a hefty extension, will need to be answered.
“For the Red Sox, then, it might be easier to sign a free agent such as Seiya Suzuki, Kris Bryant or Nicholas Castellanos as a right-handed hitting corner outfielder, then address the left side of their infield later,” Rosenthal said. “But make no mistake, they soon will face decisions on both Bogaerts and Devers. Decisions on the players’ respective contracts. Decisions on their long-term positions.
“Sign Correa, and the Sox could justify almost anything. But the argument for such a move would be much sounder if Bogaerts and/or Devers had a full six weeks to learn new positions. The lockout — and the abbreviated spring training to come — will rob the Red Sox of that opportunity.”
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com