Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts let it be known that he is jus that: a shortstop. Michael Dwyer/Associated Press
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Xander Bogaerts smiled and shook his head.
“Oh you guys came with that one, huh?” he said. “Bro.”
In his first press conference of the year, the first question was as expected: if the Red Sox sign a free-agent shortstop like Carlos Correa, would Bogaerts move positions?
“I’m a shortstop, man,” he said. “That’s where I’ve played my whole career. Obviously it’s a position I take a lot of pride in. If you look at my numbers, they’ve been pretty good for these years. I like being there. That’s it.”
It’s an interesting topic considering those who watch Bogaerts play defense every day, inside and outside of the locker room, rarely have any complaints. He makes the routine plays, has become fantastic at charging balls in front of him, turns double plays with ease and consistently ranks in the top of the league in fielding percentage.
But for those who peek at the advanced defensive metrics, it’s easy to criticize Bogaerts for not having the range and flair of some of the game’s more acrobatic shortstop.
Bogaerts isn’t looking at those.
“No, I just know all the balls hit at me, I get them out,” he said. “And I hit pretty decent. It all depends what shortstop you want. Do you want someone who can play extremely good defense and hit so-so? It’s all about what you want. I would obviously want to be a better defensive player and have better numbers.”
ESPN reported early in the offseason that Bogaerts would consider moving to second or third base to make room for a new shortstop, but Bogaerts said nobody in the Red Sox organization has ever talked to him about that and those ideas have only come from outside the organization.
“Outside or you guys?” he said. “You guys? Yeah. I haven’t heard of that. Hopefully it stays that way. I haven’t heard anything like that.”
Asked if the discussion bothered him, Bogaerts smiled and said, “No, but sometimes it’s like I don’t even know if I’m on the team. It’s like, ‘Hey, I’m here.’ But what are you going to do? You guys have stories to write and have more info than us as players have. It’s out of my control, I can’t do much about it. But it’s like, ‘Hey, I exist, I’m here.’ It is what it is.”
There’s an added level of intrigue given Bogaerts can opt out of his team-friendly contract at the end of the season and become a free agent. He signed for $20 million a year, a bargain for the Sox considering Fransisco Lindor ($34 million), Corey Seager ($32.5 million), Marcus Semien ($25 million), Fernando Tatis Jr. ($25 million), and Javier Baez ($23 million) are all making higher salaries.
“I mean they’re setting the market pretty different,” Bogearts said. “I try not to think about that during the season. I’m at spring training and I got a deal done a couple years ago at this time. You never know what can happen. But when the season starts, I want to focus on helping the team at that point and try not to worry about those types of talks. If something is going to get done, it’s going to get done now during the season.”
Asked if he feels underpaid, Bogaerts shook his head.
“No, not really,” he said. “I still am getting a lot of money for coming from Aruba and playing the sport I love. Obviously I’ve been blessed with this talent and I’ve been doing it for quite some time now, and I’m healthy. I don’t really look at it that way. But when that time comes, we’ll see what the options are. But I think what I get is nice for me and my family.”
Rafael Devers, who is eligible for free agency after the 2023 season, was also asked about his contract status and said the team has yet to approach him about an extension.
“But obviously this is a great place to play baseball,” he said. “This is the Boston Red Sox. But I’m not focused on that right now. Just focused on the season and see where it goes from there.”
Asked if he’d like to stay in Boston long-term, Devers said, “Of course. This is obviously the team that gave me the chance to be in the big leagues. I’m so comfortable with the staff from the minors up to the majors. This feels like home and obviously I’d love to play here.”
Devers has been a below-average third baseman by most metrics, but said he wants to stay at that position.
“That’s the only position I know,” he said. “It’s the only position I’m comfortable playing. I work hard to be the best third baseman I can be for this team every single day. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
THE RED SOX have not hosted an All-Star Game at Fenway Park since 1999. If they get their wish, that will change in the next five years.
The Sox are aggressively pushing for the game to come back to Boston in the coming years, multiple sources said, and have had discussions with Major League Baseball about doing so. Word is that two specific years – 2025 and 2027 – are on the club’s radar.
On Tuesday, team president and CEO Sam Kennedy confirmed that the push is on to bring the All-Star Game back to Boston.
“We are lobbying hard at the Major League Baseball level,” Kennedy said. “I think we’re finally coming up in the rotation at some point here. 1999 was amazing. That was just an incredible night so we’d love to have the All-Star Game back.”
MLB has already named All-Star sites for three of the next four years. This year’s game will be held at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles while the 2023 edition will take place at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park. 2024 and 2025 are both open before Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park takes center stage in 2026 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Fenway Park has hosted the All-Star Game on three occasions, in 1946, 1961 and 1999. The 1936 edition was also held in Boston at Braves Field (then called National League Park).
NESN BROADCASTS: As expected, there will be a few new – yet familiar – faces joining the NESN broadcast booth for Red Sox games this year.
Three new color commentators – former Red Sox infielders Kevin Youkilis and Kevin Millar and popular radio host Tony Massarotti – will join their talent roster in 2022, joining Dennis Eckersley as analysts while Dave O’Brien will return as the full-time, play-by-play announcer. Mike Monaco will be the play-by-player when O’Brien is unavailable. It’s unclear how many games each color analyst will call or if the network will once again employ a three-man booth at times.
Youkilis, Millar and Massarotti will try to fill the large void left by Jerry Remy, who died in October. Remy was part of NESN’s Red Sox broadcasts for 33 years.
In the studio, NESN added former Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks to join Ellis Burks, Lenny Dinardo, Jim Rice and Tim Wakefield. Longtime host Tom Caron returns, and Mo Vaughn will contribute on select days virtually. Adam Pellerin will join the studio show as an occasional host as he has done in the past.
NESN will broadcast 12 spring training games this year, including Thursday’s opener against the Twins.
TICKETS STILL REMAIN for Opening Day at Fenway Park on April 15 against the Twins.
“Opening Day is not sold out yet but it will be,” Kennedy said.
Red Sox tickets sales for 2022 are down overall. The average attendance at Fenway Park for the 53 full-capacity home games in 2021 was 29,319 – an 18.8% decrease from the 36,106 average in 2019. But that trumped internal projections,
Kennedy said the Red Sox have seen “a pretty big uptick in sales in the last three, four days.” He also said he expects the first two spring training games at JetBlue Park on Thursday and Friday will be full.
“We’re hoping for full houses for the first two games here in Fort Myers,” Kennedy said. “If not officially sold out, pretty close, which is impressive for spring training baseball when you’re a 10,000-seat venue.”
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