Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers were teammates from 2017 to 2022.
They spent six seasons together with the Boston Red Sox, but now, they don’t walk the same path anymore.
A free agent after the 2022 season, Bogaerts was negotiating with the Sox when he got a $280 million offer from the San Diego Padres.
He took it and didn’t look back.
His friend, Devers, was a free agent after the upcoming season.
If he didn’t sign an extension, the Red Sox risked losing him in the exact same way they lost Bogaerts.
Players of that caliber usually don’t like to negotiate in-season, and any failure to lock up the player would have resulted in him testing the free agent waters.
Fortunately for Red Sox fans, they did end up extending Devers on Wednesday.
It was an 11-year, $331 million pact to make him the franchise player and the owner of the largest contract in team history.
Bogaerts went to his Instagram stories to react to the Red Sox’s decision to make Devers a very wealthy man.
Xander Bogaerts reacts to Rafael Devers’ contract. pic.twitter.com/FzyJftaR6A
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) January 5, 2023
“Earned and deserved”, he said, together with the words “siempre al 100, bro” (always at 100 percent, bro).
Red Sox fans were dreaming of their front office locking in both of them for the long-term.
That could have required a $600 million commitment.
Even though there is still disappointment after losing Bogaerts (and Betts a few years ago), today is a happy day in Boston.
They absolutely needed to make Devers a Red Sox for life, or at least secure his services for the next few years.
The price was high, but they achieved their objective.
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