Boston Red Sox should have Rafael Devers signed by now
The MLB off-season has been slowly progressing forward and the Boston Red Sox are still without a contract extension for All-star third baseman Rafael Devers.
With his current contract, Devers is set to hit free agency after the 2023 season. As free agency looms on, it becomes more questionable why Rafael Devers doesn’t have a contract extension.
The Boston Red Sox and Rafael Devers aren’t far off in negotiations
Supposedly, the Boston Red Sox and Rafael Devers are about 80 million dollars apart. So if that’s the case, why don’t the Red Sox just try to get this negotiation across the finish line?
You’d think Red Sox fans would love this, right? Loe the fact that ownership is finally starting to wake up a little bit and realize that they need to keep SOME of their homegrown talent in order to be competitive? So why does this still annoy myself and many other Red Sox fans?
The Boston Red Sox have bad contract history and could lose Rafael Devers
This is the reason why all of this talk about Rafael Devers and the Red Sox contract negotiations is so annoying. We know about the contract situations that have really irritated and frustrated Red Sox nation.
Jon Lester back in 2014 is the first immediate one that comes to mind. Ownership low-balled him in Spring Training, and then didn’t get the job done throughout the season; until he was traded at the trade deadline to the Oakland Athletics. What happened that off-season? Lester signs with the Cubs.
Want more? Look at the Mookie Betts situation. This Red Sox team got themselves into a position where they were forced to trade away a franchise player. The owners could’ve very easily signed Betts long-term and paid whatever luxury tax penalty that ensued. But they blew that one too.
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But to top it all off, look at the situation that’s going on with Xander Bogaerts. The Red Sox did the same thing to Bogaerts that they did with Jon Lester. Give him an insulting “hometown discount” type offer in Spring Training and then don’t get the deal done.
So now the contract history could come back to haunt the Red Sox yet again. There are three examples in the past decade of how the ownership screwed up keeping valuable pieces of the franchise in place for the long-term.
How can we be so sure that ownership gets it right this time?
It’s time for Red Sox to finish this Rafael Devers extension
No more tip-toeing around this issue. It’s time for the Red Sox to get this extension with Rafael Devers done.
Next. Moves of 1997 set Red Sox up for success. dark
Get it done and get to work on making the team around you better. Even if that doesn’t mean bringing back Xander Bogaerts, have a plan in place.
Acquire some pitching so that way it’s not an absolute dumpster fire next season. Have Raffy Devers as part of the long-term plan and as one of your cornerstones. If you don’t sign Devers for after 2023, then your team in 2024 will be unwatchable and unenjoyable.
Get this deal done, NOW!