Wade Boggs seemed like a lock to spend his MLB career with the Boston Red Sox. He won five batting titles and batted .338 during his 11-year tenure.
But after the 1992 season, in which Boggs was named an All-Star for the eighth consecutive time, the Red Sox elected to not pick up the third baseman’s arbitration rights.
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So Boggs ended up signing with the Red Sox’ longtime rival: The New York Yankees.
Speaking to Jon Morosi on “The Road to Cooperstown,” Boggs revealed that then-owner Jean Yawkey offered him an unofficial deal worth $37 million over seven years at the end of the 1991 season. Boggs accepted, but Yawkey died that offseason.
The offer was rescinded and because it was never official, it was out of Boggs’ hands. After a career-worst .259 batting average in 1992, the Red Sox elected to not pick up Boggs’ arbitration rights.
Boggs told Morosi that the Yankees weren’t the first team to reach out to him. The Los Angeles Dodgers did, but Boggs “respectfully declined” because he wanted to remain in Boston and didn’t want to go to the West Coast.
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“The next morning, the Yankees called,” Boggs recalled. “We sit down and have a conversation and we’re talking and (then-general manager) Joe Molloy goes, ‘Would three years and $11 million put you in Pinstripes?’ I said, ‘I need to go discuss it with my wife.’ And I ran out to my Porsche and said, ‘Honey, we’re going to New York.’”
Boggs spent the next five seasons with the Yankees before finishing his career in Tampa Bay.
The Red Sox retired Boggs’ No. 26 in 2016, and he was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2004.
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