Padres roster review: Xander Bogaerts – San Diego Union-Tribune
XANDER BOGAERTS
Position(s): Shortstop
Bats / Throws: Right / Right
2026 opening day age: 33
Height / Weight: 6-foot-2 / 218 pounds
How acquired: Signed as a free agent in December 2022
Contract status: Will make $25 million in the fourth year of his 11-year, $280 million deal; will make $25 annually through 2033.
fWAR in 2025: 3.2
Key 2025 stats: .263 AVG, .328 OBP, .391 SLG, 11 HRs, 53 RBIs, 63 runs, 48 walks, 94 strikeouts, 20 steals (136 games, 552 plate appearances)
STAT TO NOTE
8 — Bogaerts’ outs above average, according to Statcast, a career high and an effort that ranked in the top 93rd percentile among all fielders in 2025. Bogaerts’ strong defensive metrics are especially noteworthy because he’d moved off shortstop in 2024 to allow a younger, more athletic Ha-Seong Kim to man the position only to return to shortstop in 2025 after Kim had departed as a free agent.
TRENDING
Up — Three years into his stay with the Padres, Bogaerts’ OPS (.738) pales in comparison to his days in Boston (.814 OPS), where he was a five-time Silver Slugger and a four-time All-Star. Of course, Bogaerts’ stint in San Diego has been marred by a variety of injuries. His first year, the resurfacing of a chronic thumb injury did not send him to the injured list, but it did contribute to a long drought (.671 OPS over 112 games). Then a shoulder fracture limited Bogaerts to 111 games in 2024 (.688 OPS) and a foul ball off his left foot broke a bone in late August, sending Bogaerts to the shelf amid something of a rebound season in San Diego. Bogaerts’ on-base percentage, slugging, OPS and expected slugging were all up a tick in 2025, with a .413 expected slugging serving as his best mark since a .470 expected slugging in Boston in 2021. Bogaerts returned from the injured list during the final homestand, homered in his second-to-last game and took a five-game hitting streak into the postseason. In the NL Wild Card Series, Bogaerts went 4-for-12 with a double and three strikeouts, the last looking on a questionable call in the ninth inning of a Game 3 loss. The Padres brought the go-ahead run to the plate after Bogaerts’ out. After the season, Bogaerts was fined an undisclosed amount for his part in a verbal confrontation with umpires as they left Wrigley Field through the visiting dugout.
2026 OUTLOOK
With prospect Leo De Vries traded away from a thinned-out system, Kim now in Atlanta and Jackson Merrill in center field, Bogaerts is the unquestioned starter at shortstop for the foreseeable future. While the bat has not lived up to the reputation he built in Boston, Bogaerts at least showed in 2025 that he was nowhere near needing to move off shortstop.
Xander Bogaerts #2 of the San Diego Padres winces after falling while batting against the Chicago Cubs during Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series at Wrigley Field on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
ROSTER RANKINGS
8. SS Xander Bogaerts
9. LHP Adrián Morejón
10. RHP Jeremiah Estrada
11. RHP Jason Adam
12. 2B Jake Cronenworth
13. RHP Joe Musgrove
14. RHP Randy Vasquez
15. OF Gavin Sheets
16. LHP JP Sears
17. RHP Yu Darvish
18. RHP Bradgley Rodriguez
19. RHP David Morgan
20. C Freddy Fermin
21. LHP Wandy Peralta
22. C Luis Campusano
23. LHP Yuki Matsui
24. INF Sung-Mun Song
25. RHP Matt Waldron
26. OF Bryce Johnson
27. RHP Ron Marinaccio
28. RHP Bryan Hoeing
29. LHP Kyle Hart
30. RHP Jhony Brito
31. INF Will Wagner
32. OF Tirso Ornelas
33. RHP Garrett Hawkins
34. RHP Miguel Mendez
35. RHP Daison Acosta
36. RHP Ty Adcock
37. RHP Alek Jacob
38. INF Mason McCoy
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