{"id":456389,"date":"2025-12-01T22:13:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/456389\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T22:13:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:13:39","slug":"red-sox-avoided-massive-mistake-with-former-world-series-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/456389\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Avoided Massive Mistake With Former World Series Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s officially December, which means the MLB offseason is about to kick into high gear.<\/p>\n<p>November ended with a few big moves as the Boston Red Sox <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/11\/former-gm-calls-red-soxs-sonny-gray-trade-win-win-for-both-teams\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">traded for Sonny Gray<\/a> and the Toronto Blue Jays <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/11\/blue-jays-sign-dylan-cease-to-massive-210-million-deal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signed Dylan Cease<\/a>. However, that was likely just an appetizer for the flurry of deals that typically get done during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>Oftentimes, teams come to regret these deals, which can quickly become payroll anchors if given to the wrong players.<\/p>\n<p>Just look at Xander Bogaerts, who left the Red Sox for the San Diego Padres after the 2022 season. Boston tried to bring him back, but the Padres blew him away with an absurd 11-year, $280 million megadeal.<\/p>\n<p>Three years into that deal, San Diego is probably already regretting it. Bogaerts has regressed from an All-Star into a solid regular, which is normal for a player in his early 30s who moves from a hitter\u2019s haven to a pitcher\u2019s paradise. However, the Padres are still on the hook for eight more years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Not surprisingly, The Athletic included Bogaerts\u2019 deal in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6833708\/2025\/12\/01\/mlb-worst-contracts-2025-rendon-bryant\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">its list of MLB\u2019s \u201cugliest contracts\u201d<\/a> and \u201cworst underwater deals\u201d on Monday, including it in the honorable mention section outside the top 10.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ll be hard-pressed to find anyone in baseball who thinks this is a good contract, but at least Bogaerts\u2019 performance in 2025 was better than his 2024 season,\u201d Cody Stavenhagen writes. \u201cHe\u2019s still a good shortstop, but he\u2019s hit only 11 home runs in each of the past two years, and his offense has already declined from his peak with the Red Sox. The real problem is that this 11-year deal runs all the way through 2033, when Bogaerts will be 40.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>San Diego signed up for Bogaerts\u2019 decline phase, and that\u2019s exactly what it got. Only eight more years to go.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s officially December, which means the MLB offseason is about to kick into high gear. November ended with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4,89,2543,1821],"class_list":{"0":"post-456389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-bostonredsox","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-red-sox","14":"tag-redsox","15":"tag-xander-bogaerts"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115646615350943503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}