Jan. 11: The Red Sox have formally announced the contract as a 10-year extension with Devers, spanning the 2024-33 seasons. As reported last night, that keeps his 2023 luxury tax hit at $17.5MM (the sum of the one-year deal he agreed to in order to avoid arbitration), while the $31.35MM luxury hit on his extension will go into effect in 2024.
Jan. 4: The Red Sox and third baseman Rafael Devers are in agreement on an extension that will keep him in Boston through the 2033 season. Though many outlets reported this as an 11-year extension worth $331MM, Devers and the Sox had already agreed to a $17.5MM salary for 2023. In terms of new money, then, he’s agreed to a ten-year, $313.5MM extension. There are no opt-outs in the deal and he won’t have a no-trade clause. The deal is pending a physical and is not yet official. Devers is represented by Rep 1 Baseball.
Devers, 26, was set to enter his final year of club control. He was slated to reach free agency after the upcoming campaign but will now stay in Boston for an extra decade, with this agreement set to take him through the 2033 campaign and his age-36 season. It’s easily the largest deal in franchise history, which was previously held by the $217MM deal for David Price. It will also be the 10th-largest guarantee in MLB history, while the $31.35MM average annual value will get him into the top 20 all-time.
Devers will now stick with the only organization he’s ever known and could well spend his entire career in Boston. The Sox signed him out of the Dominican Republic as a 16-year-old in August of 2013, giving him a $1.5MM bonus. He worked his way through the minors and was seen by many as one of the top prospects in the sport. Baseball America ranked him in the top 20 on their top 100 list in both 2016 and 2017. In that latter season, Devers cracked the majors and debuted while just 20 years old. Despite that young age, he hit 10 home runs in just 58 games and produced a batting line of .284/.338/.482. That led to a wRC+ of 110, indicating he was 10% better than the league average hitter.
Devers endured a bit of a sophomore slump in 2018 but has put that behind him in a big way. Over the last four years, he’s hit 108 home runs and produced an overall batting line of .292/.352/.532. That production has been 32% better than league average by measure of wRC+, placing him among the top 25 hitters in the league for that time period.
For the Red Sox, it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster time for the franchise over the past few years. They hoisted the World Series trophy in 2018 but then saw star right fielder Mookie Betts traded to the Dodgers alongside Price. Though the Sox got some interesting players in return, it was widely-viewed as a financially-motivated decision, a bitter pill for fans to swallow after a strong run of success that saw them win four titles from 2004 to 2018. The club slid to last place in the American League East in the shortened 2020 campaign.
Though 2021 saw the club surprise many onlookers by returning to the postseason, they had another disappointing campaign in 2022, finishing last in the division for the second time in three years. This offseason, another star player departed when shortstop Xander Bogaerts opted out of his contract. Though the Sox maintained that retaining Bogaerts was a top priority, he instead signed with the Padres for $280MM over 11 years while Boston came up well short, reportedly in the $160MM range.
With Betts and Bogaerts both leaving for California, the focus turned to Devers. With just one year until free agency, many wondered if the Fenway Faithful would have to endure a third superstar departure in a four-year span, or perhaps a three-year span if the club considered a trade. The reporting on the matter seemed dire as recently as a couple of months ago, indicating that the sides were not close in their extension talks with Boston offering something in the vicinity of $212MM. Instead, they have stepped up in a big way to ensure that Devers is the face of the franchise for years to come. In the long run, it’s possible that Devers may have to move from third base to first base, since his defense isn’t as highly regarded as his bat. But those will be conversations for later days, with another 11 years for the club to figure out how to set the lineup.
In the short term, this won’t change the makeup of the Red Sox on the field, since Devers was already going to be a part of the 2023 club. But it could have an impact on the financial ledger. Devers was previously set to have a $17.5MM count towards Boston’s luxury tax but that number will now jump to $30.09MM. The specific breakdown of the Devers deal isn’t known, but the competitive balance tax is calculated based on the average annual value of the deal, so the breakdown won’t change the CBT calculations. With that new figure in place, the club’s total CBT tally is now $224MM, according to the calculations at Roster Resource. That puts them within striking distance of the lowest luxury tax threshold, which will be $233MM this year. Any further additions, whether this offseason or as the season itself progresses, could potentially push them over the line. Since they paid the tax in 2022, they would be considered a second-time payor in 2023.
Former player Carlos Baerga first reported that the sides were in agreement on Instagram, but had the terms as 11 years and $332MM. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported the $331MM figure and added the $20MM signing bonus. Jeff Passan of ESPN clarified that the deal included 2023 and would only add ten years beyond that. Jon Heyman of The New York Post first added the absence of a no-trade clause and Alex Speier of the Boston Globe first had the lack of opt-outs.
matthew07
Woohoo!
Curly Is A Dumb Stooge
Pending a physical, of course
deweybelongsinthehall
Same doc as the Giants and Mets used?
solaris602
Interesting there’s been no updates on Correa this week. That saga just drags on, but we’ll know by Friday what the fate of Bauers will be bringing an end to that loooooong, drawn out drama.
ellisd19830
Wow did yordan ever sign an extension a few months too early!
Fever Pitch Guy
dewey – With those oversized pants he wears, it will be hard for any doctor to find something wrong. LOL!
This is great news, the voice of real Sox fans was heard loud and clear by John Henry. Poor advance ticket sales was another message that landed on Henry’s doorstep. Congrats to us for letting it be known we will not accept the Red Sox being run like a small market team.
Long ago I said I hoped to keep both Devers and Xander, but if forced to choose I’d choose Devers. Much younger and a better hitter.
This is definitely a step in the right direction, perhaps Henry has finally learned his lesson!!!
CaptainJudge99
It’s about time Boston! Just don’t expect a Gold Glove Award from him anytime soon. Lol. Raffy is one of the best fastball hitters I’ve ever seen.
deweybelongsinthehall
Correa, there has been talk that he’s negotiating only with Cohen. Issue per many is an inability to insure his leg. Trying to re-work the term should his leg become an issue takes time and will likely be scrutinized by the league and the MLBPA
Curly Was The Smart Stooge
All based on his future en-devors.
I’d hate to choke on the sox stuffed down my throat…
Another goats teat that will be worn out in 10 years…
Keep him away from the buffet
juanc-2
Boooooo!
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
I’m neutral on it. I applaud Bloom for answering to the fans and spending money but this is a big, big contract. I’m more happy than not, I suppose.
Glad to see you this way. I admit I searched your name just to see your reaction because I wasn’t sure which way you would agree upon. I know you wanted Devers, but I didn’t assume anything
LordD99
@Fever, clearly Henry read our thread!
CaptainJudge99
@dewey- which leg are we talkin’ about? Lol. What team do you root for, anyway? It would’ve be really strange to see Devers leave the Red Sox and join the Yankees as a free agent. Don’t think I could’ve signed up for that at all. If Manny Machado opts out next season, of his contract I can definitely see the Yankees being in play for his services though. We’ll see.
vtadave
Jake Bauers’ fate is in doubt?
avenger65
Captain – Your love of the Yankees is quite obvious. You kind of reminds me of cubs fans, being so optimistic about things that are never going to happen. Although they could’ve used Devers in place of Donaldson, but no way would Devers become a yank. And I seriously doubt that Machado is going to walk away from his contract. But stranger things have happened.
rememberthecoop
Oh yeah, talk about a club-friendly deal! The luxury tax hit on that contract is only 19.1M.
Fever Pitch Guy
pedey – Why are you not ecstatic about this? It is a fair deal, very reasonable.
Of course I’m happy about it.
Fever Pitch Guy
Lord – Yes he must have!
slimray
im glad the sox signed him .however this does not make them any better this year.they will still be in the basement.and for me that sux.its just not going to be a good year to be a sox fan this year.maybe 24 or 25.
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
@Fever
I like it, I just worry about any big contract. I don’t like to tie up that much money on one guy
CaptainJudge99
@avenger65- It’s truly funny you say that, my NL favorite are the Cubs. Lol. Devers was never coming to the Yankees, and I truly never wanted it. Machado’s dream is to play for the Yankees, so if Manny opts out I wouldn’t be shocked to see him come to NY, after all his family is all here. Machado might just want to come home on the East Coast. We’ll see what happens.
Kevin 23
This deal is a bargain in today’s game! They are only paying him until his age 36 season and he is getting $9mil less per year than Judge who is getting paid until his age 40 season.
all in the suit that you wear
Pedey: I’m cautiously optimistic like you.
padam
@captain – or the Mets if he opts out and they don’t sign Correa. Honestly, as a Mets fan, I’d prefer the Mets to hold off on Correa and wait for Machadao, Ohtani, etc.
Dickiesox
I share the same perspective. My only concern is that in 5-6 years, the Sox will be paying $30 mil for a DH. Wondering if that will be the going rate by then.
deweybelongsinthehall
Not sure of why the term Friar Faithful in the updated post but can someone clarify Boston’s projected tax figure for 23? Does the updated article only take the $17.5m amount? I thought that’s why the team separated the 23 salary from the extension. While it increases the average for 24 and forward, the team should make every effort to reset this year. It’s the last chance to do it and shows how Bloom or ownership screwed up this last season by not doing it then.
JoeBrady
I’d prefer the Mets to hold off on Correa and wait for Machadao, Ohtani, etc.
==========================
If Cohen is going to spend without looking at his income statement, then it makes no difference.
But if he is at least somewhat cautious, I think Machado & Ohtani are much better fits.
Michael Macaulay-Birks
The oversize pants comment reminded me of Manny Ramirez and his two sizes too big uniforms
Deadguy
A 15.5 career WAR player is getting the 10th largest contract in MLB history? What did I miss? Chaim Bloom seems in way over his head
deweybelongsinthehall
Captain, sorry for the late response. I’m as big a Sox fan as there is but try not to be partial in my posts.
deweybelongsinthehall
F WAR. Anyone using their eyes knows Devers is amongst the best hitters and he’s young too. If this contract was given last season, I would agree because of his third base play. Everything changed with the contracts offered by other teams this year and the fans’ pending rebellion against Boston ownership. Devers signed at the perfect time. He’s have gotten the same money next off season from some team and ownership would have a bigger fan problem then
metslvt17
I don’t think Correa takes the Mets out of Ohtani. And with our elderly top of the rotation, I’ll take a star now and try to win rather than wait another year
jogo
“no way Devers would ever become a yank”. And what is your reasoning for throwing that declaration out there?
jogo
I don’t know that you would call any of these 300+ mil. deals “reasonable”. I guess you could say that 300 mil. is the going rate for a superstar player in this day and age. If I were the Sox I would want Devers to work his tail off to achieve razor-sharp, tip-top condition to try to remain at 3rd base for most of this contract A 300+ mil. contract for a slow, bat only 1st baseman is not getting the most bang for your buck. In fact, I can’t think of a player that was paid that much money that wasn’t a very good defender as well, besides the top notch offense.
jogo
Trying to state that Yankee and Cub fans are the only fanbases that dream of having a great player on their team is just a poorly thought out cheap shot at those two teams. Just about any fan of any team, including Boston, likes to think what if…You see it here from Sox fans quite a bit of the time, and other teams as well. In response to the first sentence of your post to Captain,…Avenger- Your hatred of the Yankees is quite obvious.
jogo
Captain Judge-I don’t know that B. Cashman and H. Steinbrenner have much of an appetite for another 300+ mil. contract besides the ones they already have; Judge, Cole, and Stanton. (Stanton isn’t in 300 mil. territory but his is still a pricey contract.) While everything you say about Machado is true, and it would be great to see him at 3rd for the Yanks, I don’t think Hal Steinbrenner wants to emulate Steve Cohen when it comes to throwing money around. And don’t forget Ohtani will be a free agent after next year too. Some articles I read speculated Ohtani could be the 1st 500 million dollar man. Yikes!! So dream on Baseball fans, thinking how Ohtani would fit in your favorite team’s starting rotation as well as somewhere in your lineup as the DH. Meanwhile, you have the owners of these small market clubs who will seldom spend any money to improve their team, but continue to pocket the Luxury tax dollars they receive from the big spenders. MLB and that goof Manfred should start making the cheapskates who won’t spend much to improve their clubs have to start spending a certain percentage of the tax dollars they receive on improving their ballclubs. When you have Cohen spending close to 400 million on the Mets but then you have Oakland with a payroll of around 40 million, roughly 10 times more dollars spent comparing the two teams, well, something is wrong there. And this can’t go on forever. How would you like to be an Oakland A’s fan? Talk about frustration…
Fever Pitch Guy
coop – I’ve been working a ton of hours so may have missed it, where did you hear a big chunk of the extension will be deferred and therefore lower the AAV hit to just $19.1M?
Fever Pitch Guy
juan – Don’t boo DMC, he changed the article from “Friar Faithful” to “Fenway Faithful”.
I hafta admit, it was funny as hell before it got changed! LOL!!
Fever Pitch Guy
slim – Of course you’re right, but keep in mind Bloom can’t walk until he learns how to crawl first. The important thing right now is to stop making the team worse, and extending Devers accomplishes that goal. Hopefully they will get to a point where they can actually start improving the lineup, like they did with the bullpen.
Baby steps, baby steps.
Fever Pitch Guy
pedey – Big contracts are a necessity to be serious WS contenders on a regular basis.
You ever wonder why the Rays have such poor attendance despite the fact they are in the playoffs almost every year? It’s because they never keep their star players, which is a major turnoff for fans. Hopefully that will change with Franco. The last time they had a longterm star was Longoria.
Fever Pitch Guy
dewey – Why do you think it’s the last chance to reset the LT?
If Sale has a strong year, he could easily be traded.
Who knows, maybe some sucker will trade for Story and take on his ridiculous contract!
Fever Pitch Guy
Michael – Devers has been compared to Manny in many ways, and the oversize pants has been one of those comparisons!
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
@Fever the one thing I will say that Bloom got right is age. At least Devers won’t be in his 40’s like these other big contracts. I don’t like the idea of that.
I think there should be a fine line for signing a big contract. In my opinion, no one should make 30 million a year but that is currently a trend.
At least we have a solid hitter out of it that won’t be over 40 at contracts end.
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
Yeah, a hitter who’s a product of steroids. Just what we need.
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
Why trade Story? You were upset about signing him but not Devers? What of Devers gers injured for 2 years or more of his contract? Then what? I don’t see consistency in your argument- when healthy, Sale and Story are great players. Any guy on a big contract can get injured.
The_M4N
@Fever Pitch, Big pants should be the only comparison between them. Through age 25, Manny was miles ahead as a hitter.
Boxscore
Win win. Now build around him.
Still in talks
pablo sandoval 2.0
SteveC
Where’s the wow guy??
Kruk's Beer League
Wow
Holy Cow!
I chopped him up and threw him in the river.
luclusciano
Wow
Curly Was The Smart Stooge
Are you under indictment?
Curly Was The Smart Stooge
If you’re not, was it a Green River & did Mommy hurt you?
roiste
Doing this whole website a service
Holy Cow!
Carabina at your service.
vtadave
Which river?
This one belongs to the Reds
The one he has his van he lives in parked next to.
Fever Pitch Guy
dave – Must be the Hudson River, it’s the preferred choice for that sort of crowd. LOL!
Deadguy
Jesus christ Holy cow, you’re the bay harbor butcher!?!?!
cheese
Wow wow!!
CentralFan71
Was hoping the Cubs would trade for him this year or sign him as a free agent in 2023 off-season, but good for the Red Sox for signing him. He is a tremendous player and apparently a Red Sox for life. Congrats Rafael and Red Sox Nation!
stymeedone
Likely not a Red Sox for life, which is why they did not give a no trade clause. That’s a lot of Cheese for your future DH.
Mattimeo09
Isn’t he going to get them anyway in a few seasons when he gets 10 and 5 rights?
Seems like an unused bargaining chip. Unless they plan on trading him within two seasons which doesn’t make any sense
avenger65
Captain – See what I mean?
Oppo Taco
Mookie Betts was then heard grumbling, “Well, guess they didn’t want me.”
MLB-1971
…more correctly he did not want them…
JoeBrady
Unless they plan on trading him within two seasons which doesn’t make any sense
========================
He won’t accrue 10/5 for another 5 years, which means they could still trade him until the trade deadline in 2028.
Fever Pitch Guy
stymee – He’s not getting paid in just cheese, he’s getting paid in queso. LOL!
luckyh
Was replaced by Woohoo. New year, new you, you know.
phantomofdb
This seems to be roughly the standard rate for all infielders right now
bhambrave
Except Swanson.
Curly Is A Dumb Stooge
He meant to say “good infielders”
deweybelongsinthehall
Devers is a great hitter but far from being even an average fielder.
DTD/ATL1313
HE, Swanson has all around value, Devers has negative value on defense.
deweybelongsinthehall
DTD,
Devers has MVP abilities with his bat alone. Enough said.
sufferforsnakes
Hahahahaha…..
Cardsfan21
I like Swanson but that was funny as hell
Pads Fans
How many DH have won the MVP award?
DTD/ATL1313
And he sinks those abilities by being so bad everywhere else.
Joe It All
I know of at least one who will most likely win a few more
Pangolin
How many World Series have the Padres won? I can’t remember.
Pads Fans
What does that have to do with the conversation at hand? How many DH have won an MVP award?
Mattimeo09
JD Martinez came pretty close in 2018. Primary DH almost won the triple crown with Boston. 4 hits and 5 HRs away.
avenger65
The only one I can think of is David Ortiz. And I’m not even sure he did.
BaseballisLife
No one that was primarily a DH only has won the MVP. Shohei Ohtani won last year, but he also was a starting pitcher.
There have been a half dozen that have played some games at DH and won, but never with more than 14 games at DH.
Pads Fans
Thank you. My point in a nutshell. No one has ever won the MVP as a DH because defense is important.
GoogleMe
Ohtani
Mattimeo09
So many primary DHs have come close, including Alvarez this last season. I love good defense as much as the next guy, but it’s obvious that a DH could win MVP if he clearly outhits everyone else. Like if they win the triple crown
Mattimeo09
With DH in the NL now as well, it’s twice as likely
Charlies_papa
Don Baylor won the MVP primarily as a DH.
Tigers3232
@Mattime, How was Alvarez close?? He had 0 first place votes. That really is not close at all. And you take out Judge and ohtani and voters probably would ve gave first place votes to JRod or Gimenez over Alvarez. Voters still would ve been reluctant to use their top vote on a DH.
Pangolin
Juan Soto should be a DH but he plays the OF. Who cares? They’ll play Devers at 3B and get an extra bat in the lineup because he’s playable there. They’ll take a slight hit defensively and then move him to 1B/DH for the end of the contract.
This is such a non-conversation. They are paying for the bat. Like with giving up half your farm system for three years of Juan Soto the DH.
Now can we move on to how many World Series titles the Padres have won? That’s a much more interesting topic! Last I checked it was zero. Any new developments there?
Deadguy
Classless like a Yankee fan
JoeBrady
No one has ever won the MVP as a DH because defense is important.
=============================
But as everyone keeps telling you, and you choose to ignore, Devers is not a DH. FWIW, Miggy won B2B MVPs at 3rd, and he was probably worse defensively than Devers.
JoeBrady
but it’s obvious that a DH could win MVP if he clearly outhits everyone else.
=======================
Of course. Plenty of poor defensive players have won MVP. Padsfan wants to pretend that Devers is a DH, rather than a weak-fielding 3B, to try to make a case that Devers will never win the MVP, so ergo, it is a bad signing.
BaseballisLife
Miggy is one of my all time favorite players and he stunk on defense. He also won the Triple Crown and had a 7 WAR 3 years in a row and averaged a 178 OPS+.
Please don’t mention Devers and his 3 or 4 WAR in the same breath as Miggy. He isn’t half as good.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – Wrong again. Miggy was above league average in 2012 and at league average in 2013. Devers in 8 years has never been league average.
Guessing Miggy was worse than Devers is so typical of the stuff that pops into your head and ends up on the sight. It takes two seconds to validate your comment. People might respect your opinions more if they had ANY foundation in fact.
deweybelongsinthehall
There was no DH then but Killebrew would have been one in 69 when he won his MVP. He sucked in the field.
deweybelongsinthehall
Killebrew was an MVP and he stunk in the field.v Had there been a DH then, he would have been one. Should his family give back the award?
Thornton Mellon
Baylor played 65/162 games at DH in ’79. Voters were all over that RBI total (139). One could have a very strong argument that guys like Ken Singleton, Fred Lynn, George Brett, Jim Rice, and Bobby Grich….maybe even Sixto Lezcano if he hadn’t missed 24 games…had better seasons.
bhambrave
2022
Swanson = 5.7 WAR
Devers = 4.4 WAR
Enough said.
JoeBrady
Miggy was above league average in 2012 and at league average in 2013.
========================
Wrong again. BR has him as -0.2 and -1.3 in those two years. FG has him at an astonishing -4 and -17 DRS in those two years, and -1.8 & 7.1 UZR.
SteveC
Pulledabloom prefers fielding percentage to decide how good or bad a player is defensively. Easier to be right when silly stuff like range doesn’t need to be considered
JoeBrady
2021-22
Swanson = 7.6 WAR
Devers = 7.9 WAR
And Devers is almost 3 years younger.
Enough said.
JoeBrady
Down below, he is comparing Cal Ripken to Ozzie Smith. Watch, because he will almost get worse from here.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – those aren’t stats they are projections based on faulty assumptions.
Learn the game. Facts are data produced directly during a game. SImulations/Projections are manipulated data built upon assumptions made by individuals and validated by co=workers.
Modern metrics are simulated data not facts. They should be used with that understanding to fine tune specific aspects of player performance but they don’t change the facts. My facts stand correct. What you wrote is absolutely irrelevant.
PulledaBloom
SteveC – The range of a player on specific play can be measured but the range on the next play can not be. Thus, it’s a projection not a fact. If you prefer to guess about the future rather than use actual facts that’s your call. To attempt to make fun of someone for knowing more about the game than you is embarrassing for you. Read some books about what facts are and come back to me with a better statistical background and we can talk.
PulledaBloom
It’s really hard to discuss anything with you when your intelectual level is so low. Stop while you are behind.
bhambrave
@Joe: So you’re saying that Swanson has been comparable to Devers over the last two years, overall. Either Swanson is better than people have been saying, or Devers isn’t MVP caliber.
JoeBrady
Not exactly.
The issue with a two-year comparison is that 2022 was a career year for Swanson. In his previous 4 seasons, he ranged in the 2-3 bWAR range. I do not expect a repeat of his walk year results.
But that said, I do believe he is a pretty good player. He probably isn’t worth $25.3M * 7, but I don’t think he is far off that either.
And the fact that Devers has already finished in the top-14 3x in the past 4 years suggests that he is an MVP-caliber player.
stymeedone
Yeah, but its more than the going rate for a DH.
GaryWarriorsRedSox
He’s not DHing now. He’s playing third base now.
In a few years when he is DH and salaries have jumped, this will be the going rate for a DH. Get it?
justkidding
This! Excactly
Pads Fans
So you are trying to say that in 2024 or 2025 the salaries for DH will have jumped into the $30 million area?
User 401527550
But he’s not a DH. You sound kind live silly saying he is.
Salvi
In 2023, Devers finished 23 out of 36 in OAA among qualifying Third Basemen. By your logic, there are at least 14 DHs playing 3B.
Then you add in all the 1B and OFers that arent great defenders. How many DHs do you think are allowed at one time?
BaseballisLife
In 2023? Can I borrow your crystal ball?
Over the last 3 seasons no one was worse than Devers. baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/outs_above_aver…
When it comes to DRS, only Bohm was worse.
fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=3b&stats=fld…
Devers has a lead glove and the range of a tortoise.
all in the suit that you wear
The Red Sox have won a World Series with Devers at third base. They can do it again.
DogDays2
Ha those days are long gone.
Great logic though. They won with Shane Victorino too.
Bring him back! They won with him!
all in the suit that you wear
If Shane Victorino was 26 years old like Devers, I would certainly bring him back.
Pads Fans
In 2018 they won in spite of Devers. Devers was a below league average hitter that season 94 OPS+ who played atrocious defense too.
In 2018 Devers was surrounded by great players in the field. Betts, Bogaerts, Benintendi, Martinez. Not one on the squad today as good as any of those guys. They had one of the best defensive OF’s in baseball.
Yes, the Red Sox can win with Devers on the team again, but they will need to do some heavy lifting with the wallet to make that happen. They need at least 3 more guys that can hit for a 135+ OPS+. They don’t come cheap and there are none on the team today.
JoeBrady
If Shane Victorino was 26 years old like Devers,
========================
The dude was an inspiration. I watched him in the first season and knew there was no way he would last 3 full years the way he threw his body around.
I’d like Shane to get into Verdugo’s ear to light a fire in him.
Mariners_Mojo
Congrats
manfraud
Amen
Catuli Carl
and Awomen
Gwynning's Anal Lover
Wow
Gwynning's Anal Lover
Wow
Denden
Wow
Gwynning's Anal Lover
Wow
Deadguy
Wow
SteveC
Thank goodness
Thomar
I’m substituting: Wow
chicagofan1978
Another crazy contract
aggee10
Devers is 26 yrs old, The contract will take him to age 38. Definitely not as bad as the other 10+ year contracts handed out.
put it in the books
You don’t want a 41 year old Trea Turner on your team?
VonPurpleHayes
Or Correa. Or Verlander. Or Scherzer. Or Lindor.
User 401527550
Nothing wrong with a 41 Verlander after cy young at 39.
VonPurpleHayes
@Mets6986 We’ll see. Father time is undefeated. All that being said, none of these contracts should be valued on the players final years. I still think it’s funny that people care so much about the years. I don’t really see the Turner, Lindor, Bogaerts or Devers contracts crippling anyone.
stymeedone
Or Pujols, or Miggy.
rct
I think Von’s point is that you never know who will be effective at the later stages of their career. Could be Verlander, could be Lincecum.
User 401527550
I agree with your point but Verlander wasn’t signed to one of these long contracts.
Salvi
Did Verlander get a 10+ years contract? Verlander goes bad, team is only on the hook for 1 or 2 years. A lot better than 10 years of a Eric Hosmer or Albert Pujols type situation.
Pads Fans
Did Hosmer get a 10 year deal? I must have missed that.
Did paying Hosmer’s salary for 3+ years just to get rid of him keep the small market Padres from spending on top players? I must have missed that too.
Verlander had a 7 year $180 million deal he signed just before his age 30 season began in late March 2013.
MLB-1971
….or a 41 year old Xander Bogaerts on your team either…
Pads Fans
Devers will be 27 when this extension starts in 2024 and will be a DH for at least 10 of the 11 years of the extension.
Chris_Favreau
The extension starts this year and runs through 2033
Hammerin' Hank
At least he’ll be on the field, unlike Tatis.
Polyglot
No it does not, it starts in 2024. He was paid 17m in Arbitration for 2023 and his extension hits next season at about 30m yr annually.
Mystery Team
A Padres fan commenting on what he perceives to be a bad signing is always hilarious. My man you guys corner the market on suspect contracts so glass houses dude.
Chris_Favreau
You’re wrong, this contract extension supercedes the pre arbitration contract. At least do your homework… All 60 seconds of it, before you respond.
Polyglot
Ken Rosenthal,.
Rafael Devers in agreement with Red Sox on 11-year, $331M extension that begins in 2024. Deal includes $20M signing bonus. First with agreement was Carlos Baerga. Amount is indeed $331M, not $332M.
It Starts in 2024 buddy.
Pads Fans
He was already signed for 2023 and the article has been updated since my post.
So let me update my comment. Devers will be 27 in 2024 and will be a DH from that point on.
Pads Fans
Maybe you should read the articles when they are first posted instead of coming on hours later and making stupid comments.
When first reported, the article did not say it superseded the arbitration year.
Pads Fans
What the Padres did or didn’t do does not make this a good contract. $331 million for a kid that will be a DH in a year or two is a bad deal. Full stop.
lamars
Only you think he will be DH in a year or two. And in two years they wanted to move him off 3rd base. They could move him to 1B.
oot
When is the $20 million signing bonus being paid? 2023? Or later?
Polyglot
Per Today’s headline 1/11/2023 The extension Starts in 2024, you can admit you were wrong now Chris_Favreau
mlbtraderumors.com/2023/01/rafael-devers-extension…
avenger65
If it’s a ten year contract and Devers is now 26, I’m pretty sure he’ll be 36 at the end of his contract.
MLB-1971
26 + 10 = 38 …… must be the new Commen Core that some of the states are teaching in the grade schools. Lol
Devers will probably be moved off 3B half through the contract…
Henry Silvestre
This is good for baseball..and Great for Sox
Fever Pitch Guy
Henry – I agree, homegrown stars should remain with their teams. Even though I’m a Sox fan, I was happy Judge signed with the Yanks. This is definitely comparable.
Mattimeo09
Absolutely. I love it when a player stays on 1 team his whole career. Regardless of the team
PulledaBloom
Fever – I agree hometown stars should be resigned but to pass on Mookie, Benny and Bogey to sign Devers is scraping the bottom of the barrel. If he played defense at an acceptable level you could live with a $30MM contract. He’s a DH which should cap at $25MM. He’s comparable to Alvarez in Houston who got $21MM per year because their GM is a lot smarter. $132MM difference with Alvarez over the length of the contract is beyond significant, it’s albatross worthy. GMs over the next decade will be paying for this Bloom mistake.
avenger65
Alvarez should definitely be in the 300+mm group. Blame his agent, and in part Alvarez for accepting the deal, for his relatively low salary.
Fever Pitch Guy
Pulled – We all know Bloom screwed up royally by not signing Devers years ago. Alvarez was signed a full three years before he would have been eligible for free agency, Devers was signed just one year before free agency.
So sure, it’s an overpay. But Bloom backed himself into a corner with the Story contract and the Xander non-contract, so signing Devers was the right thing to do. Hopefully Bloom learned from this teachable moment.
PulledaBloom
Fever – Absolutely another Bloom mistake but at the time of the deal last year for Alvarez Devers had ONE less year of control. His comp throughout the past season was $19.1MM plus an uplift for the missing year of control. What’s a fair price for that uplift? I suggested 20MM so all last year I suggested Alvarez’ 6 years and $115MM could be translated to 6 years and $135MM or splurge and offer 6 years and $150MM which is $25MM or the cap for a DH. $8MM more than the highest DH compensation is on Bloom. Are the Red Sox better off with this deal?
No. Here is why:
1 – Devers won’t come close to living up to it and this will burden future GMs
2 – Fans might have forced a firing of Bloom which would be great
3 – As the face of the franchise they will cater to Devers even more
4 – They lost at least $12MM a year for over a decade in Salary Cap
This is Bloom’s biggest mistake. Betts, Bogey and Devers should have all remained here for fair market value. The best player got fair market in LAD, the second best player got above fair value in SD and now Devers got far more than fair value to the detriment of the ball club for a decade.
You can’t possibly suggest Bloom will learn from his mistakes. After over 100 of them he hasn’t learned anything why now?
Denden
I was hoping to resign Devers and sign Judge but we’d be over the tax so maybe just wishful thinking
MacGromit
Pulled,
I agree that’d be ideal but that line of thinking also means the BoSox wouldn’t have had Pedro, Schilling, Ortiz, Damon, Wakefield from the Reverse the Curse team… Of course, you’d also have the Babe and no Curse to start with. Hmmm, I take it back… Let’s get Scott Boras to just negotiate with the teams that draft players.
WobblyGreg
THANK THE LORD.
toomanyblacksinbaseball
What wrath has God wrought?
Rallyshirt
OOF.
omar salazar
who ever is leaking info to Carlos Baerga is the real hero
Murray Rothbard
Benny Agbayani and Carl Everett missed out on the scoop
YankeesBleacherCreature
Rey Ordonez is still waiting for his text.
rct
Carl Everett needs to see a trade before he will believe it.
Hurricane Sandy
Don’t overlook the contributions of Alex Ochoa and Butch Huskey in breaking this story
Denden
I heard from Jeff Reardon and Tom Brunansky bmakes the catch!!!
Fever Pitch Guy
Sandy – Eric Gagne reported Kimbrel was tipping his pitches, Gagne noticed it while watching TV.
True story.
roiste
Jeff Passan lies awake at night praying on Carlos Baerga’s downfall
Bruin1012
Finally some great news from the front office.
Jake Biggar
As a Sox fan I’m happy. I don’t care if we overpaid at all on this one we NEEDED this done for our sanity!!!
roiste
This isn’t even an overpay. Fair deal in the current environment
The Natural
My guess is that Passan is more accurate than Rosenthal. Seems to make no sense to extend him a year yesterday and then this contract today.
YankeesBleacherCreature
He’s an arb player so technically they tendered him a one-year contract. This extension followed that for review by his reps and it became a quick agreement.
Bk11235 2
Definitely not overpaid!
baseballguru
Time to go get Devers Jersey’s and a new lucky lid to show John Henry How Redsox Nation Works! Our turn! As Kevin Millar would put it “Time to Cowboy Up!”
PiratesFan1981
Oh wow. Red Sox getting serious again! World Series here they come!
Clepto_
Lol!
hiflew
Well, that just made the trade deadline and next offseason a lot less interesting.
gfan
Right ?
Next year everyone after Ohtani with really no other impact players at all.
Holy Cow!
Someone will have a great contract year and get overpaid.
avenger65
Yeah. Ohtani. The Angels will make him the first $50mm a year player.
O'sSayCanYouSee
Manny Machado can opt out.
Dbacks44
Wow. Love that guy! Awesome hitter.
luclusciano
There it is. Good job Red Sox – and wow, great job Devers. As a Yankee fan I am not looking forward ti watching you destroy the ball for the next decade.
Joe says...
Absolutely!! Devers kills the Yankees.
Though it is good to see Boston remember they’re a big market team that should be keeping their homegrown guys.
redsoxu571
Don’t forget, even the Yankees have let the likes of Cano and Pettitte leave when circumstances warranted. Betts likely didn’t want to stay in Boston, and while Bogaerts would have there is a reason he was the player who got by far the biggest overpay relative to projection this offseason. Bogaerts was totally worth keeping at expected price and even a little more, but not that much.
We have to remember that each player is an individual/unique piece of a roster, with his own pros, cons, upsides, and downsides. First the market must be determined, and then a team must decide whether said market price is worth paying based on individual valuation. Blanket keeping of all guys just because a team can afford the price isn’t a good idea. For example, the Giants sure didn’t regret that Sandoval took Boston’s offer on the open market, and the Nationals sure wish that they had “let” Strasburg go.
Joe says...
Pettittr wanted to go home to Houston. He also wanted back to NY. Cano got way overpayed. XB wanted to be in Boston and Boston didn’t even make a competitive offer before SD got involved. I did hear Betts wanted to leave and there’s nothing you can do about that, same as Pettitte.
I just don’t have a high opinion of Bloom.
Tassix
The Mets are still paying Cano this year.
Phil Ebarb
How was Robinson Cano way overpaid? He was given a contract that paid him 24mil per year after four years of 6.4, 5.2, 7.3 and 5.9 fWAR? Obviously the contract didn’t work out the way the Mariners hoped but that doesn’t seem like a contractual overpay based on his stats. That said I know very little about the Yankees or the Mariners so I wasn’t watching him at the time and just have counting stats to tell me he seems like he was a decent value proposition.
Joe says...
The AAV wasn’t terrible. In fact the Yankees were willing to go higher on the AAV but for three less years. And 24 million per year at that time was a lot. It’s obvious his last three years were god awful. I’d say the Yankees dodged a bullet but they signed Ellsbury instead.
YankeesBleacherCreature
@Phil Cano was one of Jay-Z’s first clients with his upstart sports agency. They were looking into making a splash and got it with the M’s. He was well worth the money for the first half of the deal.
kzw
Aren’t the Mets still paying Bobby Bonilla?
Pads Fans
If I were a Yankee fan I would not be too scared of Devers. His .242/.301/.468/.769 slashline vs the Yankees is pretty anemic compared to how he hits the rest of the AL East.
Joe says...
His hits are usually important ones. He’s the guy I worry about more than anyone else on the Sox.
Tassix
He’s a Jays killer. Probably made the difference in the wildcard in 2021.
He’s a career 123 wRC+
Vs Jays – 132
Vs Yankees – 100
Vs Rays – 91
vs Orioles – 125
Hammerin' Hank
Player vs team stats are relatively meaningless. He could easily go out this year and torch Yankee pitching. There’s a lot of randomness involved, just like with clutch hitting.
roiste
No, he is Gerrit Cole’s father, it’s a proven fact
PulledaBloom
Tassix – All great facts but do the Blue Jays pitch the same guys every year? Like I said, nice facts. Just wish they applied to the situation.
Past performance is just that in the past. Facing the same pitcher in the future allows you to extrapolate but the same team is meaningless other than the ball park’s impact.
avenger65
I judge players by my eyes, not some useless statistics. Although I commend you for not bringing WAR, fWAR, OAA, fip, bapip and on and on and on up in your comment.
avenger65
I don’t know. It seems that Byron Buxton kills the White Sox every year. I don’t know if that fits your theory because the Sox have had the same rotation for about three years now.
BaseballisLife
You hadn’t said anything before. Hammerin Hank did though.
Pads Fans
I will take your word for that.
Pads Fans
avenger, Now we know why your comments are always so far off base.
Fever Pitch Guy
Joe – Right you are. Last year I did a comparison of clutch stats between Xander and Devers, it wasn’t even close. And for his career against all teams Devers is a .905 OPS hitter with RISP.
He has the same demeanor in big moments that Papi and Manny had, nothing fazes the guy.
We saw that years ago when a 20-year-old Devers took a Chapman 103MPH fastball and deposited it into the Yankee Stadium seats for a 9th-inning gametying homerun.
JoeBrady
He has the same demeanor in big moments that Papi and Manny had, nothing fazes the guy.
===========================
That’s his athleticism. It’s as easy for him to strike out against a #6 SP as it is for him to take the best pitchers in BB deep. And while I get on him for his conditioning, the dude is built like an ox. It just doesn’t matter who the pitcher is, or where he throws the pitch.
Fever Pitch Guy
Joe – I gave you a thumbs up!
redsoxu571
As a Red Sox fan, I am pleased that Judge and Devers will be the first faces of the rivalry for the next decade!
Yankee Clipper
First: Congratulations to the Red Sox diehards on here – JoeBrady, RSox, Suit, Dewey, FPG, RedSox, Bruin, and several others (apologies for not naming ya).
Second: This is excellent for baseball for several obvious reasons, including a major market team acting like one.
Last: I really hope this isn’t a move to appease the fanbase for awhile to go back to operating in the status quo, similar to the Yankees for so many years, leaving gaping holes on the team. Perhaps Henry got the message from the angry fanbase; perhaps this was the plan all along; or perhaps Bloom realized he’s on really thin ice and knew he couldn’t lose Devers. Regardless, it’s an awesome, refreshing sign that they did this.
I know you all are passionate like Yankees fans, so enjoy it for your 18 hours and get your boot right back on Henry!
JoeBrady
Congratulations to the Red Sox diehards on here – JoeBrady, RSox, Suit, Dewey, FPG, RedSox, Bruin, and several others
=========================
I appreciate your kind sentiments. But I don’t really expect any more moves this off-season, unless they can arrange something with Miami and Ceddanne.
But that said, hopefully this can be the start of extending our players, at an earlier age.
Yankee Clipper
Hey, JoeBrady, you’ve maintained that Bloom has a plan and this could very well be the start of its active, long-term implementation for their near- future build (obviously including Mayer, York, & others). I agree that probably not much else is happening this offseason, however, but if they were going to make one big move, I’d say this was the one to make.
JoeBrady
It’s speculative, with a lot of ‘ifs’, but we could have a pretty good locked-up IF for a while if Casas, Yorke, and Mayer are the real thing. This is what Henry was referring to earlier this year, and what Theo was saying, but a lot of fans didn’t understand the idea of a bridge.
Even with big market money, sometimes you need to money to fill in the gaps between good rookie foundations.
all in the suit that you wear
Clipper: Thanks! Hopefully Bloom has a plan. I think he is generally headed in the right direction.
Yankee Clipper
Suit! Congrats, man! This was a big one. I still don’t get Xander, but as you’ve also said all along, Bloom may be playing the long game here. Regardless, it’s one huge check mark in the win column for the Sox & Bloom/Henry. It’s a clear power move and, imo, is a big step towards redemption for them. Hopefully they will keep it going, brother.
The Yankees-Sox matchups will be interesting if our respective top/key prospects pan out. There will be some really good, young, competitive talent on the field – like old times!
Fever Pitch Guy
suit – I hafta admit, I was waiting to see your response on this. Just a few days ago you strongly supported Henry/Bloom’s refusal to give out mega-contracts by saying they were almost always huge mistakes.
So I wondered, will this FINALLY be the time when you actually disagree with Bloom/Henry on a decision? I leaned firmly against “no”, and you didn’t disappoint. LOL!
It’s all good though brother, the Sox are a better team with Devers than without. That’s the bottom line. If it turns out to be an overpay, Henry can afford it. He won’t be clipping coupons anytime soon.
all in the suit that you wear
Clipper: Exciting times are ahead. I can’t wait!
all in the suit that you wear
Fever: I am “ok” with the Devers extension, not crazy about it. He is signed through age 36 which is good. They can also possibly trade him if needed. I will root for it to be a good decision. More than anything I root for the Red Sox. I didn’t like the Story signing and I wish they never went there.
Fever Pitch Guy
suit – Thanks for the reply. I agree, signing a player thru Age 36 is a lot more palatable than thru Age 40-41 etc.
I didn’t know you were against the Story signing. There was like a thousand comments posted back then, so I must have missed yours.
On a positive note, I am very excited about Yoshida. Dude reminds me of Boggs, an on base machine that HOPEFULLY Cora will put at leadoff and keep him there every game.
all in the suit that you wear
Fever: Age 36 is pretty reasonable. I saw Story as eventually blocking Mayer and Yorke. Now Mikey Romero is in the middle infield mix too. I guess they can cut Story and eat his contract if needed. I hope you are right about Yoshida and I hope he can play LF.
Fever Pitch Guy
Clip – Thank you!! I do long for the early-2000’s when there was no greater rivalry than Sox/Yanks. Hopefully we will get back to that someday, the Sox have to hold up their end to do so.
luclusciano
Yes FPG- agreed!! I am getting tired of Houston taking your place. Year or two, we will hate each other again. 🙂
JoeBrady
With all due respect, I still hate you. And in time, hopefully you will hate me too:)
Yankee Clipper
Agreed FPG. I mean we love to hate each other; we don’t even like to hate the Astros.
Fever Pitch Guy
Clip – I’m from a state that is rather evenly divided between Yanks fans and Sox fans, with a smattering of Mets fans thrown in. There’s never been any hate.
In fact, a girlfriend of mine was a Yankee fan. We would wear our gear to both Yankee Stadium and Fenway, and the looks & comments we got were priceless!
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Aww how syrupy sweet: Yanks fans and Red Sox fans in a huge communal group hug. Wow the brotherhood is strong today! Valentines Day is not for another month so I don’t wanna see any smooching or other PDA yet. 😉
Yankee Clipper
Always room for three ISOB……
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Well I’m West Coast so I don’t want to be the third wheel, if you know what I mean, or sloppy seconds. But I appreciate the inclusion … it’s all good.
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
First reported by Carlos Baerga on his Instagram lol.
luclusciano
Hahaha. Just read that. Maybe he works for TradeRumors now.
Holy Cow!
That’s not the first time.
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
I didn’t even read the article. I saw on twiter that Hector Gomez posted about Carlos Baerga posting it on his Instagram. I posted a link on the Devers and Red Sox avoid arbitration on here.
semipro24
He’s got a pretty good feed in that dugout.
SteveC
@semipro24 – That’s a different Carlos
talkingjunky
About time something good happened for the Sox. Pretty sure the fans yelling at John Henry at the Winter Classic got this done.
avenger65
I wish the other Sox had the chance to express their anger at Hahn at the winter classic but he cancelled it because he didn’t have the guts to face the fans.
Poolhalljunkies
BOOM!!
solaris602
No – BLOOM!! Anyone from the Bloomraggers Corps care to retract any of their posits from the past few weeks? 😉
Jurassic Carl
No. All he did was given an extension which he should have done months ago. The roster is still horrendous and going to finish in last place. He still needs to be fired. Nothing has changed.
Fever Pitch Guy
Carl – You’re absolutely right, the extension should have been done months if not years ago. If it had been, it would have been at a lower dollar amount because recent signings throughout baseball elevated Devers’ market value. A year ago he probably would have signed for $300M or less.
And I think it’s really sad that some people are giving Bloom “credit” for signing Devers. He went to Henry and asked, this is what it will take to extend Devers … do you approve? No way Bloom makes this offer without Henry’s approval.
And no question Bloom was forced to pivot to a Devers extension after the Xander debacle, where Bloom obviously misread the shaping market. If Xander had been signed, Devers would likely not be signed to an extension. There’s no way the Sox would have locked up three infielders with a combined $630M+ in guaranteed money … especially with Yorke and Mayer on the way up.
LFGMets (Metsin7)
Overpay. Basically a DH. His defense will only get worse. Unless he hits like Frank Thomas, I see this contract aging poorly
Kruk's Beer League
Like most of those Mets contracts.
LFGMets (Metsin7)
@Kruk not really a good comeback, I don’t like any of the contracts the Mets have given out in the past 2 years
Hammerin' Hank
Great comeback with the Mets throwing all this stupid money around.
roiste
He’s only 26, and improved with the glove last year. The defense still has room to grow
Pads Fans
His defense has a LONG way to go to be even serviceable. He went from a -13 to a -6 DRS and from a -13 to a -2 OAA last season. Over the last 3 seasons he was the 2nd worst 3B in DRS and absolute worst in OAA.
Sox will get one, maybe 2 years of him at 3B in this extension before they are forced to move him to DH.
PulledaBloom
Pads – More Devers defensive facts. Most errors at 3B since 2017 when he entered the league. Lowest career fielding percentage at 3B.
Add to that the breaks the score keepers give him and his actual misplayed baseballs are over 50 per year. Don’t believe me? Go into Baseball Reference and count the balls that are recorded as base hit to 3B. Then look up the video and decide for yourself if the ball would have been caught by any normal High School 3B. Thank goodness Baseball Reference gives proof to show just how bad he’s been.
If you ever pitched and had a butcher in your infield you know how much you hate any ball hit to them. In fact, you adjust your game in hopes of keeping the ball away from him. That’s what the Red Sox pitching staff has had to do for 6 seasons. Poor Sale. His slider to right handed hitters is one of the most frequent ground ball opportunities for Devers. That’s why his pitch count is higher than it should be. Devers extends his innings all the time and has impacted his ERA and WHIP on many, many occasions
.
roiste
As I said, he improved last year, which the stats you cite demonstrate. Cutting the errors from 21 to 14 and -13 OAA to -2 OAA brought him from terrible to just a bit below average, which is more than fine with the offense he brings to the position. And it showed qualitatively – anyone who actually watched the team last year could tell you that he was noticeably cleaner out there.
The dude is a great athlete, his problem has always been concentration and mental errors. And again, he’s only 26 next season. Is it really that crazy to believe he did some mental maturing in his age-25 year? Guys that age take big steps forward all the time.
If he can keep his defense in the realm of -2 OAA at third base, then he’s going to be in the MVP conversation for a lot of this contract. I see no reason why he couldn’t hang around to play a passable third base for the first half of this deal.
avenger65
AAAARRGG! Those useless numbers again! Eyes. Look at Devers performance with your eyes. Don’t let numbers tell you how good or bad a player is.The Tiger’s didn’t sign Cobb because of his metrics. They SAW how good he was.
avenger65
What about an abnormal high school third baseman?
Pads Fans
Our eyes tell us he is slow as a turtle, doesn’t get to as many balls as he should, and then he throws away more balls than anyone else.
Guess what the stats tell us.
He is slow as a turtle
He has the smallest range in the game
He made the most throwing errors in the game
Dang. Will you look at that. The stats didn’t lie.
Dumpster Divin Theo
Defensive Indifference- Advent of a new stat for the hot corner for all the times Raffy simply gives up on the play.
Dumpster Divin Theo
Not to mention the times he simply gives up on balls not hit right at him
PulledaBloom
Roiste = The dude is not a great athlete, he’s been a great hitter for the last two years. He’s not what most people consider a good athlete. That’s an opinion of yours not a fact.
One season doesn’t reverse the trend of nearly a decade. He was still well below league average for his 6th consecutive MLB season and your SPIN on it is that he’s improving? People said that after 2017 that he would get better and he didn’t. Then in 2019 he had a better than normal year and everyone proclaimed him highly improved and in 2020 he had his worst defensive season. He can play well in April and make 10 errors in May. That inconsistency has led to him having more errors than any other 3B since he arrived in 2017.
Lets talk statistics. Any small enough sample can produce highly misleading results. His historical trend is a sine curve well below the league average line. The fact that 2022 wasn’t “AS BAD” as 2021 doesn’t suggest improvement in light of his complete history. It’s nothing more than a peak in an ever oscillating range of performance.
He’ll never be an MVP especially now that he has nothing around him. He’ll be a solid hitter in the middle of a bad line-up. MVPs lead the league in RBIs, Runs and other team stats. That won’t happen with the Red Sox line-up until Bloom is gone and some talent is added to the roster.
Your opinion is not based on fact. It completely ignores Devers history as a defender. He wasn’t good when he broke in at Rookie Ball, never was good during his ascension to the majors and has been the worst in history since he arrived in Boston. You OPINION is not founded by facts. It’s really a hope rather than opinion. Being optimistic is great but it’s not realistic.
PulledaBloom
Very odd comment. Was the high school 3B abnormally good or bad? If good then he’s better than Devers, if bad then he’s probably comparable!
Led Hoyer
He just turned 26 years old and can mash. I’d much rather have this contract than Correa, judge, Xander or Turner right now.
PulledaBloom
Turner? Seriously. Did you mean Justin Turner? Trea Turner is light years better than Devers, will last far longer and even if his speed drops off late in his contract his power and average will continue to outshine anything Devers does.
I agree on Correa from an injury standpoint. Judge is so dramatically incorrect that I’m not even addressing it. Bogey’s deal makes much more sense than Devers deal because Bogey plays defense, puts the ball in play, stays fit and can move to other positions as he ages. Devers is a DH who is likely to look like Panda by 33.
Led Hoyer
You are getting 7-8 years of prime Devers as opposed to 3-4 years of prime judge, Turner, Correa and Xander’s. In a vacuum for one year I might take any of those other players. Judge also pretty injury prone and almost 31.
PulledaBloom
CJML – There is nothing to suggest that Turner, Judge or Bogaerts will have 3-4 years of prime play. There is no single answer when it comes to how long a current athlete will be effective. Brady blows the old assumptions away. Verlander, Scherzer to name a couple more exceptions. Of the players listed any of the three could be an exception but the odds of an over weight 3B lasting beyond his years is just hope. I’ll take Bogey, Judge or Turner over Devers in 5 years anytime.
Led Hoyer
No doubt one of those guys could play well into their upper 30s. More than likely they will all have significant declines by 36-37. Outside of Nelson Cruz freakish hitting at age 39-40 as a dh only I can’t think of any position players in the post steroid era that I would consider really good players. Pujols strung together a nice season last year as a dh primarily against lefties. Id 100 percent take age 31-36 Devers over age 37-41 judge, Turner, Correa, Bogaerts and it’s not even close. Pujols, miggy, votto we’re generational talents and fell off the map.
PulledaBloom
CJML – The future is hard to predict. Miggy who I thought was the heir apparent to Pujols as the greatest player in baseball started young like Devers at age 20 and fell off the table after his 33 year old season. Pujols who got the torch passed from Bonds as the greatest baseball player at that time fell off the table after his 32 year old season.
What do Pujols and Cabrera have in common with Devers? Culture and body type. Granted Pujols was far more muscular than Devers and Miggy but all three have a big frame played 3B until they hurt their team so much by their late twenties that they got move and their size grew.
That means Devers is highly likely to dramatically drop off after his 32 or best case 33 year old season. That’s assuming he’s comparable to these to benchmark guys. We all know he’s not so the drop off should happen sooner which makes the last 5 years of the deal very risky and even discounting the salary by 7% per year the $33MM will be a huge over pay when Devers is 30!! He needs to put up 180 OPS+ numbers in the first five years to make this deal even close to being a break even. Devers has had an OPS+ over 130 in 3 of his first 6 seasons. 180? No way. 150 without JD, Bogey and others = NO WAY. 130 would be a good season with his current team. That’s not going to pay for the contract.
Why so down on Trea Turner. Correa gets hurt so I can see that. Bogey must not be a favorite of yours but I’ll take him at 37-41 over Devers after his dropoff at 32 for his 31 to 36 year old years. Turner isn’t injury prone. He stays in shape. He hits for power considering his size. He’s a smart base runner and a plus defender. Why will he drop off so dramatically at 37-41 in any area other than SBs? I believe he’s the best SS in baseball and will continue to be through his mid 30s. His late 3os might not be as great but he won’t be an embarrassment like Devers after 32.
Check out Miggy and Pujol’s numbers. They are far better than Devers and they had a much better work ethic based on stories reported on the three players.
Denden
I was hoping we’d still judgevif not resign Devers if not both.
Slayer666
I’d say this was the best contract given this winter. The dude can play.
Pads Fans
Correction: The guy can hit. Defense counts too and he cannot play defense. At all.
Hammerin' Hank
It’s a lot better than the stupid contract your team gave Hosmer, who can’t hit or field lol.
roiste
Defense counts much less than hitting in general, and Devers is better at hitting than he is bad at defense.
Plus, your team just signed Bogaerts to a contract of the same length even though he is four years older, a worse hitter, and also a bad defender. Y’all can’t really talk down on this one
BaseballisLife
A run saved is worth exactly the same as a run scored.
Defense is equal in value to offense.
Pads Fans
What gives you the impression I own the Padres?
What makes you think I approved of the contract the Padres gave Hosmer? Those that have been on here long enough can tell you I was all over Preller for that stupid move.
Still doesn’t make this a good deal for the Red Sox. They panicked when advance ticket sales were WAY down and did this as a PR move to get the Fenway fanatics to go buy tickets for what will be not be close to a playoff team.
But keep on trying to spin it to what the Padres are doing.
Pads Fans
At the end of the game they add up the runs on the board and the team with the most runs wins. So, a run scored has the same value as a run prevented. That much is not up for debate.
Let’s compare the 2 players
5.8 WAR vs 4.4 WAR last season
12.2 WAR vs 8.7 WAR the last 3 seasons
23.4 WAR vs 14.3 WAR from 2018 – 2022
2018 was Devers 1st full season in the majors. He only played 58 games in 2017 so didn’t think it was fair to include that.
Now let’s look at defense
4 DRS vs -2 DRS last season
-9 DRS vs -23 DRS last 3 seasons
-22 DRS vs -39 DRS 2018 – 2022
Both are bad. One is substantially worse.
On offense one has a 133 OPS+ and the other a 125 OPS+ from 2018-2022.
You can decide who you think is better. I know which one I would take.
PulledaBloom
Roiste – Interesting comment. Devers offense off sets his bad defense. My question is why not trade the guy and let his defense be some other teams problem and find a 3B that hits and fields? Betts was stellar at defense and hitting and Bloom tossed him away. Bogey the same. Heck if you like big bat no glove why get rid of Schwarber or Renfroe. Those are comps for Devers not guys like Bogey or Betts. Devers is and always will be one-dimensional thus deserves less money. Bloom looks foolish paying him $33MM a year when Houston is paying Alvarez $19.1MM against the luxury tax.
That’s why Houston is a power house in the AL and Boston finishes last under Bloom. The numbers don’t lie. You don’t have to hate Bloom personally to point out his mistakes and I think over paying Devers by over $13MM per year for 11 years is a perfect example of how bad Bloom is at doing his job. This is on nobody but BLOOM. Biggest mistake to date because it is irreversible. Mookie’s money could have been spent wisely but it wasn’t. There is no taking back the Devers deal so this deal hurts for over a decade whereas the Mookie deal only kept the team from winning for half a decade or so. Hard to believe Bloom could surpass the biggest mistake since the sale of Ruth TWICE!! Bloom is now INFAMOUS in Red Sox history!!
WORST GM IN THE HISTORY OF THE BALL CLUB!!!
olmtiant
I don’t care if he plays third with a frying pan!!! Nearly half of outs in games are K”s I’ll take my chances on other half…. There’s only One Mike Schmidt…..
PulledaBloom
Frying pan or no frying pan, it won’t make a difference. They should have hid his glove in 2017 and made him DH then. JD at LF is better defensively than Devers at 3B where 3 times as many chances occur.
avenger65
Traynor. The auto correct got me.
avenger65
Absolutely! Schmidt and Pie Trainer. Best third basemen of all time!
Mystery Team
Met’s fans should be seen and not heard from on the topic of bad contracts you guys will always be known as the team that gave Brandon Nimmo $20M a year for 8 years and who knows how stupid they’ll get with Correa. In five or six years you guys will have zero titles and will have six DHs all making over $20M a year and you’ll be complaining about it.
Deleted Userrr
Bloom haters in shambles!
JoeBrady
The Bloom haters were always in shambles. There were 304 comments on the Casas thread, half of them from the haters, and not a single one of them actually addressed anything in the article.
Clepto_
Most were from Bloom’s mom.
The Natural
Follow your own advice and stay classy Clepto
Salvi
Great insight there Clepto. I think that kind of comment is exactly what hes speaking of. Braindead.
Clepto_
Below average comment, as usual. Points subtracted.
acell10
Don’t forget the one Bloom hater that also hates Devers. I’m sure that no matter what screen name he uses he’ll rip this apart…
PulledaBloom
And rightfully so. $132 MM over pay. What’s to like about it after passing on Mookie, Benny, JD, Bogey and the best players from the 2018 team.
acell10
Of course you would KD17. You’re pinning for guys like Benny who what little power he showed is diminished to Juan Pierre levels and made the all star by default last and JD who hit the toilet pretty hard hard at age 35 with no position other than DH.
Salvi
Id take Devers over Benny or Bogey. No comparison. Only one they shouldve re-signed was Mookie, but they couldnt because they went with extending Sale instead. Decisions have consequences.
avenger65
To be fair, Mookie wouldn’t have stayed in Boston even if they offered a million dollars a year. He just wanted out. And I wish JD had stayed in Boston. He was probably my favorite Sox player the last few years.
miltpappas
Hardly. Half of the remaining roster looks like the Bad News Bears
Pads Fans
Because the Sox signed a DH to a $331 million deal? You are not serious are you?
Hammerin' Hank
And you guys overpaid Bogaerts because no other stars wanted to play there, even when offered more money. It’s a Padre tradition. The original free agent, Catfish Hunter, was offered the most money by the Padres but chose the Yankees instead.
acell10
Not only that the only reason the Padres were able to sign Boegarts was because they offered him 80-100 million more than the next closet team
Pads Fans
What does what any other team have to do with what the Red Sox did? Even if one of them made a stupid decision, it doesn’t make what the Red Sox did a smart decision.
Devers is either an elite DH or an above average but not great 3B because of his putrid defense.
His 3.4 WAR per 650 PA from 2018-2022 points that out clearly. He is not an elite baseball player. He is an elite hitter.
Contrast his numbers to Bogaerts 5.6 WAR per 650 PA over that period.
Or Arenado at 6.3 WAR per 650 PA.
Or Machado at 5.3 WAR per 650 PA.
Those guys are elite. Devers is good. Exactly 1 WAR above league average. He just got paid like he was elite.
Deleted Userrr
Many Red Sox fans have said on here and other sites that Bloom is trying to run the team like it’s the Rays but it’s not the Rays and the Red Sox can afford to overpay at least a couple of players and they thought that Betts and Bogaerts should have been among those “couple of players.” Still others said it never should have gotten to that point with Bogaerts as Bloom should have extended him last winter. Those people got their wish with Devers. We’ll see how the contract ends up looking down the road.
JoeBrady
The issue with the “Bogaerts AND Devers” philosophy is that one was always destined for 3B. The RS presumably plan on Mayers taking over at SS. This meant either Bogaerts was going to move to 3rd, and Devers was going to leave, Or Bogaerts was going to leave and Devers was going to stay at 3rd.
I doubt it was ever going to be both.
Deleted Userrr
The point is they spent money. Whether or not they spent it well is a whole nother discussion but so is whether or not your Padres spent it well when they signed Bogaerts.
PulledaBloom
Jimthegoat – I agree that we can’t tell who spent the smart money. One huge difference between the two contracts is the philosophy of the 11 years behind both of them.
San Diego has a high payroll and extended the deal to help with the luxury tax. They significantly lowered the AAV so the missing component is what was there expectation for Bogaerts good years. The $280MM total divided by 6 good years is $46.7MM and that’s far too much for any SS. If they assumed 8 good years then his price would have been $35MM for the eight years. That’s a high side price for now and clearly too high in 5 to 8 years.
Nine years would be $31.1MM which is about what Bogey should have expected as a fair market price. So maybe they added two years to drop the AAV by $6MM per year. The total amount is what they agree on and that sets the bar for whether this is a good deal in total. If Bogey puts up good OPS+ for 9 years he could easily provide value greater than $280MM. That means by 38 he needs to have produced $280MM of value which is easily achieved if he stays healthy and productive. The last two years simply stretched the AAV so he doesn’t have to return anything after 38.
Devers on the other hand got $30.1MM per year for 11 years and that wasn’t an AAV lowering move since he’ll be 36 (closer to 37) when the contract is over. Since Devers is a liability at 3B his offensive OPS+ needs to be discounted by the opportunity cost of a legit 3B playing for Boston instead of Devers. It’s difficult to define the COST of playing Devers at 3B but the team is impacted significantly by the additional dozen errors and the additional two dozen misplays that don’t get recorded as an error. If he moves to DH he is more valuable to the team but that’s not likely to happen so a method for measuring his liability for playing bad defense needs to be quantified and then applied to his OPS+ to get his net value. Devers in six seasons has produced an average OPS+ of 124. That is slightly above league average. Those players typically make far less than $30MM per year so ownership projected off his 2022 numbers when he had protection in the line-up and other all-stars on the roster. The 141 OPS+ if sustained would be worth a $30MM a year salary if it weren’t for his defense. Whether you believe WAR or OPS+ is the best way to value hitting production or total production the bottom line is Devers is unique in that his defense is so negative that it must off set the nice offensive numbers.
So is Bogey at $31.1 for 9 years or Devers at $30.1 for 11 years the better deal. Which will produce net offensive and defensive numbers that will justify these long contracts?
For their career Bogey has an average War of 4.5 and Devers is at 3.6.and Bogey has an average OPS+ 117 (10 yrs) and Devers has 124 (6 years).
It should be fun to monitor the payback on these two contracts. Mookie got 12 years for $365MM but the year one $65MM bonus reduced the annual AAV to $25.6. To determine if he is worth the $365MM one must divide the $365 by 12 and his annual cost is 30.4. Yep, Mookie was too expensive for Boston and signed in LAD 3 years before Bogey and Devers and his annual cost is almost identical to both of the other players. Mookie needs to play until 39 just like Bogey. Here are the key numbers of these 3 players since Mookie was given to LAD.
2020 SHORT SEASON
Betts – OPS+ 147 WAR 3.6
Bogey – OPS+ 128 WAR 1.6
Devers – OPS+ 107 WAR 0.7
2021
Betts – OPS+ 126 WAR 4.2
Bogey – OPS+ 129 WAR 4.9
Devers – OPS+ 134 WAR 3.5
2022
Betts – OPS+ 136 WAR 6.4
Bogey – OPS+ 121 WAR 5.8
Devers – OPS+ 141 WAR 4.4
As you can see these modern metrics show very different results because they are based on a myriad of assumptions which vary dramatically in accuracy.
Going into this contract Devers had the highest OPS+ but the lowest WAR. Which measure best captures his value versus his cost? Opinions vary greatly. Both numbers are filled with faulty assumptions but WAR has far more than OPS+ so I prefer OPS+ as the more valid barometer of performance. Is Devers defense the reason his WAR is so low? If the answer is yes, then maybe WAR should be used.
Note that Bogey’s WAR has been greater than Devers so his $31.1MM per year cost will be covered better than Devers $30.1MM annual cost.
So did SD over pay or did Boston or did both or did neither? Time will tell.
Mookie has already shown his was not an over pay after 3 years but there are nine more years before it’s over.
Deleted Userr
Is that you PF? Another new account?
VonPurpleHayes
Good news. I’m not a Red Sox fans, but I hated seeing all those stars leave. This is better for baseball IMO.
HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms
And with that the Austin Riley Contract looks that much better.
Bostonsports85
Let’s not go compare him too devers sorry devers wayyyyyy more important
HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms
Way more important to what? His team?
That’s a useless non-measurable.
If true, it’s only true because your FO has managed itself into irrelevance stripping the roster down to only a few pieces thereby synthetically adding “importance” to players by default.
Led Hoyer
Braves had 4 years of control when Riley signed, big difference.
HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms
True. Though Devers is only one year older and Boston will be paying over $100M more over the same time frame for much less production.
No knock on Devers or Boston. Just saying that seeing deals like this and the Correa deal definitely make the Riley deal look like much more of a steal than it did at the time he was signed.
Zonedeads
One is a very good 3rd baseman and the other is a DH pretending to be a 3rd baseman
Led Hoyer
I mean Riley has -18 OAA for his career and Devers -14 and played many more games. I say they are both monster bats that can play acceptable defense.
PulledaBloom
OAA is not a legit stat. It’s a projection. Stats are facts. Fielding percentage is based on actual play not theoretical play. Devers is the worst based on the facts of baseball.
Led Hoyer
I mean every major outlet has used it to discuss a players defensive abilities this off-season but I am sure they are all idiots. Stick to the facts ESPN
Salvi
Evaluating Defensive Acuity strictly by Fielding Percentage:
A third baseman with no range to his left or his right, terrible at popups behind him, or in foul territory, cant field a bunt to save his life, is a great Defensive 3B, as long as he cleanly fields balls hit right to him.
Fielding percentage is very limited. You can find flaws in every stat.
avenger65
Eyes, not statistics.
Dumpster Divin Theo
The Ron Cey, Larry Bowa, Derek Jeter theory- great fielding %, no range
PulledaBloom
JimtomgtoGrounds – You can suggest STATS don’t always tell the story but the virtual reality numbers masquerading as stats are not stats since they don’t reflect a specific play made in a MLB game.
Suggesting a person with a 4 foot greater range but fields .935 is better than a 4 foot less range but fields .980 is a gross misuse of facts. Devers is league worst because the binary transaction of fielding the baseball and getting an out is the worst in Boston history at 3B for a career spanning his length. That’s a long and significant trend. In the minors his fielding percentage was roughly the same as in the majors. That is called consistency. He has been terrible at both levels so the obvious conclusion is that Devers is a terrible fielder even if he runs 20 feet to his left to misplay a ball hit to Bogaerts and the score keepers doesn’t give him an error since he ran so far. The pitcher knows Bogey would have thrown out the guy and the fans know that the screwed up modern metrics motivate selfish play by Devers. His range is always improving and his harm to the pitching staff is constantly increasing along with that range factor.
The flaw is in the misuse of averaged data measuring distance not quality of play. The fielding percentage is the foundation of defense. Comparing player range is subjective not objective. All players don’t have the same distance between where they line-up and where the ball goes to. Some years players have balls hit closer to them than others. To compare those ranges without consideration for the spot on the field they start from, the quality of the footing in the game, the wind, the temperature, the type of grass or dirt all contribute to biasing the results. The actual play is the only REAL statistic. The runner was out or safe and the player either made an error or didn’t. The integrity of the score keeper is also a big issue since anyone who has observed the non calls on Devers misplays knows an employee of the Red Sox should not be making error calls on plays since their future with the Red Sox is dependent on them making their stars look better than they are.
Fielding percentage is the only STAT that matters. All other information should be used as supplemental data that fine tunes the base data. In the end, the team should care most about the successful execution of defense by every player not whether they are faster, can jump higher or have a stronger arm than the next player. Those are all considerations after the base fact of whether a player can actually field a ground ball successfully. Devers can not so no amount of speed, jumping ability or arm strength can off set the lack of basic defensive skill.
oot
Suppose that an infielder fields every ball he gets to…he would have a 1.000 fielding percentage. But the balls he doesn’t get to will be base hits, not errors. Other fielders at his position, who have better range, will field some of those balls; they may have lower fielding averages but fewer balls get past them. And that is why fielding average is not a good way to assess fielding prowess.
JoeBrady
why fielding average is not a good way to assess fielding prowess.
==========================
Of course. That’s why no one has judged a fielder, outside maybe 1B, on fielding %. in maybe 50 years. Who has a higher FP, Cal Ripken or Ozzie Smith?
PulledaBloom
oot – nice try but your going to need facts that don’t exist to support your argument.
Nobody knows prior to a ball being hit where it will go. If a player gets everything hit within 10 feet of him and another gets 80% within 10 feet and the rest farther from him. then the 20% of the balls that are hit farther to the one player didn’t exist for the other player so they can’t be compared.
With shifts, weather conditions, field conditions, wind, etc. there is not a fair way to evaluate hypothetical plays. Facts are the plays that actually happen. If a player can’t run as far as another there is only an advantage if a ball is actually hit in that distance. If it’s not then why is the great fielder being penalized for something that didn’t happen?
Facts not theoretical possibilities should be the basis of evaluation because each NEXT ground ball can’t be predicted so you must base your evaluation on what ACTUALLY happens not the theoretical.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – 50 years? hahahaha again you have no clue how recent these bogus metrics are.
Cal Ripken and Ozzie Smith had similar fielding percentages. If you actually knew baseball you’d know that while Cal was slower than Ozzie but he anticipated where the ball was going better than Ozzie based on his knowledge of the pitch and it’s location. Less range off set by smarter player.
Devers is more range and dumber player. He doesn’t have the baseball acumen to know when to cut off a ball hit to the SS and when not to.cut it off.
Congrats JB – Yet another comment that defies facts and shows a lack of knowledge of the game.
JoeBrady
while Cal was slower than Ozzie but he anticipated where the ball was going better than Ozzie
============================
Wrong again. Their respective RF/9 were 5.22 and 4.73. That’s the primary reason why Ozzie got to >2,000 more balls than Ripken did.
And why Ozzie has 13 GG’s and Ripken only 2.
You might be the only one on the entire planet that ever equates Ripken’s fielding with Ozzie’s fielding, so you got that going for you.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – I’m fine with that because I saw them play and bogus contrived numbers won’t change my mind. I witnessed the two players. I always considered Ozzie far over rated. He was better at hand springs I’ll give him that.
You want athleticism and I prefer intelligence. That difference is clear from your responses across all topics. Intelligence is a low priority for you.
Dumpster Divin Theo
Ozzie- more backflips. Cal- more grumpy
Dumpster Divin Theo
Ozzie – Ripken argument. Two grumpy old guys fighting over a bag of turnips at the Food King! Aisle 15!
JoeBrady
Again, if you want to be the only person on the planet that thinks Ripken was a better fielder than Ozzie, be my guest.
oot
Range factor is the ratio of total chances successfully fielded per inning played and the league range factor would be for all fielders at a given position. It won’t remain the same for positions year-by-year because it may be affected by several factors: the size (fair and foul) of parks played in; the range/speed of of nearby players; percentage of outs recorded by strikeouts, among others.
Bill James came up with Range Factor in the early 1980s to improve on Fielding Percentage.
At one time, range was measured in this fashion:
retrosheet.org/location.htm
Pads Fans
Last Season
6.5 WAR/142 OPS+/ 6DRS
vs
4.4 WAR/141 OPS+/-6 DRS
Last 2 seasons
12.6 WAR/138 OPS+/19 DRS
vs
7.9 WAR/137 OPS+/-19 DRS
HMMMMM. What was that you said?
Salvi
No idea who youre comparing Pads. Mike Schmidt and Graig Nettles?
Pads Fans
Riley vs Devers.
JustAGuyNamedHank
Not every team holds a gun to their players’ heads and forces them to sign an ultra team-friendly contract.
HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms
Lol. I can see the only negotiating you’ve engaged in was as a spectator during a Breaking Bad binge watch…
roiste
This is a dumb comment, but the Albies contract was legit sketchy. That dude is so ridiculously underpaid one wonders if some weird stuff was going on
roiste
Atlanta has a gift for locking up arb guys well before free agency. No team does it as well as them, and Boston, the Yankees, and others should really take a page out of their book.
This is still a good contract for Devers though
duffys cliff
The best thing to happen to the Red Sox since their last World Series win. Thank you Chaim and the rest of the front office.
FenwayFanatic
My nightmares are finally over
Pedro Martinez’s Mango Tree
I mean as great as the signing is there’s still not much around him. This is more of a signing for the future
stymeedone
And how much they pay him effects how much they can pay those around him. Less!
lamars
Wrong! They had enough money to sign Bogey and Devers. As a Red Sox fan I am glad they didn’t sign Bogey to that contract.
Pads Fans
They did? Then why didn’t they make a legitimate effort to sign Bogaerts?
FenwayFanatic
Amen
Johnny81913
So my Giants aren’t getting him instead of Correa?…
Terry B
Vagiants…..insert laugh imoji
Terry B
Looks like 11 has become the new 7, a lot of regrettable contracts being thrown around, Glad Andrew Friedman has a bit more smarts!
deweybelongsinthehall
Didn’t he ink Mookie in 20 and help set this market?
Terry B
That was a trade, not a free agent signing!!
redsoxu571
So the Dodgers don’t actually have a 12 year contract on their docket? Someone should let Cot’s Baseball Contracts know…
Terry B
Do your homework, Betts wasn’t a free agent, Dodgers traded for him!
lamars
Devers is 26 and will be 37 when his deal ends. Hardly an overspend.
GoogleMe
He has 15 career WAR and has never finished in the top 10 in MVP. I would say it is a bit of an overpay. It is a nice contact for Devers and Fenway is a good place for a hitter like Devers. I don’t know if I would make him the face of the franchise. I just don’t think he is that type player.
Pads Fans
$30 million AAV over 11 years for a DH or a good but not great 3B is an overspend.
Devers has a 3.4 WAR per 650 PA over the past 5 seasons, which is exactly 1 WAR above league average.
Every other guy getting paid $25 million AAV or more for 7+ years is above 5.0 WAR per 650 PA.
That’s a huge difference, more than 30%, in quality of player.
Murray Rothbard
Sorry Johnny but you can still drive up the price on Ohtani and then settle for 1-2 year contract, reclamation projects
solaris602
Oh you didn’t hear? They’re bringing back Panda for one last hurrah. I better not say that too loud and give Zaidi any ideas.
vaderzim
Good job Chaim, you did something right!
Jurassic Carl
Lol turned a world series contender into a minor league roster he did nothing right but destroy a potential dynasty.
vaderzim
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Carl
MafiaBass
Holy crap, I didn’t think they would get it done.
Bostonsports85
Wowwwwwww they finally did something right for once hey lets all give them a for finally doing something and not letting ur player walk he’s a player too build a team around
HalosHeavenJJ
Wow. Huge deal.
This has been a fun off season.
Pedro Martinez’s Mango Tree
If your new owners figure out how to get Ohtani to sign before free agency, next offseason is gonna be a dog lol
HalosHeavenJJ
I sincerely hope the new Mr. Moneybags finds a way to do so.
However, if he doesn’t this year’s trade deadline could be crazy.
Bostonsports85
* clap
05munds
That’s a good start now follow it up with a good trade
Yanks2
Sox don’t really have any trade pieces
soxfan1
All it took was two days after booing John Henry and speculation that he might sell the team going rampant
OKBaseballFan
Bloom saves face (and his job)
YourDreamGM
Bloom had nothing to do with this. 300 million is a ownership decision. Not a team friendly deal. Oh wow great job Bloom. You gave him a huge pile of money and he took it. Amazing work. Lets get you an extension as well.
avenger65
Bloom had nothing to do with this…great job Bloom. Huh?
SteveC
A poor attempt at sarcasm
MLB-1971
Steve – Agreed. The problem with poor sarcasm is that a whole lot of people think you are being serious (and stupid) when you post it….
PulledaBloom
YourDreamGM – Look up the role of Bloom in Boston. He develops proposals to the owners who then vote on them and make the final decision. Bloom is every bit as much responsible for this mistake as the owners. There would be no need for Bloom is owners did his job of finding deals to make. They are the ones responsible for the final approval but they don’t develop the offers, Bloom does along with his team.
AtomsAnts
He Deverserves it!
Pedro Martinez’s Mango Tree
Hey man, glad to see Bloom woke up and accomplished something! Great signing!
Jimmy joe
The Sox will regret this sooner rather than later. Big overpay for a future DH. I’m all for giving big money to a complete player like Betts but Devers is not.
hazekiller
Oh please. It’s not like the Sox have had any successful DH’s or anything.
stymeedone
When they had Ortiz, he got paid less than JDM. Now JDM got paid less than Devers. Guess Boston thinks DH is a hard to fill position.
Hammerin' Hank
Inflation stymeed
lamars
Ortiz was never paid less than JDM.
Pads Fans
I think you meant to say that Ortiz was always paid less than JDM with the Red Sox.
baseball-reference.com/players/o/ortizda01.shtml#b…
baseball-reference.com/players/m/martijd02.shtml#b…
Mattmang23
It’s just money. They have a lot. They needed to stop being cheap. They stopped being cheap.
Rsox
What do you think prime David Ortiz would be worth in todays market? Devers has improved defensively each season and there is no reason to believe that won’t continue
YankeesBleacherCreature
$32.5 AAV?
Pads Fans
He improved? He went from a horrific -13 DRS to a simply terrible -6 DRS. He was still the 2nd or 3rd worst 3B in baseball.
PulledaBloom
Unequivocally the worst 3B in baseball since he came up in 2017 and by far the worst in Boston history. And that was when he was young. Anyone thinking his slow first step, hands of stone and errant arm is going to get better as he moves into his 30s is insane. It’s not going to happen.
Hammerin' Hank
Damn dude you’re obsessed. What did Devers do to you?
Rsox
Still an improvement though
avenger65
Pulledabloom:You shouldn’t speak in absolutes. You don’t know that Dever’s defense, yet you say it’s not going to happen. How do you know that? Unequivocally the worst 3b in bb since he came up in 2017. Do you have any proof of that? Have you seen every game he’s played?. If not, you aren’t qualified to make that statement.
PulledaBloom
Avenger65 – I’ll start with the definition of insanity. Seeing the same situation and expecting a different result.
Devers was bad at fielding dating back to his days in the Dominican Baseball Academy. He was bad when he joined the Red Sox and his monumentally bad defense ranged from sub .900 to roughly 6 points below league average. He’s never been league average and in 8 years counting the minors he’s average 30 points below league average. He had a good year in the minors and it was followed up by his worst year in the minors. I have been told he’s improving since he arrived in Boston and yet his .930s fielding percentage has barely waiver when observed in 2 year increments. What does that mean? If he’s good in 2019 he will be bad in 2020. If he’s good in 2022 then he’ll be bad in 2023. He’s established a pattern dating back to his Rookie Ball days. The entire time he’s been well below league average which hurts the pitching staff in multiple ways. There are more stressful innings, there are more pitches, there are higher ERAs and higher WHIPs and players get paid on those stats. He should have been moved to DH in the minors after 3 years of failing on defense. He should have been moved to DH in 2019 after hitting .240 and putting up a fielding percentage of .926 (32 points below league average).
Avenger65 – YES I have proof of all my statements. He has 110 errors since he arrived. No other player is close to that at 3B since then.
Devers is currently 212th on the all-time list of errors by a 3B. Arenado is 202nd with 114. That’s four more and he has played 4 more years!!
Other players with more errors in less seasons include:
Bill Boyd had 110 in four seasons during the late 1800s
Pete Gilbert had 140 in four seasons during the late 1800s
Harry Raymond had 147 in five seasons during the late 1800s
Bill Alvord had 156 in five seasons during the late 1800s
Joe Farrell had 167 in four seasons during the late 1800s
Billy Lauder had 190 in five seasons during the late 1800s
Bill Hague had 200 in five seasons during the late 1800s
Warren White had 210 in six seasons (same as Devers) in the late 1800s
There are no modern era players close to the error rate of Devers except during short segments. Hobson’s fielding percentage for 3 years was lower than Devers but he got moved for being bad whereas Devers didn’t.
Pinky Higgins who is 21st on the list played in Boston roughly 2 1/2 seasons in the 1930s and 1940s. He made 9 errors in 59 games in 1946 and he made 58 errors in 1937 and 1938. Short sample but he was roughly at Devers skill level on defense.. His career fielding percentage is slightly below Devers’ but was equal to it a year ago. Higgins butchered 3B for 14 years with Philadelphia Athletics, the Red Sox and the Tigers. He is a fair comp to Devers. He finished with 356 errors in 14 seasons.spanning 1930 to 1946.
Yes, he is 21st worst in history and comparable to Devers in his prime!!
These are absolutes and they are facts. I’m not exaggerating how bad Devers has been. It’s all documented in Baseball Reference and the Baseball Almanac.
I am qualified to make the statements I make because they are directly linked to facts that I continuously document on this site.
JoeBrady
He’s not complete, and will eventually DH. But he could be one of the best hitters in the league for 6 years before he starts declining.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – Lets take your best case scenario that he could be one of the best hitters in baseball for the next 6 years.
As of today after 6 years Devers OPS+ is 124. That puts him below:
Mookie (134 after 9 years)
JD (132 after 12 years)
And above
Bogaerts (117 after 10 years)
Best players in baseball are:
Trout (176 after12 years)
Judge (163 after 7 years)
Goldschmidt (145 after 12 years)
Pujols (145 after 22 years)
Votto (145 after 15 years)
Cabrera (142 after 20 years)
Harper (142 after 11 years)
Stanton (141 after 13 years)
Freeman (140 after 13 years)
Bregman (137 after 7 years)
Abreu (134 after 9 years) Same as Mookie
Bryant (132 after 8 years)
Springer (132 after 9 years)
Matt Olsen (131 after 7 years)
So from year 7 to 12 you believe Devers will outperform all these guys and finish as one of the top hitters after not doing that his first 6 years? Remember, this list doesn’t include the less experienced guys like Tatis, Acuna, J Ramirez, Ohtani, Tucker, Alonso, Guerrero Jr., Bichette, Machado, Alvarez, Altuve, Riley and J Rodriguez!!!
So you project Devers to get better as he gets older despite having less hitters protecting him in the future?
That certainly defies normal logic but like anything “it could happen!” hahaha
JoeBrady
So you project Devers to get better as he gets older despite having less hitters protecting him in the future?
==============================
I’ve explained player progression and decline to you previously. You’re really better off reading the FG article. It is pretty insightful.
IRT lineup protection, studies suggest it mostly doesn’t exist. And to the extent that it does exist, it is largely situational. It is very rare to see an IBB early in the game.
And in regard to Devers specifically, having JT or JD behind him will make no difference,
But more importantly, it is the guys in front of the batter that are more important than the batter behind him.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – Fundamentals of baseball seem to be missing from your mind.
If Babe Ruth is hitting behind Devers his runs scored will be higher. That will raise his bogus WAR number. If Ichiro is batting before Devers his RBIS will go up and his bogus WAR will rise.
Brilliant study hahaha Must have been done by a metrics guy!!! No understanding of the actual game.
Why are you even talking about IBB? I said NOTHING about IBB changing Devers future performance. Productivity is measured by Runs and RBIs which are dependent on the players batting around the individual. No JD, no Bogey, no Mookie, no Schwarber, no Renfroe. All the guys that created the high productivity of Devers are gone. He’s going to need someone to step up and drive in runs and he’s going to need guys like Kike to get on base if he leads off or maybe they’ll bat Yoshida first if he can hit MLB pitching. Either way, his productivity is about to take a massive nosedive.
I’d stop reading the crap articles you keep referencing. They are clueless which makes you seem clueless.
baseballguru
CARITA! YES! “If you build around him they will come!”
THANK YOU! Redsox, John Henry, Sam, Chaim etc…NOW LET’S finish this rebuild and take 6 of the rings in those 11 years!
AverageCommenter
And the Red Sox front office saves their butts
MafiaBass
I think he will earn his contract. However, this signing isn’t about Devers. It’s about the front office actually committing. It’s about winning back the fan base. In that respect, they couldn’t have over paid.
Yanks2
They let Bogaerts walk
Eatdust666
They definitely needed to get this done, because they had absolutely no desire to have yet another Betts and Bogaerts situation, knowing how badly they would be humiliated on Social Media and not just by their own fans.
FenwayFanatic
*Relaxes*
hazekiller
Tears of joy.
The Human Toilet
Welp! As a Cubs fan, the dream of Devers playing 3b at Wrigley just died. DAMN!
Good deal for both sides though.
olmtiant
Come on didn’t we give you enough of our old players/ gm to win in 16??? Our turn again!!!
solaris602
Well, there isn’t a no trade clause built in, so don’t give up hope.
Mattmang23
Holy God, they did it.
Rsox
Finally Bloom does something right
SGva
Hallelujah! I happy and shocked that they got it done!
fitted54
I guess John Henry really did hear the boos at the Bruins game
Fever Pitch Guy
fitted – Trust me, he most certainly did. Henry and Bloom have been roasted everywhere, real Sox fans were heard loud and clear!
kingken67
I love the delusions of grandeur by Sox fans thinking they are responsible for this. The whining in the fan base had nothing to do with this.
JoeBrady
I love the delusions of grandeur by Sox fans thinking they are responsible for this.
=======================
Wait! Are you saying that Bloom doesn’t read MLB-R to see what our fans are recommending?
kingken67
15-16 HRs and 70-something RBI each isn’t all that hard to replace.
PulledaBloom
Fever – It’s well deserved and this deal makes me want to raise the volume on the boos considering Mookie is in LA and Bogey in SD and Benny is in Chicago and JD is in LA with Mookie.
I won’t be surprised if JD outhits Devers in 2023. Nobody protecting him and JD surrounded by all-stars. Great signing by LA, just like the Mookie deal.
Fever Pitch Guy
Pulled – I wish JD all the best and hope he does have a rebound season, but I would never bet against Devers. In terms of OPS it could be close though.
Dorothy_Mantooth
Let’s just hope Devers stays committed to staying in shape and playing 3rd Base for as long as he can. I have seen defensive improvement from him over the years (save for the occasional lack of concentration) so he should be good at 3B for another 5-6 years so long as he doesn’t get too heavy.
Pads Fans
BWAHAHAHAHA He was the 2nd worst 3B in baseball the last 2 years and his improvement was from a -13 to a -6 DRS.
He won’t play 3B for more than a couple years.
Hammerin' Hank
There will always be jobs and big money for players who can HIT. It’s a much rarer skill than fielding. There are plenty of slick fielders in the minors right now who will never come close to a big league roster. Great hitters on the other hand will always get to the show and become stars.
BaseballisLife
Hank, you are absolutely correct. Its called being a DH.
Pads Fans
Guys that can hit but can’t play defense are called a DH. That is what Devers will be in a year or two.
bpskelly
Not a Sox fan, but glad they finally acknowledge having a cornerstone player makes some sense. They were not going to find that guy on the open market at this point.
olmtiant
Hope they have enough left to lock up my man Brasier…… ok now everyone put the boxes of tea down……
Pedro Martinez’s Mango Tree
Comments like this make me miss the downvote option lol
(Yes I know it’s a joke, I’m just talking about the consequences of making me cringe at the thought!)
olmtiant
Thanks Pedro…. Any publicity is still publicity…. Lol !!!
LosPobres1904
Was hoping we would get him
Pads Fans
Padres do need a long term solution at DH. Not sure paying $30 million for one is a good idea.
Hammerin' Hank
So was Pads Fans
Rsox
The Sox have their next franchise face for the next decade+. Huge deal for both team and player as now Devers, Cora, Bloom, or anyone else won’t have to answer questions about Devers contract all spring/season and the team won’t have to deal with the speculation of whether or not Raffy will be traded by the trade deadline if the team struggles.
leftykoufax
Now he can buy his own island!
Good signing for the RS, he is as solid as they come.
HALfromVA
Good signing for the IRS, as well.
TrillionaireTeamOperator
Does this actually make it 12 years/$348M total?
Actually a really good deal for Devers at his age and his level of play in today’s market. Fair deal. Consistent player.
acell10
I thought it might be the other way around. The 11th year was covering the one year deal he just signed and they tacked on the other 10 and 314 on top of it
TrillionaireTeamOperator
Looks like that detail isn’t clear yet, but whether it’s 11 or 12 years, at his age and that AAV it’s a very good deal.
acell10
Agreed. I’d much rather give 11 years to a 26 year old player vs someone over 30.
Hammerin' Hank
Better than the desperate Padres’ Bogaerts deal
sliderwithcheeze
Carlos Baerga has followed me for years even after I refused to follow him back. He’s the epitome of a clout chaser.
PipptyPoppitygivemetheZoppity
Wow you’re wicked cool dude?
sliderwithcheeze
Obviously, but I still take the time at my meet and greets and even allow pictures when my hair is on point.
Rsox
Please. Felix Fermin wouldn’t even follow you, let alone Carlos Baerga…
Occams_hairbrush
Nicely done.
The Red Sox will be better than people think this year.
The Natural
You may be right, but who will take up the slack left by Xander and JDM.
kingken67
15-16 HRs and 70-something RBI each isn’t all that hard to replace.
In Seager/Hader We Trust > the 70 MM DH Ohtani
Pre-all star break, not many can put up those numbers.
kingken67
No, those were full season numbers for each of the players mentioned last year. That’s who they are now. Losing both isn’t the huge blow to the offense many are making it out to be.
In Seager/Hader We Trust > the 70 MM DH Ohtani
In which century is it normal to evaluate a player 50% based on RBIs?
kingken67
Well when you’re evaluating middle of the order hitters who are supposed to drive in runs for you it seems a valid stat to focus on.
In Seager/Hader We Trust > the 70 MM DH Ohtani
Even last year was 28 HR and 99 RBI for JD Martinez. He was a homerun king and an RBI machine. Sure, he didn’t do as much last year, but you can’t expect as much on a team that underperformed overall. Bogaerts and Devers were the main guys, and JD Mart was the 3rd best regular. Most guys on that team were slightly above average at best besides them in terms for OPS+, so it’s hard to drive in runs when there aren’t many to drive in. Look at other guys’ on base percentage. I’m not saying Boston is bad; they just can’t brush off losing top offense by saying they didn’t drive in runs with nobody on base. For an example of how stupid RBIs can be, look up Nomar Mazara’s 101 RBI season with just a .745 OPS.
kingken67
The Sox underperformed in 2022 in large part BECAUSE JD Martinez didn’t produce the way they expected. You’ve completely flipped cause and effect here. It’s not that the team played bad and that impacted his numbers. He played bad and it affected the team’s outcome.
PulledaBloom
kingken67 – Your statement isn’t true. JD put up a 117 OPS+. That was 3rd behind Bogey and Devers. Why did they stink in 2022? Lack of talent.
The Bloom acquired starters
Story 102 OPS+
Verdugo 102 OPS+
Kike 75 OPS+ He led off most of the first half of the season (Cora issue)
Arroyo 103 OPS+
Pham 86 OPS+
Wong 63 OPS+
Hosmer 77 OPS+
Benny’s trade person Cordero 92 OPS+
Downs 17 OPS+
The Reacquired JBJ 60 OPS+
Dombrowski’s guys
Devers 141 OPS+
Bogaerts 131 OPS+
JD 117 OPS+
Vazquez 109 OPS+ (traded away prematurely)
Dalbec 80 OPS+
Duran 78 OPS+
You can blame the season on JD after seeing these numbers? Clearly there is one big place to put the blame and that’s true all the time!!
Bloom drastically depleted the talent since he arrived in Boston and the numbers show why the team failed in 2022 and will fail in 2023. No talent translates to no wins.
Boston just lost 3 of it’s top 4 OPS+ guys from 2022 and their only add is a guy from Japan who hasn’t faced MLB pitching and can’t field.
JoeBrady
Dombrowski’s guys
Devers 141 OPS+
Bogaerts 131 OPS+
JD 117 OPS+
Vazquez 109 OPS+ (traded away prematurely)
Dalbec 80 OPS+
Duran 78 OPS+
========================
I think you might’ve forgotten Sale, Eovaldi & Price, that cost us $65,000,000 for their combined 1.5 bWAR.
roiste
Xander, yes. JD was dogwater last year, and Justin Turner will more than fill his shoes.
BaseballisLife
You are aware that JD was better than JT last year, right? 117 OPS+ to 116 OPS+.
The Natural
Full disclosure, I completely forgot about the Justin Turner signing.
roiste
Turner was better by the more accurate wRC+ (123 vs 119), and can actually play a defensive position. That’s why he more than doubled JD’s WAR. He was also trending up at the end of the season, while JD’s power totally disappeared as the season went on. Would much rather have him for next year
websoulsurfer
Not sure why you think wRC+ is more accurate as a measure of offensive performance. They measure different things, so you need both to get a complete picture.
Those guys are pretty interchangeable. Both will DH in 2023. Both will hit above league average. JDM is much cheaper.
PulledaBloom
roiste – Turner shouldn’t be a replacement for JD. He should start at 3B to help the pitchers. JD’s 117 OPS+ versus Turner’s 116 OPS+ shows they were comparable hitters. If in fact the brainless one Cora chooses to put Justin at DH not 3B then BaseballisLife is right. Turner wasn’t better than JD in 2022. Also, remember some of the numbers you are using are team dependent so it’s not fair to compare a good LAD team to a very bad Boston team in 2022.
PulledaBloom
websoulsurfer – JD is also going to the team that contracts his hitting instructor so I predict a bigger year for JD in 2023 than Turner. I like Turner but JD needed the change since Cora showed him no respect and Bloom simply considered him a DD guy. Expect a big rebound by JD in LA during 2023. He gets to hang with Mookie now and that should improve things as well.
Salvi
BaseballLife:
1) Fenway’s a better hitters park. Dodger stadium may give up a few more homeruns, but last year Martinez made a living off of the Green Monster. Those freebies are gone.
2) JD has shown a steeper decline, look at his 4 year drop off. If it continues he will drop off much faster.
3) Turner played multiple positions last year, while JD never left the dugout, other than to the batters box.
Pads Fans
Devers’ extension doesn’t improve a squad expected to be in last place. Are you trying to say they will improve enough to be better than the Orioles and take 4th place in the East?
PulledaBloom
Pads – I’m with you. 5th place is locked up the only question is where in the top 5 draft picks will they finish for the 2024 season.
CarverAndrews
Happy for Red Sox fans and the organization as they needed this one.
I am one of those that thinks that the megadeals should really only go to the superstars that check all of the boxes – relative age / elite hitting / plus defense / athleticism / work ethic / injury history and so on but for this organization and this player the risk makes some sense.
He put the work in to become a better 3B, and if he is as committed to staying in shape then things should work out well…the guy is a ninja at the plate.
More than anything, I think that John Henry realized that in order to sell the team he had to make this deal, even if he really didn’t want to.
PulledaBloom
Carver – He had a good year defensively in 2022 and he’s got an 8 year history counting the minors of being bad 2 years on defense then a good year where everyone declares him improved only to see him back at his normal .935 fielding percentage the next year. He is NOT getting better, he had his 3rd up season in 8 years and it was still far below league average. He is and always will be the butcher of Boston on defense.
Losing Mookie, Bogaerts Eovaldi JD and Benny and keeping the one-dimensional Devers is like choosing Volkswagen over a Lamborghini!! Wow was this a dumb move that will haunt the next 3 GMs after Bloom.
roiste
He had a -2 OAA (the most reliable metric for infielders). Hardly “far below league average”.
Sometimes I feel like you Bloom haters just want to be miserable
Pads Fans
Might want to take a look at what Baseball Savant has to say about OAA. They say to use a rolling 3 year average to measure defensive performance, not a single season. How did Devers do over the last 3 seasons?
PulledaBloom
roiste – Cherry picking stats is a lazy way to make an argument. Last year was an up year in his oscillating pattern of fielding. He had an up year in 2019 and a disaster in 2020. His .935 fielding percentage says everything. It was that in the minors and now in the majors. An uptick of 4 percent based on one good season in 8 seems like an exaggeration of hope not a fact.
He has never been league average. He doesn’t deserve to be at 3B.
Pads Fans
Carver, Devers had a -6 DRS in 2022. That is not good. It was the 3rd worst in baseball. Yes it was an improvement from the -13 DRS he put up in 2021, but it was still awful.
Over his career he has done a roller coaster from putrid to simply awful on defense.
Over the last 2 years he is the worst 3B in OAA with a -15 and 2nd worst in DRS at -19.
Over his career he is the worst 3B in MLB that is still playing 3B in both DRS (-44) and OAA.
There is no credible way to say that Devers is a good 3B or that he will be able to stay at the position. He is a DH bumbling his way at 3B for now and will be a DH only within a couple of years.
PipptyPoppitygivemetheZoppity
This is it! I just saw the Sox new event “Winter Weekend” had him scheduled to appear and thought it was a good sign. Good timing Chaim. I still don’t like u
YankeesBleacherCreature
Nicely done, Bloom! I hope this helps the fanbase restore some faith on ownership.
YourDreamGM
Not a good contract for the team. His defense leaves a lot to be desired. Isn’t anything special vs lhp. Still much better than paying Bogaerts. At least he is young.
Dynasty
Should have just kept Mookie in that case. Letting Bogaerts walk made sense…not Mookie if they were going to give this money to Devers.
YourDreamGM
Mookie definitely a bigger star and elite defensively.
JoeBrady
I’m not even a big Devers fan, but I do appreciate the importance of him in the middle of the lineup. He’s like Manny or Papi; they can hit any pitcher, no matter how good.
That said, I’d still like to get some of that Miami pitching.
acell10
Who’s you preference Joe? outside of Alcantara that is…
JoeBrady
I have carefully narrowed it down to “any and all of them”. Seriously, they have 5 guys at the pro level that had ERAs of 3.75 or lower. A #6 in Rogers that had a great 2021, but a weakish 2022. And they have Perez & Meyers in the minors, who look really good, plus maybe another two a little further down, plus Sixto.
IRT a choice, it all depends on price. Could Rogers be had cheap, then I’d gamble some lesser prospects. 6 years of either Cabrera or Garrett, and I will send down Ceddanne plus something decent.
For Perez, they can have Casas.
swanhenge
Yep, had to happen. Nice work front office. Kid is young and mashes. We’ll worry about that defense another day. Hum babe…
Amanda17
i dont get why he wanted to stay, his agent could have simply said thank you, but hes gonna look to see to go to a stronger team thats in contention more’, honestly what was the red sox selling point to him, ‘we are terrible and will be for the next 5 years, heres a pen’
acell10
I guess the world is full of mysteries that will continue to be beyond your comprehension
YourDreamGM
Probably the 300 million.
kingken67
It’s only the whiny pessimistic Sox fans who overreacted to the team’s misfortunes in 2022 that think they’re going to be a bad team for the next 5 years. People who actually know a bit about baseball and evaluating talent don’t see things that way at all.
JoeBrady
I have them, IIRC, between 81-91 wins in 23.
Pads Fans
People that get paid to say what they think the Red Sox can do in 2023 have them at +8000 to win the WS. The Twins are at +6000.
The betting line has them finishing 20 games back of the Yankees.
Those pessimistic Red Sox fans are thinking the same way as the guys that get paid to set the betting lines.
Amanda17
its unfathomable how bad this team will be this year
JoeBrady
How many wins do you think they will have?
Pads Fans
Joe, How many wins do you think they will have? The betting line as of today is 84 wins, 20 wins behind the Yankees and in 4th place.
JoeBrady
IIRC, I think I am at 87 wins, with a range of maybe 80-92.
And what betting site has the NYY at 104? That seems ridiculously high. Year-long BB wagers are generally sucker bets, but it’s been 25 years since the NYY won 104. And 104 wins is a very rare occurrence.
I’d take the under 104 in a heartbeat..
PulledaBloom
Pads – Great points.
To me 84 is generous. Set the number at 65 or 40% of their games like 2020.
Take a 78 win team and subtract Bogaerts, JD, Eovaldi and Vazquez and add back a bad fielding LF who hits for average and gets on base but can’t steal and can’t play defense. What do you get?
84 wins sure sounds generous to me. Maybe Vegas knows something about future acquisitions that we don’t know because as of now there is no reason to expect more wins than last year. Simple logic says taking away more than you add should lower the number of win.s
Who finishes 5th? TB or Baltimore? That in itself is bizarre and deserves further review. Boston has 5th sown up. It probably won’t be close between 4th and 5th.
Cleon Jones
They needed to do this if they want to compete in AL East. How do Bostonians party these days, extra tea?
YourDreamGM
They need better starting pitching if they want to compete.
splodem
So this pretty much guarantees the Giants are destined for more mediocrity for the next two off seasons. They’re not getting Shohei, and the rest of next year’s free agents stink.
Hammerin' Hank
They’ll get him if they make the highest offer. And they’ve got plenty to spend after not breaking the bank this offseason.
BobGibsonFan
The Red Sox had to sign him… there was no other choice. They can replace Bogaerts with Mayer, but there was no one to take Devers spot.
JoeBrady
It was always going to be one or the other.. If they were going to sign Bogaerts, they’d convert him to 3B in two years, and Devers would be gone. I like Bogaerts a lot, but $285M for Bogaerts or $333M for Devers, I have to go with Devers. The 4-year age difference will tell, imho.
The Ranger Fan
Testing
The Ranger Fan
Leaving a comment
stroh
I think this is a great deal for Devers and the Red Sox. $30M/year is a home-town deal on the part of Devers and for the Red Sox it ties up their best player for the long term.
Mjm117
So I guess the Wendle/Rojas for Casas and Devers trade is not happening. sigh
Pads Fans
$331 million for a guy that will be a DH before he turns 28. Smart Boston. Really smart.
JoeBrady
ROTFLMAO!!!!
I’d make a substantial wager that Devers lasts longer at 3rd than Bogaerts does at SS.
BTW, what makes you hate the RS so much?
acell10
It’s hilarious how Pads fan defended paying Turner 300 plus million (who’s game is predicated mostly on his speed often the first thing to go) until age 41 and Devers yet criticizes this move.
acell10
Meant Boegarts
YourDreamGM
That Bogaerts contract still is giving me nightmares. All that money for average defense and below 800 ops.
Ma4170
Who has below 800 ops? Not bogaerts
YourDreamGM
@Ma4170 He is well under 800 outside of Fenway. I wouldn’t pay for those road numbers.
PulledaBloom
Brilliant comment. Got the guy wrong and you seem to have missed the issue with this signing. Mookie will be great and was a $9MM a year increase to $36MM and it wasn’t done. Benny was cheap and was sent packing and is now an all-star with both offense and defense skills. Bogey was an all-star that couldn’t get signed despite winning 2 rings and putting up with playing next to Devers. Devers, the worst defender in the history of the Red Sox at 3B has played surrounded by all-stars so his development was good. Now, without any protection, his numbers will dip and his price exceeds a better DH/OF named Yordan Alavarez by $12MM per year for 11 years. YES, $132MM over pay. It’s well documented.
Like Panda, Crawford, Hanley Ramirez and others, this contract will be an albatross around the neck of future Red Sox GMs. Bloom pulled a Cherington. Over reacted and showed no baseball savvy just wanted to save himself from the barbarians at the gate.
acell10
Ok KD.17 no matter what screen name you use your over the top and nonsensical bashing of Devers never changes.. you continue to show how little you know about baseball every time you respond to anyone.
It’s also pretty pointless (like everything you write) criticizing a post after the person corrected themselves too.
PulledaBloom
acell10 and JoeBrady – I’ve tried not to ask this but after reading all your immature comments on this particular article I have to ask.
Are you grade school classmates?
Pads Fans
What makes you think I hate the Red Sox? I have simply pointed out the reason this deal is so bad. I have been pointing out for a year that any deal for Devers that paid him as a 3B and not a DH would be a bad one.
I will take that wager. Need concrete terms. What is the definition of lasts longer?
Tell me what you would like to use as the escrow service. I prefer EPIK, but Escrow.com works too.
acell10
Paying a 26 year old player for 11 years is inherently less risky then paying a 30 year old player over the same amount of time. further if you don’t think that Boegarts is destined for a position switch sooner (ie within the next one to two years) rather than later then you haven’t been paying attention to baseball.
I love Xander and will miss him on the Red Sox but he’s an average defender at best. Generally speaking players don’t improve defensively as they get older especially at one of the more physically demanding positions in the field.
JoeBrady
Pads Fans
What makes you think I hate the Red Sox?
===============================
Because you make so many negative comments about the RS. How many comments in this thread alone? 20-30? I thought Bogaerts was a preposterous signing, and I’m not sure I made a single comment on his signing thread.
I’m not sure how to define the wager. I have no interest in making any more money, and an honor bet is more important to me. Signing off for a month works fine for me.
How to prove it is a lot harder. Bogaerts is easy because you’ll see when Kim replaces him. Devers could DH for a month if he suffers an injury, but it wouldn’t be a permanent shift.
To me, how about two consecutive seasons where Devers spends better than half his time at DH, combined with Bogaerts spending less than half his GS at SS?
PulledaBloom
The age difference is far superseded by the fitness of the players being compared. One over-weight 3B versus an in shape player 4 years older.
Its fair to be leary of the over weight player looking at the history of players with his build. The age difference should only apply if all other aspects are similar but they aren’t.
Also, consider the reasons for the long contracts. In SD, the length helps with the AAV so it made sense considering their roster today. In Boston, the team has no talent on offense other than Devers so the length requires excellence throughout the time frame. Bogey doesn’t have the pressure that Devers does. Additionally, big players tend to get injured more often as they get to 30. Trout, Miggy etc. Devers healthy seasons are behind him and his dinged seasons are ahead of him. That’s not necessarily true for Bogaerts.
The two deals are only comparable in their length of time. The driving factors in each are radically different. Generalizations about age don’t apply with vastly different body types and fitness levels.
YourDreamGM
He can probably play 3b longer than that if you don’t care about good defense. Maybe play 1b. I wouldn’t pay him but he doesn’t need to be a dh for awhile at least.
JoeBrady
He’ll probably play 3B for 5+ years. It won’t be great, but it doesn’t need to be. To me, it’s like Manny. He can be frustrating, but when he drills a 3-run HR halfway up the bleachers at Yankee Stadium, the bad memories won’t last long.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – Devers has a lower fielding percentage on over 200 more chances each year. His defense is a big deal. Ask any pitcher. The funny thing about your comment is if he is good meaning 20 points below league average for 5 years Boston won’t win 81 games in any of those seasons, especially if Bloom is still around.
Hammerin' Hank
Stop using stats from the 19th century like fielding percentage. It’s meaningless.
Pads Fans
Maybe for the Red Sox. Not for winning teams. Defense matters unless you are playing DH most of the time, which Devers will be before he turns 28. .
PulledaBloom
Hammerin – Step into the world of Baseball Statistics not virtual reality simulated data.
Modern metrics are filled with holes. A smart baseball fan would realize it.
Also, facts always outweigh fiction. OOA is fiction while fielding percentage is fact. Change the assumptions underlying OOA and the number changes dramatically. Fielding percentage is a fact not a formula contrived by nerds who never played baseball.
The Ranger Fan
Test
vinc3nt3
How long will it take for teams to pitch around him and frustrate him.
baseballteam
Designated hitter for probably eight of the years.
PulledaBloom
baseballteam – $33MM a year DH. That’s $8MM per year more than the best paid DHs in history.
rhswanzey
Absolutely enormous.
Lock up Bello and Casas.
There is immediately so much less long term directional doubt with this franchise. They had to finally get one of these right.
olmtiant
Like you’re thinking… maybe a little premature but you get it!!!!
baseballteam
I would love to never hear the term “lock him up again” since what it really is locking in a long term bad salary decision. Doesn’t anyone remember how bad the long term contracts are?
rhswanzey
Approaching pre-arb players is a lot different than approaching a guy a year from free agency. You wouldn’t want to take a couple shots at how the Longoria contract worked out?
Sid Bream Speed Demon
And with that, I don’t want to hear any more crying about Bloom. Move on.
vinc3nt3
How long will it take for teams to pitch around him and frustrate him. Hope they get some ammunition to back him up.
baseballteam
It will be called “Fentanyl Park”
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
Ran by Josh Hamilton, Matt Bush and Darryl Strawberry?
RedSox67
I rarely post , but it’s about time there is sign of life from the front office and of course the owner.
PulledaBloom
This is the worst signing in Boston history. Take Panda, Hanley, Crawford and roll them into a single deal and this one is worse!!!
Paying a DH $33MM for over a decade? What a joke. What stupidity. When you evaluate long contracts the first years usually cover the cost of the later years. Devers will need to average over 140 OPS+ for the next 11 years to break even. I doubt he breaks 140 more than 3 of the 11 years. He’s a DH so his bad defense at 3B is a liability that costs the pitching staff for the next decade.
Bloom has been foolish many times but this is by far the worst decision he’s ever made. Losing Mookie allowed his replacement to use the Mookie money to find an equivalent since Bloom couldn’t figure out how to do that. Devers will make $12MM more per year than his comp player in Houston (Yordan Alvarez). $12MM a year for over a decade is $132MM over pay for Devers. This is far worse than the Bogaerts deal because it’s just as long for a guy who can’t play defense and won’t age well. Yes he’s younger but his body will be in worse shape than Bogaerts by the middle of this contract.
Lets just call this one PANDA 2 = BLOOM BURIES THE RED SOX FOR OVER A DECADE.
Now I do believe the Yankees are paying Bloom.
YourDreamGM
Comps are terrible. No reason to believe he won’t hit for the majority of this contract.
PulledaBloom
YourDreamGM – That’s just hopeful thinking. Guys that look like him are worthless by their mid 30s. No better proof than Miggy and he was a much better hitter and was a better fielder.
Ma4170
Agree, I think he’ll hit for most of this deal if healthy.
Cooperdooper7
You are the Same fool that wanted to sign Bogey to a nonsense bs contract… give it up dude.
Every freaking contract handed out this winter is too much… In 6 years Devers will be the DH of the Red Sox still hitting the crap out of the ball…. in 6 years Bogey will either be riding the pines or traded or flat out released by SD.
Keep crying fool.
PulledaBloom
Cooperjackass – Sorry but that’s just hopeful thinking. The data shows just the opposite. Bogey will be the all around better player in 6 years based on the data.
I trust data more than your opinion.
Cooperdooper7
all you want to do is complain… lots of fans are really getting sick of this blame bloom crap.
I played baseball at a high level….and although it was many years ago… I use my eyes and don’t base stuff soley on Data…. Bogey is going to be a 3B man real soon because his range will dictate it. I know because SS was the position I played . Bogey also is already showing signs of diminished power….. this will continue and be exposed not playing 81 games at fenway. By age 36 he will either be traded (SD paying the majority of his contract in the trade) or flat out released. at that same time Devers will still be mashing (maybe as the DH), never the less he will still be really good…… and Marcelo Mayer will be All- Star stud SS heading into age 26-27.
Hammerin' Hank
Says the guy who still uses fielding percentage lol
PulledaBloom
Cooper – Don’t care what Bloom supporters are paid to say. Sorry. The complaints are all legit.
I’m sure you were a great player in your day and you may have even played against me but clearly you didn’t grow up in a quality baseball program because your coach didn’t teach you about the fundamentals of what makes for a great player and how they will age.
Bogey will age far better than Devers just like Mookie will. Bogaerts has the hitting skills to be effective into his late 30s because we’ve seen players like Brady continue to flourish longer than most athletes. Mookie is by far the closest thing to Brady from a physical fitness perspective and Bogaerts is far closer to Brady than he is to Devers. Devers will follow the Miggy path. He started in his teens and by his early 30s he let himself go.
The Red Sox need to keep Bogey at SS until and if Mayer does develop into an all-star level player which is a big if. A contract for 6 years with a mutual opt out after 3 was my proposal because it would have given Bogey the money he was looking for and the opportunity to prove himself and it would have given Boston an easy opt out when Mayer showed up and was good enough to start. With Devers, you have the worst 3B in Red Sox history who is approaching the status of worst 3B in Baseball history as he finishes his 20 year old seasons. He hit poorly in 2018 and 2020 and hit well in the other four seasons. He was surrounded by all-stars and now he’s alone. His productivity will drop based on the current roster. His 100 RBI days may be over and his 100 Runs days are even more likely to be over. He can hit 50 HRs and bat .300 yet only produce 90 Runs and RBIs due to the bad team he will be surrounded by. When he finally gets some talent around him in 2025 or 2026 his weight will have caught up with him and he’ll need to be DH only. Can he still maintain a high average or will it be like Miggy and be a dramatic over night drop off? He’ll have 5 more years at that point at $33MM a year as an under performing DH. At that same point, Bogey will probably be playing 1B or DH and hitting for a higher average with less power and better run producing numbers since he’ll be on a better team.
I agree that Bogey needed to be signed based on the arrival of Mayer and that could have been done if Bloom had any clue how to be a GM.
Pads Fans
The teams don’t trust their eyes. They know that their eyes can lie. So they use advanced stats based on advanced tech watching the players. Same tech StatCast and BIS use.
Bogaerts is an elite SS today and will be for a few more seasons. Eventually Bogaerts will move off SS. If he goes to 3B that is fine because 3B is a far more valuable position than DH.
Devers will either be a DH or a mediocre 3B starting now. His 3.5 WAR in 2021 and 4.4 WAR in 2022 was good, but not elite at 3B. Middle of the pack for 3B. Only his hitting was elite.
When he moves to DH in the next year or two, his value will drop. If he puts up the same career best numbers at the plate as he did in 2022, his WAR will be 2.4 to 2.5 If he can improve on those numbers to about a 145-146 OPS+, his WAR will be around 3.3 to 3.4.
In no way is that as valuable as Bogaerts as a SS or 3B. 7 years from now at age 36 Bogaerts may be forced to play 1B or even DH.
7 years from now Devers will be in his 5th or 6th season as a DH. He may still be mashing, but his value over those 7 years will be far less than Bogaerts who will have played either SS or 3B that entire time.
Mayer is a completely different discussion. Right now, he has a 1 in 20 shot at ever putting up a single season of 4+ WAR. Those are the odds from 2000-2018 for all position player prospects that graded out at the same 60 that Mayer does today.
TANSTAASTP. – There ain’t no such thing as a sure thing prospect
Cooperdooper7
Lots of assumptions @ PulledaBloom.
This will be my last reply to this group of comments.
FYI… Bogey was my favorite Sox player so don’t think I’m happy to see that he has left the building…. but I do not see it the way you see it.
Your below statement… just more assumptions…… I am not going to waste anymore time in responding to them.
“I’m sure you were a great player in your day and you may have even played against me but clearly you didn’t grow up in a quality baseball program because your coach didn’t teach you about the fundamentals of what makes for a great player and how they will age”.
The one thing i will add is my neighbor and friend is a retired ex MLB player and Manager. I have had many a conversation with him about players of today’s game and asked him last week specifically about Bogaerts and he concurs with my opinions that the Padres made a bad call on that deal. Although he is retired, he still does some part time commentary and appearances for a specific MLB team…. so he is up to date on matters within the sport.
PulledaBloom
Cooper – I’m glad you have baseball people you can discuss things with. I too have multiple sources for baseball discussions and some are players I coached that made it to the MLB and others are coaches who have trained MLB players to hit and field.
Not one of them thinks Devers belongs on defense. Not one of them thinks Devers will age well. Not one of them thinks the SD contract was anything more than SD over reacting and then figuring out a way to lessen the pain in the future by extending the years to lower the AAV.
The question then becomes how many extra years was the Bogaerts contract extended to make the AAV acceptable. The consensus is between 2 to 3 years. At 2 years the real contract was for 9 years at $280MM or $31.1MM per year. That’s a fair market price for Bogaerts today but how long will he live up to that number?.
The big question comes back to will Bogaerts provide $280MM in value to SD during the remainder of his career and will Devers provide $331MM in value to Boston before he is DFA’d or completes his 36 year old season.
Time will tell.
Ebouch25
You make it sound like ownership had zero blame on this. If anything, Bloom is the last person to blame as most of his decisions were made by ownership. He’s a robot.
Amanda17
mlb network legite right now is STILL talking about mookie betts GET OVER ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
PulledaBloom
Bloom supporter – discount the opinion. Devers should be allowed to carry Mookie’s shoes to the HOF because he’d drop them!!
olmtiant
Enough about his defense…. Nearly half the outs in a game are K”s… hell I don’t care if he plays third with a frying pan… to quote Teddy KGB….. pay that man his money……
PulledaBloom
Obviously you never pitched. And you are a Bloom payee.
olmtiant
No never pitched but did play 3b and if I remember not EVERY ball put in play was hit at me….
PulledaBloom
oimtiant – Ahhh, great a 3B. Did you have a decent SS playing next to you or was he a slug? If he was excellent like Bogaerts, did you continuously cut off balls that were routine to him in hopes of being the star player that day and increasing your range factor so the modern metrics would declare you a better player? That’s my issue with the range factor in the modern metrics. It doesn’t penalize bad decisions. Bad decisions increase the range factor when they shouldn’t. That’s why Devers doesn’t look as bad as he is. You watch how much better Bogaerts modern metrics will be in SD playing next to a baseball savvy 3B. His fielding percentage will continue to be near the top but the other metrics will jump without Devers next to him.
Range is important if properly accounted for. Right now the modern metrics have a hole in their formula and Devers benefits from it.
Pads Fans
Over the last 10 seasons, in a 162 game season the ball has been hit to the zone the 3B occupies an average of 622 times. On average, 151 of those result in hits. 477 are balls in play the 3B has an opportunity to make a play on.
Range matters. If you can’t get to the ball, you can’t catch it. It goes in the books as a hit even if a 3B with greater range would have caught the ball and made the out. Devers had the 2nd worst RngR in baseball over the last 3 seasons.
Catching the ball if you get to it matters. If you get there and are only able to knock it down, the batter still gets on base. Devers was had the 2nd highest percentage of balls he got to, but was unable to turn the play over the last 3 seasons. Average for 3B was 88%. Devers was 82%.
Throwing matters. If you get to the ball, catch it, and can’t get the throw accurately to 1B or 2B, then all the rest doesn’t matter. Devers led the league in throwing errors.
Defense at 3B matters and it matters a lot. Of the top 20 contracts for position players today, before today 6 were for 3B. That number does not include Correa or Devers. All of the others are in the top 10 defensively.
PulledaBloom
Pads – Outstanding data!!! I’m really impressed.
In Seager/Hader We Trust > the 70 MM DH Ohtani
Yes! He brought the market down!
bravesfan
Great player, but I have concern that he’ll be good that long. Body type. He could easily trim up and be in great shape, or I’m gonna predict he’ll put on some lbs in a negative way and his defense will definitely suffer if not his offensive also
PulledaBloom
Right about the weight but his defense can’t suffer it’s the worst in baseball.
Smacky
So this guy is worth $110m more than Austin Riley? Seems like they did some serious bidding against themselves here.
Mjm117
Biggest difference in Riley and Devers is that Riley had way more arb years than Devers. I believe like 3 or 4 vs 1 for Devers.
Had Riley had 1 year left, he would have signed for much much more.
Contract aside, I’d prefer Riley still. Future MVP written all over him. F.U. Braves
Smacky
Excellent point!
PulledaBloom
So 2 years of control is worth $110MM. I don’t think so. Massive over pay.
Mjm117
Never said that it does. But I agree that it is an overpay.
JoeBrady
Prices have gone up a lot since then. I never thought I’d see the day when Bogaerts would get anywhere near $285M.
Smacky
Riley signed his extension on trade deadline day.
Pads Fans
I have to agree with you there. I thought Bogaerts would get 7/220. Instead the Padres signed him to a longer deal to get the AAV down to a manageable $25.9 million.
rhswanzey
You can compare 95% of MLB contracts to Atlanta’s pre FA extensions and call them overpays
Smacky
This is a pre-FA deal.
rhswanzey
Didn’t say it wasn’t, although obviously a guy on year 6 is a lot different than approaching Acuna or Albies when they were approached. My point was that “he’s worth X more than Riley?!” is interesting since however it is that Atlanta is doing it, many feel that Atlanta’s extensions as a whole are below market value.
Smacky
Someone already pointed this out to me with significantly less words. Scroll up a bit.
Jimmy joe
Just announced no no trade clause. A sign and trade to the Mets or Dodgers? Do they dare?? I don’t believe they would.
olmtiant
Not unless they had a death wish…..
PulledaBloom
Interesting thought but Bloom isn’t that bright.
Rsox
This isn’t the NBA, MLB doesn’t do sign and trades
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
There you go naysayers. Don’t get on Bloom for letting Bogaerts get away when they finally signed their guy.
PulledaBloom
Yep lets take the one dimensional 3B versus the perennial all-star outfielder, the occasional all-star outfielder or the all-star shortstop.
Great use of their money. ALBATROSS contract by 2026
Wrian Washman
Why would you reduce Devers’ prime to just the next 3 years?
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
I never said whether I agreed with it or not, only pointing out that there are several who blamed Bloom for not spending money and are now appalled that he spent it. You can’t have it both ways.
I’m actually quite neutral on it. I applaud Bloom for getting it done, but like you it’s a lot of money. That being said, I’m choosing not be unreasonable like many fans have been.
JoeBrady
only pointing out that there are several who blamed Bloom for not spending money and are now appalled that he spent it.
========================
It’s mostly only PadsFan and KD.. Most of the fans seem pretty happy with it. The rest of the haters are busy changing their sign-on names.
Pads Fans
Mines been the same for 15 years. Not a hater. A realist. Signing a DH or really, really bad defensive 3B to a $11 year $331 million deal is just not a good deal for the team. No way to spin that its a good deal for anyone except Devers.
AL34
Joe
Glad he signed Devers. Bloom could have had Bogaerts last year on a much cheaper contract than he got with San Diego because the market went up drastically. He wanted to stay in Boston. Now if we could only get Devers to pitch every 5th day that would help. LOL
JoeBrady
AL34,
Thanks for your reply. We have too many people in here that will refuse to admit when the RS do something good. And I am not even a Devers fan. I’d have been okay with trading him, but the contract is both fair and understandable.
IRT Bogaerts, I’m not sure Bloom ever intended on keeping him. The presumption being that Mayer will inherit SS, and either Devers or Bogaerts manning 3rd. The fact that Preller went $100M over expectations just made the process easier on both sides.
Samuel
PulledaBloom;
What a joke you are.
The OF’s wanted out of Boston (because of fans and media like you – what reasonable person wants to put up with “fans” (sic) like you that know nothing at all about baseball…nor respect the game); and the SS that wanted to stay got 35% more than anyone projected for him….or anyone but the Padres crazy owner would pay him.
There are some great Red Sox fans out there. But there are a core of life losers that are truly pathetic human beings. They bring their lack of life accomplishments and unhappiness to this chatroom under every Red Sox article as well as others. It’s no longer funny.
Long before the Red Sox hired him Mr. Bloom accomplished more in his life then you and your buddies ever will.
Get a life pal!
olmtiant
Man Samuel… I haven’t read something that beautiful since Hemingway!!!
Cooperdooper7
EXACTLY
acell10
He’s had it out for Bloom, Devers, and Cora since his screen name was KD17
JoeBrady
It’s no longer funny.
=======================
I thought it was pretty funny when KD said 65 wins was a fantasy, and they won 92. I tortured him so bad that he tried to disguise himself by changing his name.
Does that not qualify as funny?
acell10
It qualifies as hilarious. Don’t forget KD17 took an extended hiatus too.
PulledaBloom
Samuel – Got a life thanks for your concern. Unfortunately I have to deal with tools like you who profess themselves knowledgeable about a game they don’t understand.
Mookie wanted out because they didn’t offer him fair value. Is that wanting out or simply wanting fair pay? He got it in LAD. Benny was traded not because he wanted out but because Bloom wanted the DD guys gone. Your comments about Bogaerts are inaccurate but Bloom supporters don’t care about accuracy it’s all about the volume of insults.
Bogey deserved over $30MM per year now. With Mayer coming the new deal should have been for market value with an opt out after 3 years by both sides. That way both Bogey and the Red Sox have options depending on how Bogey performs. If he plays well, his $30MM per year will be market value and if he plays poorly or Mayer is ready they opt out and he is a free agent. The 11 years was a knee jerk reaction in SD just like the Devers deal was a knee jerk reaction by Bloom in hopes of saving his job.
Why a guy like you gets personal and tries to disparage another human being for not agreeing with you is despicable What’s wrong with you? Everyone is entitled to an opinion even if it disagrees with yours.
As far as Bloom goes. I accomplished more than him in my career by the age of 25. See I never grossly failed by 25 and he has. Personally, if you are related to him I feel sorry for you. His public embarrassment through his performance at GM is monumental and I’m sure it impacts all his family.
Next time, he should take a job he is qualified for and less public. Failing on such a big stage can be hard on an individual and his family. I feel sorry for you but I’m not going to stop pointing out the continuous mistakes because it upsets you. I’m not a Bloom hater, I hate the moves Bloom has made since arriving in Boston. There is a big difference between the two and small minded Bloom supporters try to make my comments personal. They are simply one baseball fans observations about the bad choices made by his favorite team’s GM. That’s all.
Oh yeah, I’m not your pal after all the insults..
PulledaBloom
oimtiant – Come on admit it, you haven’t read Hemingway!! hahaha
olmtiant
Guilty as charged…..
JoeBrady
Don’t forget KD17 took an extended hiatus too.
=======================
He had to. His “65 is a fantasy” projection was one of the worst in history. How many teams ever won 27 games more than a projection? So to avoid the embarrassment, he went ghost, then changed his name.
But then started posting the 500-word diatribes he is infamous for.
acell10
But then started posting the 500-word diatribes he is infamous for
===========================
You forgot to put harebrained in front of 500.
JoeBrady
Don’t forget KD17 took an extended hiatus too.
=======================
Came back with a vengeance, with 22 posts and counting in this thread.
And oddly enough, 15 posts from Padsfan.
JoeBrady
You forgot to put harebrained in front of 500.
===================
It was implied.
acell10
he like the rest of the fellowship of the miserable that irrationally comment are pretty dense so things that are implied tend to fly over their heads.
Dumpster Divin Theo
Samuel calling out other fan bases as losers? Is this a bit?
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – 4 games over .500 under Bloom and 104 games over .500 under Dombrowski. Enough said.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – You are a genius. You figured it out.
Every negative comment about how bad Bloom is from me using a different ID. I have over 150 of them and I spend the entire day and night trying to off set the paid influences like you and Acell10.
Wow, how embarrassing!!! hahahahaha
acell10
KD 17: I love how you’re still throwing around the word “influencer” like you just learned what it meant in context for the first time.
JoeBrady
It’s been a while since someone referenced the FOM.
PulledaBloom
acell10 – The word is fairly common but not to teenagers. Sorry for expanding your vocabulary.
acell10
KD17: no matter the screen name you use or the length of your posts you still find ways to make absolutely no sense. I know you had to ask your grandchildren what influencer meant a while back so good on you. The rest of us are actually not out of touch grumpy old men like you but you can go back to yelling at whatever cloud got on you nerves hahaha
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
You really sure it’s KD17?
acell10
the short answer is yes. The writing is style is identical (long, rambling, nonsensical obsession with fielding percentage) as are the things he whines about (mainly bloom and Devers), insults toward players and posters he disagrees.
the incredibly immature part is that after making a new screen name when confronted with this he tried to deny it,
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
I get where you are coming from and I remember KD, but there’s still no guarantee it’s him.
acell10
it’s pretty obvious and the evidence speaks for itself at this point.
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
Denial isn’t enough? The only evidence you could get is if you checked IPs. It’s literally the only evidence. Otherwise anyone can mimic. Not that this is even worth arguing about…
acell10
if it isn’t worth arguing why do you keep disagreeing with me. Also why in the world would someone want to mimic KD17 after a many month hiatus?What’s more likely that a guy after months of not posting would go back look at KD’s post and mimic them or that KD changed his name? Obviously the later. The simplest answer is generally the right one.
JoeBrady
It’s literally the only evidence.
================================
I seriously doubt that anyone is going to post 100 rants, sometimes 500-600 words long, just to mimic KD.
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
It’s not worth arguing but I truly am interested in knowing. Whether it is KD or not will not change how I comment or react on here. I’m not disagreeing with you (there is probably validity to what you say), I just don’t know what proof there is.
ClevelandSteelEngines
Reactionary to Boggy leaving. His reps are extension positive, see history (Acuna, Sevy). Placates irate fans. Puts too much on the table for a DH long-term. BUT!!! Get out of jail free with a no-trade clause not included.
Let’s see how this shakes. Ending around 37 yo is significantly better than other deals, but will Devers hold up that long?
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
He can be slotted in to DH at any time.
User 3595123227
DID NOT see this coming. I owe the Red Sox an apology. I said he was gone just yesterday.
Sabermetric Acolyte
Now we just need to extend Bogaerts… wait a minute…
whyhayzee
This happened because his agent is not named Boras. It’s that simple.
AL34
No Bloom blew it last season. He needed to negotiate fairly when Bogaerts wanted to stay and not lowball him with that ridiculous one year extension he offered him.
Get Off My Mound
Wow, I really didn’t think they had it in them.
PulledaBloom
Why? Bloom exceeded the CAP last year so the money was there. Bloom has made mistakes on every contract he’s signed so this one is no different.
This makes perfect sense. Over pay for the least valuable homegrown all-star of the last half decade. No better way to screw the Red Sox for the next 10 years.
No trade clauses only matter after Bloom is fired. Bloom can’t deal so no trade clauses are pretty much meaningless with him as GM.
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
No opt outs and no No trade clause protection? Why not get both? Seems like he’s hesitant to sign the extension. Long term deals almost always get no trade clauses included. He’ll only have 5-10 rights.
TheGreatBaseballMind
Towards the end of the article, “many wondered if the Friar Faithful would have to endure” . . . Friar Faithful?
TheGreatBaseballMind
Boston Padres?
BenBenBen
I saw that too. I guess he meant Fenway? They really gotta edit these articles instead of being “first first first!”
TheGreatBaseballMind
Hello, Triple Ben 🙂 Darragh wrote Bogaerts and California in the previous sentence. I think he had San Diego on his mind and Friar typed out i stead of Fenway. We all know Darragh knows. 🙂
manfraud
100% meant Fenway Faithful but had Padres on the mind
BeansforJesus
I think he meant Fryer Faithful. Have you seen the fans at Fenway?
TheGreatBaseballMind
??? Not sure what that means.
Thec’s
Great signing! Now we have something to build around. Hopefully the kids coming up will pan out!
AL34
Yes it is but we do not have near enough pitching with three major question marks in Sale, Paxton, and Kluber, and not of the rookies brought up last year did anything near earth shattering. Pitching Pitching Pitching and Pitching
dirty617water
Bloom might keep his job.
olmtiant
I hope so just to piss off pulledabloom!!!
PulledaBloom
Oimtiant – Don’t you really mean so you can keep your job? hahaha
Paid Influencer. – not good at it but very persistent.
foppert
Nice work to all involved. Good news for Red Sox fans is a welcome sight, and men extending with the team that developed them is good for baseball.
Yankeesforever
considering the overwhelmingly negative sentiment prevailing among Red Sox fans, this had to be done otherwise this franchise might as well have followed the Braves out of town,
PhiladelphiaCollins
Well….
That’s, pretty cool.
gorav114
Hope the Orioles see that if they want to compete in the East they need to take a page from the Braves and start signing the young guys to extensions.
yewed
If that’s all it took, maybe fans should have started booing Henry a few years ago.
Ebouch25
I see a lot of comments about how the AAV is too high since his fielding is subpar, but locking him up now at this rate is better than paying the unknown rate in later years. Who knows how high the rate will be for DH’s in the future.
Curly Was The Smart Stooge
I tried to say that…but bravo
In Seager/Hader We Trust > the 70 MM DH Ohtani
I usually think guys are overpaid and still think this was a good deal. Consider inflation in the future and his age. He would have likely gone for 350-400 I think. This will put those moronic Jung for Devers rumors to rest. Neither team would have done it.
Bobby smac9
I got this wrong. Did not think they’d get it done. I certainly like being wrong with this extension!
Balding Vinny
Wonder if Gleyber is going to sign his monster extension next….
YankeesBleacherCreature
Probably not. The Yankees and their fans don’t hold Gleyber in the same esteem as Devers to RS fans. They may actually trade him at the deadline if their young guys are ready for the show.
PinstripedPride
Agreed, I see him as trade bait– if not now, then by the Deadline
Bostonsports85
The things that gets me so furious is the fact that they Knew that they were not signing Bogey let’s be real if they wanted too they would have awhile ago prime example look at devers look how quick they pulled the trigger .. maybe management was actually listening this time and heard us .. BUT ANY WAY BACK TOO MY POINT If u knew u didn’t want bogey back why did u NOT TRADE HIM FOR A HUGE HAUL I don’t care what type of message it sends because they didnt care about the message of letting him walk in free agency so again I ask WHY DID U NOT TRADE him for something and yeah everyone knew he was leaving Boston but he could have liked the new place he was playing for and could have opted too stay in the contract if he liked it so much so teams had that advantage. That truly shows that management doesn’t know how too run a franchise. U could have gotten atleast a MLB player or two plus some minor leaguers that were high rated .. I really hate our management!!
Bobby smac9
He had a no trade contract. Management wanted him back but, only at a team friendly price.
DarrenDreifortsContract
One of the worse contracts in MLB history. 300 plus million for a modern day J.D. Drew.
JudgementDay
Devers is a good hitter and should able to produce for the next 6 years. Not to be mean but shouldn’t that money be better spent on pitching because the Sox rotation isn’t very good.
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
Bloom wants starters that can get us far but would rather maximize the bullpen and use spot starters to eat innings.
slider32
Great signing for the Sox, this is the start of the rebuid. Without him they were going nowhere fast!
RoadToRio
Minor correction. The article above referred to the Sox fans as the “Friar Faithful” (seventh paragraph). I reckon the friar faithful are the Padres fans. There are some references to the Boegarts trade to SD at that part in the story, so I suppose it is an honest mistake.
ALOnlyGuy
Anyone interested in joining an AL only keeper league?
Ol Scotty boy
Awesome! Now let’s get the party started Chaim. Your balls finally made it out of the bag. Feels good huh? Sweet! Get on the phone w/ A.J.There’s a certain outfielder that’s run out of favor that’s owed a ton of dough. Not to mention he’s run out love from his amigos on the team. Take on the salary & you’ll probably get a little help w/ the $. Trade won’t require as much as you would think. I can give you a few names but…. I don’t want to make your job that ez. Think Sale my man. He’ll go there. They have a chance to win it all. You need his approval remember? Then C.B. Let’s call Pittsburgh & grab their centerfielder. Ben won’t mind. Give him Verdugo, Seabold & whatever else it friggun takes! Then call Miami & get a pitcher w/ the other Raffy everyone is raving about down in the minors & throw in Bobby Dalbec. They need power bats. Bobby has the potential Sssshhhh!!!! We have seen enough of him & he’s controllable & cheap. It takes some tough decisions boss! Act like one & keep those britches down while your calling. It’ll help. I promise. Also Chaim…. I love the risky signing from the on base machine from Japan. Get the other two outfielders & we at least start fresh. Kiki can play wherever needed. Plus sign a SS or include him in your trade w/ Miami. Otherwise go low $$$ this year w/ Iglesias. Not a sexy pick but he gets on base & he can handle Boston. If he fails? Then bring up Mayer after the break if it’s warranted & let’s see what that young fella can do. Ok…. Now that’s pretty much it. Blast away MLBTRS readers! Or… did I get any thing right? Either way my friends. Let’s see it.
Ebouch25
You’re giving Bloom way too much credit. He’s a robot who operates on ownership’s commands. Even if this was his idea the owners still have to sign off on it.
Carl W.
I’m not a Red Sox fan but am still happy for them. As a Twins fan I was hoping we could trade for him and due something similar. That being said, he belongs there; it’s been an ugly offseason for both our teams. At least you have a jersey you can wear for the next ten years. Congrats Raffy and Sox fans!
rememberthecoop
Not a Sox fan, but good on them for stepping up big time! He got a higher AAV than I expected. But this is a solid signing, given his age. 10 years only takes them through his age–36 season, so not too many decline years.
wrigley
I was hoping. UBS would sign him as a free agent next Winter.
Every-Sha-La-La-La
When you look at his hitting stats and see that he’s up there with the Red Sox greats there really was no excuse to not sign him long-term.
I only wish he still talked to himself every time he was up at bat. That only added to the entertainment value that he is. Looking forward to seeing him on the field for many years to come.
olmtiant
I would hate to see them move Houck, especially as it would be on the low…. Someone/ ANYONE please tell me the last time the Redsox had a home grown pitcher they could get excited about not named Lester??? Hell even Pap…. ( crickets………………) Would like to hear your thoughts ladies and gentlemen ( previous thread)
acell10
you’re not wrong but I think Bello might have the higher upside especially as a starter.
LFGSD619
Why would the Friar Faithful (Padres fans) have to endure Devers departing?
Fg-3
30 mil for 11 years..Fenway will be rocking for a guy on decline already. Should have paid Xander. Fools money
Rsox
“Decline”? Raffy hit almost .300 with 27 HR’s. It’s not his fault the rest of the lineup underperformed for the entire season
Fg-3
So it’s the other players fault.. he’s a very good 3b but he’s not Nolan Arrenado. Not even close. You enjoy this contract. Good luck. Xander is a much better investment.. or was
Rsox
Xander is a great player but i think if most of us had to choose who to give the decade+ contract to the answer would be Devers. Only 26, not even in his prime yet and lots of room to grow.
I wonder do you speak as a Red Sox fan upset they signed Devers over Bogaerts or as a fan of a team you were hoping would get the chance to sign Raffy next winter?
Fg-3
So it’s the other players fault.. he’s a very good 3b but he’s not Nolan Arrenado. Not even close. You enjoy this contract. Good luck. Xander is a much better investment.. or
Fg-3
So it’s the other players fault.. he’s a very good 3b but he’s not Nolan Arrenado. Not even close. You enjoy this contract. Good luck. Xander is a much better investment.. or was for you
Ebouch25
Devers is better than Bogaerts. You named the wrong player on the decline. Bogaerts power numbers have decided steadily over the past few years while half his games were at the shortest left field in baseball. His new home is one of the largest. His decline will be on full display now.
Pads Fans
Devers was a better hitter than Bogaerts in 2022, not a better player. 5.8 WAR vs 4.4 WAR. Its not close.
Based on OPS+ which takes both the park and the league into account, Devers has not been a better hitter than Bogaerts since Devers became a full time player in 2018.
AL34
I glad they signed Devers. You could have had Bogaerts cheaper during the season last year. It was a big mistake one to lowball him with that ridiculous one year extension and two not to get him signed during last season. Once you let the market determine the price, it was going to go up drastically like it always does. Big mistake letting Bogaerts hit free agency.
bcjd
Personally, I would rather have had Bogaerts’ contract than Devers’ contract. I think Xander has proven that he’s going to be a hard working team player until the day he retires. Rafael seems like the kind of player who might let himself go soft now that his big payday is guaranteed. I hope I’m wrong.
acell10
what are you basing this assessment of Devers on? He’s been a consummate professional so far.
PulledaBloom
acell10 – Pay attention. bcjd is spot on. Devers is selfish and self centered. Bogey put up with him cutting in front of him on balls he had no business trying to cut off. That’s a guy trying to make a dumb rookie feel good about himself. Bogey is a team guy and Devers plays for himself.
Do you even watch the game? The body language? The attitude of the players? Devers is all about Devers whether he’s talking to himself at the plate so he brings attention to himself or trying to steal OOA from Bogey on balls that he has no business going after. Devers better perform at a Papi level going forward or his presents in the clubhouse will be that of an aging overweight disgruntled employee.
acell10
KD!7: Based on all your comments its obvious that you don’t watch the game. Your hatred toward this player is so toxic and craven it’s ridiculous. You have zero evidence to support your conclusion that Devers “isn’t a team guy” and are basing this wild assumption on nothing but your clearly biased perception. You’re not a body language expert.
PulledaBloom
Acell10 – Now that I know you are a youngster I’ll lighten up on comments to you. If you had actually played the game and was a shortstop you would be furious at the selfish behavior of Devers to your right. He hurts the team with his inability to figure out which balls to pursue and which to allow to go to Bogaerts.
That’s the textbook definition of a selfish player. He does what’s best for him and not what’s best for the team or his team mate.
I shouldn’t have to explain simple concepts like this but I’m happy to do it. Let me know when you graduate 8th grade. I’ll give you a shout out along with JoeBrady.
acell10
jeez dude almost two days later and your respond to me KD17? I could start opening Starbucks franchises in the amount of space I’m leasing in your brain for free. It’s almost pathetic.
Based on your comments it so obvious that you not only did you never played the game but don’t actually watch it either. You’re just a bitter old jealous man who peddles is perception instead of facts with a hair across his a$$ for devers for some reason.
In Seager/Hader We Trust > the 70 MM DH Ohtani
Can fans stop whinning about problems and just enjoy (or let Red Sox fans enjoy) this signing? I think it’s below market rate if Rendon got 35 million AAV, and even then, this is just 1 guy. They aren’t singing 10 guys like this. Take a moment to enjoy stuff. I hated the Semien contract and the Gray contract. Still, at least take in the short-term satisfaction and know that inflation will make this deal a lot cheaper in 5 years in the middle of the deal than it seems now. There will always be something to complain about, but let the joy last at least a week or two. Even if you guys don’t like what they have done, look at the outfielder they got and this guy, along with Story and Sale. It’s a fun team to watch, with the 2nd best lefty in baseball and arguably a top 3 pitcher in baseball.
spareman7 2
I’m not ready to jump up and down nor am I ready to come back to the Red Sox. I afraid I see something that most I guess don’t yet and that is finding a team to trade Rafael to that will pick most of his contract. if you believe they will keep him more than a couple of years than……………………
JoeBrady
nor am I ready to come back to the Red Sox.
———————-
Take your time, say 10-20 years. The RSN will survive.
Sid Bream Speed Demon
So much narcissism in one post to unpack.
Ebouch25
I can’t believe people actually think Bloom makes a decision and reports it back to ownership. I am in no way saying he is a good GM, but the guy does what he is told. Trading Betts, not signing Bogaerts, and extending Devers was an order he was given. Do you really think ownership is not involved in any of this?
Old York
I guess the one benefit of the universal DH is that MLB can dish out these long contracts that never work out, but at least by the time they’re old geezers, they can just play the DH role until the contract ends I give Devers another 5 years before that happens.
Sid Bream Speed Demon
Ownership was beholden to their nutty fan base, but exactly like Aaron Judge, this contract is over $300 million and it didn’t add a single thing to the team. At least, unlike Judge, Devers is young. But that is a lot of status quo money to appease a fan base late in free agency. This can’t end up being all they do or there is no legit reason to have done it.
Fg-3
It’s just funny that they paid a 3b 300 mil
Not Betts not Xander. Odd to me. But end of day. He’s all yours baby. We have a real 30 mil player in Judge. Who puts up real numbers.
Jake Biggar
I agree we absolutely should have paid Betts but while I love Xander but he’s not worth 300 million. Judge is amazing but c’mon Devers is about as good of a hitter in the league as you’re going to find and he’s also just 25. He would’ve been the perfect player for the Yankees next offseason to play third in that ballpark! That was the real worry for me.
Killer Refrigerator
A “real player like Judge who puts up real numbers?” Mr. May – the guy who was booed by his own fan base during the post season – the guy who isn’t clutch when it counts – the guy, despite hitting 62 homers during the regular season, couldn’t hit a beach ball when it counted most. That Aaron Judge? It’s just funny to me that the Yankees would pay 300 million for a guy who’s done ZERO in the post season throughout his career and has never won a championship. Captain Judge – He’s all yours baby!
waldfee
As I’ve said back in October, Devers will eventually get something close to his market value of $351M/12 years.
rhswanzey
Remember when 20-year-old Devers hit a huge clutch home run off of peak Aroldis Chapman in August 2017?
“Prior to Devers’ home run on Sunday night, Chapman had given up just one home run to a lefty hitter — Luke Scott in June 2011.
102.8 miles per hour
We know Chapman throws heat, and he stuck with that theme on his offering to Devers. This 102.8-mph pitch was the fastest pitch hit for a home run in the pitch-tracking era. (Since 2008). Kurt Suzuki hit a 102.4-mph pitch last season off, who else, Chapman.”
Jake Biggar
I remember when this happened we all saw the potential and knew he was going to be a stud hitter. Absolutely awesome!! So happy we paid him
kodion
Aside from stealing a few more bases, so far Devers = Papi thru 2004.
In Ortiz’s case, the next 12 years produced an OPS+ of 149. THAT is what a stud hitter does.
We’ll see what Devers has in him.
(Full disclosure: Jays fan first here. The only good news about this deal for us is …The coinciding move to a balanced schedule.)
PinstripedPride
Holy smokes, I honestly did not see this happening. I stand corrected. Bloom actually had the stones to pay up!
Em 2
I think the ballsy thing to do would be to not pay him
Poster formerly known as . . .
Bloom didn’t pay — Henry did.
Bright Side
The Yankees in winter 2023 would have been in a position to make a serious bid for Devers after freeing up at least $31mil from Donaldson and IKF. Left handed power is valuable. That said, there are a few caveats with Devers: he’s awful defensively. With his build, I doubt he’ll be playable at 3B in a few years, Secondly, he doesn’t walk as much as you expect from a hitter of his stature. His chase rate is terrible. I wonder if he was pressing as he was getting closer to free agency. Overall, he’s got an elite swing and if he improves his plate discipline, his defense won’t matter. I like Cassas and Bello and with Mayer expected to start the season in AA, the Red Sox have quietly built a great nucleus for the near future. I say this as a Yankees fan.
riffraff
He will be traded to the Mets once Max and Justin come off the books. Wouldn’t be surprised if they already had a handshake agreement.
Amanda17
is most of the contract in marshmallows and candy, or does he just have a fat pudgy face by accident? good to see dough boy sticking around, when hes to fat to run in a few years and will just DH maybe they will ask him to you know.. LOOSE WEIGHT. Seriously look at his face when he hits a home run, he looks like a fat lil kid that never lost his baby weight.
JoeBrady
Amanda, you are damaged goods. It is okay to say a person needs to lose weight without resorting a bunch of insults.
And while I an not the grammar police, in your case, I will make an exception. The phrase you are looking for is “lose weight”, not “LOOSE WEIGHT”
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – Amanda is right. This guy will look like Panda especially after signing this contract. His 30s will be ugly. His emotional immaturity when he fails is going to be monumental in 2023 since his protection is all gone.
Be prepared for a season of Devers tantrums.
JoeBrady
Amanda is right.
========================
Maybe by your standards, but calling someone a “fat pudgy face”, “dough boy”, “fat lil kid”, etc., is never okay. I’ve used those terms when I was a kid, but I was wrong to do so.
Adults should steer clear of gratuitous insults.
Killer Refrigerator
And if he left you’d be bitching about that – you would’ve said the same thing if you were a Twins fan and Kirby Puckett was in this very scenario.
Northeasternskier
This wasn’t a “we heard the fans loud and clear” moment. They had this planned the entire time. They knew Bogie was going to blow over their highest bid. They gave Bogey time to depart, set a reasonable final arb year salary and gave Devers the contract they always knew they were going to. Boston exec’s planned and executed.
Whiney fair weather fans had nuttin’ to do wit’ it.
JoeBrady
Northeasternskier
They had this planned the entire time.
===========================
There is no way to prove it, but I would guess that is more likely than not.
A couple of weeks back, I pondered that I thought Bloom was painting himself into a corner. Like the signings or not, there were not enough quality FAs left for him to spend the amount he had under the budget.
With Devers, and presumably Turner, it looks like we are going to be at about $230M. Either we got really lucky, or Bloom had this number already set.
My pure guess is that Devers’ agent had the number in mind, and was waiting for the RS to finalize the rest of their signings before putting ink on the contract.
fatdumbandhappy
Beyond happy with this signing
Chemo850
I have no clue why so many Red Sox fans are happy about this. The team just paid 300 million for a DH.
baseballteam
So true Chemo.
Amanda17
The yankees never would have signed him, they wouldnt want an overweight 3rd baseman whos horrible defensively, like im guessing you dont watch the red sox nightly, unfortunately i do and how bad he is as a 3rd baseman really cant be measured defensively, i just hope the red sox put something about his weight in the contract/conditioning, i was surprised the yankees signed rondon with him being as fat as he is, but i guess they didnt care, still i dont get why these guys dont take their health and weight seriously.
Amanda17
happy? no, were not, they had 3 tremendous players and they overpayed the worst out of them.
drasco036
I don’t think Devers is worse than Bogaerts and in Betts case, he just wasn’t going to re-sign/extend for Boston.
I do think 31.5 million or whatever it is for a guy who’s going to be DHing the majority of that contract is too much but it’s not my money. The loss of Boggy and Betts, IMO, led to the Red Sox basically panicking and paying more than what he would have gotten on the open market.
The good thing for Boston is you have a middle of the order hitter locked up and he’s young so the odds of his contract hurting the Sox too bad are not that high (unlike Bogaerts in San Diego).
The bad news is that the Sox got nothing for Eovaldi, Bogaerts or Martinez in terms of prospects to aid in the rebuilding efforts.
PulledaBloom
Betts didn’t sign in Boston because DD got fired. Betts had issues with the owners because of their treatment of black players. He expressed his views and became person non grata to the owners. DD only wanted to win so he wanted Betts back and his job was to smooth things out. He got fired because he was trying to do his job and keep the team at a championship level.
This is on the owners but it’s just as much on Bloom for taking a job where he was paid to dismantle a dynasty line-up. There were no money issues because DD didn’t create the money problems, Cherington did. Just like Bloom just created problems for future GMs with this Devers deal.
Bloom could have had a 2023 line-up with Benny in left for $15MM, Mookie in right for $36MM, Devers at DH for $21MM (like Alvarez in Houston), Bogaerts at SS for $31MM, Story at 2B for $23MM, Casas at 1B for under $1MM, Duran in CF for under $1MM or a FA, Vazquez at C for $10MM. That would have cost the team $138MM leaving roughly $100MM for pitching with Sale at $25.6MM. That team would win 30 more games a year than our current team. (my estimate it could be more). But instead Bloom destroyed the great Red Sox dynasty and replaced it with an ill thought out mess. Who’s at 3B? The Butcher? SS? is it Story or a FA that is cheap. 2B? Story or Arroyo. 1B? Casas or a cheap FA? DH is it Devers like it should be or the equally hapless defender Yoshida? The outfield is in the worst shape it’s been in for more than a decade. The top outfielder is league average, the others are less.
Bloom apologists always try to justify Mookie not being here. There is no excuse for Mookie not being the face of the franchise. The owners screwed up and so did Bloom. LAD took advantage of the owners perspective on Mookie and now LAD has an all-star for a decade and we get to watch guys like Refsnyder and now Verdugo struggle to field in right and put up an OPS+ 30 points lower than Mookie.
The fans have been abused after 15 great years. New ownership would be a great change that will trigger better changes at GM and Manager.
Amanda17
Bloom actually had the stones to pay up!’ since when does chaim bloom own the boston red sox?
LordD99
Bloom has little say when it comes to big money moves. It was Henry. Perhaps getting boo’ed at Fenway at the winter classic the other day made him realize his absentee ownership means he’s no longer beloved by Red Sox nation, so he opened up his wallet instead of the front door so another star player didn’t leave.
baseballteam
DH.
luckyh
Players really do hate it in Boston…
mrgreenjeans
11 year deal it all rolls into one. Stop trying to be smartest guy in the room.. “mlbtr thinks 10 year deal .. bunch of non jock wearing never playing boobs “
BillMueller326
Yayyy!! Now do Bogaerts!…oh…wait
In Seager/Hader We Trust > the 70 MM DH Ohtani
Seeing Correa’s name removed from the top 20 list made me laugh. Also, seeing pending physical next to Devers’ deal is becoming more significant by the day, as Correa’s situation turns into a comedy show.
Viveleempireevil
This will go down in the annals of Sawx history as the single worst contract ever done. By the 4th or 5th year of this monstrosity, with Devers looking like the Kung Fu Panda and eating himself out of relevancy and the Sawx are losing like dawgs, there will be a chorus of derisive hooting at Chaim Bloom (who will be long gone by then and running analytics for the Kenosha Kickers). Well done!
acoss13
Looks like Bloom avoided another Mookie Betts scenario good for Devers and Red Sox fans should be happy a homegrown player was extended.
sliderwithcheeze
Players that sign long term deals are cowards that are too afraid of change.
MetsFan34
lol wut?
Viveleempireevil
Yes but…they’re rich cowards.
Jimmy joe
Now a three way trade is set up. Devers goes to the Dodgers. Marlins get Dodger prospects. Sox get Alcantara and a prospect. What say you?
PipptyPoppitygivemetheZoppity
Prob will happen after this season tbh
madmc44
I say John Henry didn’t make his money investing in poor talent. He quieted the fan base for 12 hours. Secured a talent for his career and if by the Trade Deadline the Sox are out of it this year or next Bloom will be ready to find some diamonds in the rough, which is his calling card. In the meantime see if you can find some nice things to say about Raffy, Bloom, Henry and Werner. So what do you like about this Winter?
In Seager/Hader We Trust > the 70 MM DH Ohtani
The Marlins GM and front office may just give off Alcantara for some random prospects outside anyone’s top 30 just because they are so bad. They may pull a Sean Murphy. Still, that outcome is highly unlikely, given that ownership will likely reject that.
madmc44
Extending Raffy buys time. It doesn’t put them over the Luxury Tax this year. It might give them the flexibility to sign Wacha and solidify the rotation. It gives them time to see what happens with Paxton and Sale in ST. and whether Mata has recovered from his arm concerns.
I think you will see Story ultimately stay at 2nd, Andrus or Iggy signed to play SS. Perhaps Casas will be traded for youngish pitching.
Camila's Daddy
Not in disagreement with most you here, predicting Devers’body will deteriorate during the life of the contract. Just trying to understand why.
In the NFL and NBA guys are constantly getting in the best shapes of their lives in their early to mid 30s. Their level of fitness is astonishing to me.
And yet I rarely hear of ANY baseball players this happens to.
Is it because they have to spend an insane amount of time in the cages hitting? Pure laziness? Something else?
JoeBrady
I’d say:
1-FB and B-ball practice is like going to the gym for 2 hours, so that might be 5 intense workouts a week.
2-There are probably 10x as many fat FB players as there are BB players, including OL and DL. You don’t see many fat BB players outside of DH, 1B, and pitchers.
3-And fitness matters more to FB players. FB is, for the most part, is a brute-force game. For BB players, half the game is hand-eye coordination.
olmtiant
Joe.. he’s not heavy… he’s our Deverrrrsss
JoeBrady
And I just wanted to say good morning to GASoxFan, Randy, AL34, Park whatever, etc.
Oh wait, they’ve all gone ghost.
“I will never forget the look on their faces. All eight of them. Their faces dropped. All their courage and strength was drained right from their bodies.”
MLB-1971
Joe – I muted GASoxFan, Randy, AL34, Park….. as they have nothing but garbage to contribute to this forum KD17 too. I am surprised everyone has not muted these fools.
acell10
Might want to add KD17’s new name to that list of mutes too
MLB-1971
Acell10 – what is KD17’s new name? I will definitely add it if I have not already. He thousands of words are a complete waste of time which I stopped reading years ago.
JoeBrady
KD is infinitely more entertaining. GA, Randy, AL & Park just recycle the same remarks over and over. Any signing is met with a response of “bad signing, him stoopid”.
But KD is the gift that keeps on giving. He’s already doubled down on his embarrassing 2021 prediction of 65 wins. That should be fun until he changes his name again.
acell10
He doesn’t really bother me that much. I don’t mute people but he’s pretty easy to spot. Look for the longest post that makes the least sense and also includes juvenile insults and personal attacks on players/FO personal he hates and anyone who doesn’t agree with his incredibly slanted/archaic views
PulledaBloom
Guys – Thanks for sharing the love!!! Keep reading my stuff or as much as your mind can comprehend. I know comments longer than tweets are taboo with you guys.
You always confuse adamant dissatisfaction with the organization and people with hatred. That is very small minded of you. I hate nobody. I dislike choices people make, organizations make and performance by players. I also like choices people make, organizations make and performance by players.
The reason things are on a downward trend with more negativity than positivity is simple. Bad choices got triggered when DD was fired and the single snow ball has turned into an avalanche of bad choices.
Freedom of speech allows me to condone the good and condemn the bad. You guys seem to think you are the final judges of what can be said. That level of maturity in a free society suggests you are short on life experiences and long on self declarations of knowledge.
Not one of the people you called out care about your opinions. They are adults who have observed a great franchise failing and enjoy discussing it on this site. just like me. They simply have chosen to ignore your ignorance and I prefer to make fun of it. To each his or her own.
Good luck trying to rally the youngsters to create a bullying brigade on this site. The adults really don’t care what you do but we may call your parents if you keep this up!! hahaha
acell10
ok old man KD17. Whomever is you caretake needs to remember to take the keyboard away from you when you start sundowning.
AL34
What are you talking about? Devers is a good player and yeah I thought we should have signed Betts and Bogaerts when he was a lot cheaper earlier this past season.
I still do not think we have near enough pitching with three question marks for fragility at the top of the rotation in Sale, Paxton, and Kluber.
30 Parks
A tough way to learn this market-driven-lesson in letting Betts and Bogaerts leave town – akin to slamming the barn door closed with the horse already a mile down the road in a full gallop. Bloom and Henry have a shared history of misreading the baseball market, so it’s nice to see them, at least, reacting to their self-propelled mistakes. A little boo’ing at a Bruins’ game was all it took – who knew?
Mrski
Would have looked good in a Mets uniform. We have one leg Correa
Fg-3
Devers is a good ball player. And the Sox had 2 more real superstars actually 3 with Devers. How they let betts and Xander go is beyond baffling. A core of home grown superstars. And they have one left
Wagner>Cobb
And probably could have afforded them all.
websoulsurfer
This signing will not age well, much like the corpulent Devers. He is a very good hitter that keeps getting rounder and rounder at a very young age. Maybe this contract will kick him in the behind to hit the gym and lay off the tostones and yaroa. Prediction: Panda 2.0.
Bruin1012
Websoulsurfer I don’t see Panda 2.0. Devers was noticeably slimmer in 2002 he was definitely chubby when he first arrived but he looked pretty good in 2022. I will be interested to see how he looks when he arrives at camp after inking that big deal. I think he lost something like 45 pounds and was down to 210 in 2022. I noticed the weight loss right away he keeps the weight down in that 210- 215 range he will be fine.
PulledaBloom
Bruin1012 – Miggy looked fine at 25. He fell off after 33. Pujols looked fine at 25 and he fell off dramatically after 32. Body type is important.
Two players with far more skill than Devers and they both disappeared by 34 and they were in better shape than Devers when they were young. It’s great to be optimistic but he’s a Panda waiting to happen. I could name another dozen guys with his build that all fell off dramatically after 30. Best case, move him to DH and make him run with the pitchers.
Bruin1012
Your right and your wrong PulledaBloom or KD17. The good news is your right Miggy and Pujols are hitting savants they are incredible hitters and I would never compare Devers to either one of them. You are wrong though when it comes to athletes Devers is superior to both as an athlete. Miggy was a horrible defender at third he made Devers look like a gold glove in comparison. Pujols was a first baseman and not anywhere near the athlete Devers is.
The real question is, after getting paid, Devers motivated to continue to coming into camp in shape. This will tell a lot but I can’t see him being anything near Panda 2.0.
JoeBrady
Devers is superior to both as an athlete.
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Devers is a very good athlete. Too many people commingle athleticism with conditioning and with being skinny. Devers is about as strong as anyone in the league, imho, and has considerable range at 3rd. And again, too many people confuse mental errors with athleticism.
Bruin1012
Joe, I have argued for a long time that Devers is more then athletic enough to play third but that he has mental lapses that hopefully will get better as he ages. He is still only 26.
PulledaBloom
Bruin1012 – Seriously Devers better than Miggy on defense?. That’s so far from the truth!! I hate when you write such incorrect stuff. Here are the facts.
AGE – Fielding percentage
20 – Miggy ..986 Devers – .906 (Miggy 80 points higher)
21 – Miggly played OF and DH only Devers – .926 (no comparison)
22 – Miggy .971 Devers – .949 (Miggy above league average Devers NOT)
23 – Miggy .957 Devers – .891 (Miggy league average Devers embarrassing)
24 – Miggy .941 Devers – .950 (Miggy drops off to Devers level)
25 – Miggy Moved to 1B after Devers-like season at 24
Devers – .964 (still below league average)
Side note: Check Baseball reference for the base hits to 3B in 2022. They doubled from 2021 meaning twice as many balls were fielded by Devers but he couldn’t get the out so the scorekeeper didn’t give him an error and the pitcher got saddled with a hit on a ball that most 3Bs would retire the batter.
This small illusion by the Red Sox score keeper makes it seem like Devers is improving when he is actually regressing in percentage of balls fielded successfully turned into outs.
Miggy started as an excellent fielder but after 3 years dropped off to the point where Devers has been his whole career so they moved him to 1B at age 25. Devers should have been moved to DH at age 23!!
You’ll need to explain what an athlete is because if you don’t think Pujols was an athlete there is no point in having a discussion. Did you ever see him in person? Pujols stole roughly 15 bases at age 25, 29 and 30. Devers stole 8 at age 22 and 8 more since in three years. Not sure what you are smoking but Pujols was built like The Rock and could steal bases. How is that not an athlete?
You are right though on the “will he work out now that he’s set for life” question. Kids and family impact athletes differently. At 26 he’ll need to be the head of his household and will continue to have home made meals in the off season. It may be way too tempting for a guy with that much money in the bank to lay off the family meals. If he hits to age 30 it will be a miracle!!
websoulsurfer
Devers was 6 years old in 2002, so I am hoping he weighed much less than the 250-260 he was carrying at the end of last season.
He came into the league at 20 years old carrying 237 and a quick look at any photo of him then and at the end of 2022 show he has grown, not shrunk.
The only time Devers has looked like he lost any weight was the 2018-2019 offseason and by the time the season started in 2020 he was closer to 260.
Bruin1012
Web, that’s simply not true Devers was noticeably thinner to start 2022. I read an article that talks about him losing 45 pounds before the 2022 season. Not real sure what you were watching but I noticed he was slimmer in 2022 as well.
JoeBrady
He was obviously a lot thinner at the start of 2022.
OTOH, while folks are happy that he lost 45 pounds, my concern is “why did he need to lose 45 pounds?”. I know some players start to pack it on as they age, but he is not that old, and this isn’t 1-2 pounds a year.
JoeBrady
No comparison imo. Panda was already in decline for a couple of years when we signed him. And Devers, even though his weight is a concern, is in much. much better condition than Panda. Panda was one of the fattest people I’ve ever seen, athlete or otherwise.
AL34
Panda was an utter disgrace in the shape he kept himself in. He looked like a Beer League Softball Player instead of a ball player. Remember when he broke his belt swinging at a pitch? Hanley Ramirez was a talented player with a 50 cent head and a disciplinary problem with the Marlins.
JoeBrady
I genuinely thought there was a chance he could have a heart attack on the field. I’m not sure how the RS could think he was a player at that point. I’m guessing it was one of the marketing knuckleheads thinking we’d sell a million jerseys.
AL34
I was stunned that the Red Sox did not put him through a medical before finalizing that contract. I would never have signed him in the shape he was in
Poolhalljunkies
When has his current shape been a problem on the field? how do you know he is out of shape? are you a doctor who has examined him? are you just judgeing based on appearance?
Craigs Checkbook
I am now closed for business!
AL34
I am positively ecstatic that they signed Devers. I am also not happy they traded Betts away for really nothing. I am not happy that they let Bogaerts go when they could have signed him last year when he clearly wanted to stay. This 2023 team has a lot of holes on it at shortstop, at centerfielder at DH, and a lot of questions with the starting pitching. Sale has been hurt the last two years including Paxton, as well as Kluber. Pivetta is not a consistent starter and is very inconsistent. All the top free agent pitchers are gone. With all these question marks, this team is destined for 5th place. Chaim Bloom did not improve the team this year and it will show.
AL34
I am positively ecstatic that they signed Devers. I am also not happy they traded Betts away for really nothing. I am not happy that they let Bogaerts go when they could have signed him last year when he clearly wanted to stay. This 2023 team has a lot of holes on it at shortstop, at centerfielder at DH, and a lot of questions with the starting pitching. Sale has been hurt the last two years including Paxton, as well as Kluber. Pivetta is not a consistent starter and is very inconsistent. All the top free agent pitchers are gone. With all these question marks, this team is destined for 5th place. Chaim Bloom did not improve the team this year and it will show. The Boston Fans and Media will remember this and will not be kind to Chaim Bloom with the mess he put together this year.
rememberthecoop
If the contract doesn’t start until 2024, how is that NOT circumventing the CBA rules for the luxury tax? It even states in the report that it was done for luxury tax purposes!
acell10
because it’s an extension that they are tacking on to the one year agreement he signed to avoid arbitration. It’s really no less blatant than adding a bunch of fake years to the end of contracts like the Phillies, Yankees and Padres did this off season.
Salvi
2 separate contracts. He is under contract for this year. And this is a new contract starting next year, not a ‘re-worked’ contract.
Many teams have done this. There’s nothing shady about it at all. You’re looking for conspiracy where there is none.
Goose
What gets left out of the Mookie and Boegarts discussion are both were older and the contracts carried well into declining years. I don’t think the Sox wanted to end up in a Pujols/Cabrera scenario where you are stuck with a bad and non-tradeable contract for 3 or 4 years on the back end.
acell10
in fairness to the mistake the tigers made was signing Cabrera to a second extension for even more money after his age 32 season.
@bogie2X
X.Bogaerts became my favourite player, as soon as he appeared in 2013 in the Major.
I so much wanted, that he made off the career in “Red Sox” and his number 2 was discharged.
Bloom or guidance of Boston spoiled a relationship with Xander by this humiliating suggestion in spring 2022 – this was the point of not return.
From home-bred stars that won world series 2018, there are Devers and Barns.
An extension of Devers is correct motion.
I see posts from 2019, that Raffi will fall down, he needs to pass to DH, his attack striped, however Devers proved the second season in succession, that even in spite of damages he can conduct this club.
If he wasn’t prolonged, fans would strew eggs a front-office and Chaim.
I’m a not follower Bloom, it be possible to say, that he doesn’t impress me, as GM, but to discredit every his step, every signing is surplus.
A season didn’t yet begin, and fans already yell about a 5 place.
The devil take it!!! That with you!!!
You are ready to pelt eggs any motion of Bloom, he is liked to you or disliked, even if, this motion goes to the benefit to the club.
I also dislike many his motions for 3 seasons, but to deny circumstance that he did good motions is not right.
I think that Bloom not bad or good GM, he something AV between it.
I want to see that he really can do without a kernel 2018 in this season and ready to give to him last chance.