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.
Woohoo!
Where’s the wow guy??
This seems to be roughly the standard rate for all infielders right now
Congrats
Amen
and Awomen
Wow
Wow
Wow
Wow
Wow
Thank goodness
I’m substituting: Wow
Another crazy contract
This is good for baseball..and Great for Sox
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.
Absolutely. I love it when a player stays on 1 team his whole career. Regardless of the team
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.
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.
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.
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?
I was hoping to resign Devers and sign Judge but we’d be over the tax so maybe just wishful thinking
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.
THANK THE LORD.
What wrath has God wrought?
OOF.
who ever is leaking info to Carlos Baerga is the real hero
Benny Agbayani and Carl Everett missed out on the scoop
Rey Ordonez is still waiting for his text.
Carl Everett needs to see a trade before he will believe it.
Don’t overlook the contributions of Alex Ochoa and Butch Huskey in breaking this story
I heard from Jeff Reardon and Tom Brunansky bmakes the catch!!!
Sandy – Eric Gagne reported Kimbrel was tipping his pitches, Gagne noticed it while watching TV.
True story.
Jeff Passan lies awake at night praying on Carlos Baerga’s downfall
Finally some great news from the front office.
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!!!
This isn’t even an overpay. Fair deal in the current environment
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.
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.
Definitely not overpaid!
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!”
Oh wow. Red Sox getting serious again! World Series here they come!
Lol!
Well, that just made the trade deadline and next offseason a lot less interesting.
Right ?
Next year everyone after Ohtani with really no other impact players at all.
Someone will have a great contract year and get overpaid.
Yeah. Ohtani. The Angels will make him the first $50mm a year player.
Manny Machado can opt out.
Wow. Love that guy! Awesome hitter.
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.
First reported by Carlos Baerga on his Instagram lol.
Hahaha. Just read that. Maybe he works for TradeRumors now.
That’s not the first time.
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.
He’s got a pretty good feed in that dugout.
@semipro24 – That’s a different Carlos
About time something good happened for the Sox. Pretty sure the fans yelling at John Henry at the Winter Classic got this done.
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.
BOOM!!
No – BLOOM!! Anyone from the Bloomraggers Corps care to retract any of their posits from the past few weeks? 😉
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.
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.
Overpay. Basically a DH. His defense will only get worse. Unless he hits like Frank Thomas, I see this contract aging poorly
Bloom haters in shambles!
Good news. I’m not a Red Sox fans, but I hated seeing all those stars leave. This is better for baseball IMO.
And with that the Austin Riley Contract looks that much better.
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.
My nightmares are finally over
I mean as great as the signing is there’s still not much around him. This is more of a signing for the future
And how much they pay him effects how much they can pay those around him. Less!
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.
They did? Then why didn’t they make a legitimate effort to sign Bogaerts?
Amen
So my Giants aren’t getting him instead of Correa?…
Vagiants…..insert laugh imoji
Looks like 11 has become the new 7, a lot of regrettable contracts being thrown around, Glad Andrew Friedman has a bit more smarts!
Didn’t he ink Mookie in 20 and help set this market?
That was a trade, not a free agent signing!!
So the Dodgers don’t actually have a 12 year contract on their docket? Someone should let Cot’s Baseball Contracts know…
Do your homework, Betts wasn’t a free agent, Dodgers traded for him!
Devers is 26 and will be 37 when his deal ends. Hardly an overspend.
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.
$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.
Sorry Johnny but you can still drive up the price on Ohtani and then settle for 1-2 year contract, reclamation projects
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.
Good job Chaim, you did something right!
Lol turned a world series contender into a minor league roster he did nothing right but destroy a potential dynasty.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Carl
Holy crap, I didn’t think they would get it done.
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
Wow. Huge deal.
This has been a fun off season.
If your new owners figure out how to get Ohtani to sign before free agency, next offseason is gonna be a dog lol
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.
* clap
That’s a good start now follow it up with a good trade
Sox don’t really have any trade pieces
All it took was two days after booing John Henry and speculation that he might sell the team going rampant
Bloom saves face (and his job)
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.
Bloom had nothing to do with this…great job Bloom. Huh?
A poor attempt at sarcasm
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….
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.
He Deverserves it!
Hey man, glad to see Bloom woke up and accomplished something! Great signing!
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.
Oh please. It’s not like the Sox have had any successful DH’s or anything.
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.
Inflation stymeed
Ortiz was never paid less than JDM.
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…
It’s just money. They have a lot. They needed to stop being cheap. They stopped being cheap.
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
$32.5 AAV?
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.
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.
Damn dude you’re obsessed. What did Devers do to you?
Still an improvement though
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
And the Red Sox front office saves their butts
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.
They let Bogaerts walk
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.
*Relaxes*
Tears of joy.
Welp! As a Cubs fan, the dream of Devers playing 3b at Wrigley just died. DAMN!
Good deal for both sides though.
Come on didn’t we give you enough of our old players/ gm to win in 16??? Our turn again!!!
Well, there isn’t a no trade clause built in, so don’t give up hope.
Holy God, they did it.
Finally Bloom does something right
Hallelujah! I happy and shocked that they got it done!
I guess John Henry really did hear the boos at the Bruins game
fitted – Trust me, he most certainly did. Henry and Bloom have been roasted everywhere, real Sox fans were heard loud and clear!
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.
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?
15-16 HRs and 70-something RBI each isn’t all that hard to replace.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hank, you are absolutely correct. Its called being a DH.
Guys that can hit but can’t play defense are called a DH. That is what Devers will be in a year or two.
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.
Hope they have enough left to lock up my man Brasier…… ok now everyone put the boxes of tea down……
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!)
Thanks Pedro…. Any publicity is still publicity…. Lol !!!
Was hoping we would get him
Padres do need a long term solution at DH. Not sure paying $30 million for one is a good idea.
So was Pads Fans
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.
Now he can buy his own island!
Good signing for the RS, he is as solid as they come.
Good signing for the IRS, as well.
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.
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
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.
Agreed. I’d much rather give 11 years to a 26 year old player vs someone over 30.
Better than the desperate Padres’ Bogaerts deal
Carlos Baerga has followed me for years even after I refused to follow him back. He’s the epitome of a clout chaser.
Wow you’re wicked cool dude?
Obviously, but I still take the time at my meet and greets and even allow pictures when my hair is on point.
Please. Felix Fermin wouldn’t even follow you, let alone Carlos Baerga…
Nicely done.
The Red Sox will be better than people think this year.
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.
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.
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
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?
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.
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.
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
Nicely done, Bloom! I hope this helps the fanbase restore some faith on ownership.
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.
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.
Mookie definitely a bigger star and elite defensively.
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.
Who’s you preference Joe? outside of Alcantara that is…
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.
Yep, had to happen. Nice work front office. Kid is young and mashes. We’ll worry about that defense another day. Hum babe…
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’
I guess the world is full of mysteries that will continue to be beyond your comprehension
Probably the 300 million.
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.
I have them, IIRC, between 81-91 wins in 23.
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.
its unfathomable how bad this team will be this year
How many wins do you think they will have?
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.
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..
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.
They needed to do this if they want to compete in AL East. How do Bostonians party these days, extra tea?
They need better starting pitching if they want to compete.
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.
They’ll get him if they make the highest offer. And they’ve got plenty to spend after not breaking the bank this offseason.
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.
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.
Testing
Leaving a comment
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.
So I guess the Wendle/Rojas for Casas and Devers trade is not happening. sigh
$331 million for a guy that will be a DH before he turns 28. Smart Boston. Really smart.
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?
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.
Meant Boegarts
That Bogaerts contract still is giving me nightmares. All that money for average defense and below 800 ops.
Who has below 800 ops? Not bogaerts
@Ma4170 He is well under 800 outside of Fenway. I wouldn’t pay for those road numbers.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Stop using stats from the 19th century like fielding percentage. It’s meaningless.
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. .
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.
Test
How long will it take for teams to pitch around him and frustrate him.
Designated hitter for probably eight of the years.
baseballteam – $33MM a year DH. That’s $8MM per year more than the best paid DHs in history.
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.
Like you’re thinking… maybe a little premature but you get it!!!!
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?
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?
And with that, I don’t want to hear any more crying about Bloom. Move on.
How long will it take for teams to pitch around him and frustrate him. Hope they get some ammunition to back him up.
It will be called “Fentanyl Park”
Ran by Josh Hamilton, Matt Bush and Darryl Strawberry?
I rarely post , but it’s about time there is sign of life from the front office and of course the owner.
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.
Comps are terrible. No reason to believe he won’t hit for the majority of this contract.
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.
Agree, I think he’ll hit for most of this deal if healthy.
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.
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.
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.
Says the guy who still uses fielding percentage lol
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
mlb network legite right now is STILL talking about mookie betts GET OVER ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Bloom supporter – discount the opinion. Devers should be allowed to carry Mookie’s shoes to the HOF because he’d drop them!!
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……
Obviously you never pitched. And you are a Bloom payee.
No never pitched but did play 3b and if I remember not EVERY ball put in play was hit at me….
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.
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.
Pads – Outstanding data!!! I’m really impressed.
Yes! He brought the market down!
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
Right about the weight but his defense can’t suffer it’s the worst in baseball.
So this guy is worth $110m more than Austin Riley? Seems like they did some serious bidding against themselves here.
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
Excellent point!
So 2 years of control is worth $110MM. I don’t think so. Massive over pay.
Never said that it does. But I agree that it is an overpay.
Prices have gone up a lot since then. I never thought I’d see the day when Bogaerts would get anywhere near $285M.
Riley signed his extension on trade deadline day.
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.
You can compare 95% of MLB contracts to Atlanta’s pre FA extensions and call them overpays
This is a pre-FA deal.
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.
Someone already pointed this out to me with significantly less words. Scroll up a bit.
Just announced no no trade clause. A sign and trade to the Mets or Dodgers? Do they dare?? I don’t believe they would.
Not unless they had a death wish…..
Interesting thought but Bloom isn’t that bright.
This isn’t the NBA, MLB doesn’t do sign and trades
There you go naysayers. Don’t get on Bloom for letting Bogaerts get away when they finally signed their guy.
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?
He can be slotted in to DH at any time.
DID NOT see this coming. I owe the Red Sox an apology. I said he was gone just yesterday.
Now we just need to extend Bogaerts… wait a minute…
This happened because his agent is not named Boras. It’s that simple.
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.
Wow, I really didn’t think they had it in them.
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.
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.
Towards the end of the article, “many wondered if the Friar Faithful would have to endure” . . . Friar Faithful?
Boston Padres?
I saw that too. I guess he meant Fenway? They really gotta edit these articles instead of being “first first first!”
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. 🙂
100% meant Fenway Faithful but had Padres on the mind
I think he meant Fryer Faithful. Have you seen the fans at Fenway?
??? Not sure what that means.
Great signing! Now we have something to build around. Hopefully the kids coming up will pan out!
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
Bloom might keep his job.
I hope so just to piss off pulledabloom!!!
Oimtiant – Don’t you really mean so you can keep your job? hahaha
Paid Influencer. – not good at it but very persistent.
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.
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,
Well….
That’s, pretty cool.
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.
If that’s all it took, maybe fans should have started booing Henry a few years ago.
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.
I tried to say that…but bravo
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.
I got this wrong. Did not think they’d get it done. I certainly like being wrong with this extension!
Wonder if Gleyber is going to sign his monster extension next….
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.
Agreed, I see him as trade bait– if not now, then by the Deadline
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!!
He had a no trade contract. Management wanted him back but, only at a team friendly price.
One of the worse contracts in MLB history. 300 plus million for a modern day J.D. Drew.
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.
Bloom wants starters that can get us far but would rather maximize the bullpen and use spot starters to eat innings.
Great signing for the Sox, this is the start of the rebuid. Without him they were going nowhere fast!
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.
Anyone interested in joining an AL only keeper league?
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.
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.
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!
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.
I was hoping. UBS would sign him as a free agent next Winter.
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.
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)
you’re not wrong but I think Bello might have the higher upside especially as a starter.
Why would the Friar Faithful (Padres fans) have to endure Devers departing?
30 mil for 11 years..Fenway will be rocking for a guy on decline already. Should have paid Xander. Fools money
“Decline”? Raffy hit almost .300 with 27 HR’s. It’s not his fault the rest of the lineup underperformed for the entire season
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
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?
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
what are you basing this assessment of Devers on? He’s been a consummate professional so far.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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……………………
nor am I ready to come back to the Red Sox.
———————-
Take your time, say 10-20 years. The RSN will survive.
So much narcissism in one post to unpack.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
As I’ve said back in October, Devers will eventually get something close to his market value of $351M/12 years.
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.”
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
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.)
Holy smokes, I honestly did not see this happening. I stand corrected. Bloom actually had the stones to pay up!
I think the ballsy thing to do would be to not pay him
Bloom didn’t pay — Henry did.
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.
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.
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.
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”
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.
Amanda is right.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
Beyond happy with this signing
I have no clue why so many Red Sox fans are happy about this. The team just paid 300 million for a DH.
So true Chemo.
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.
happy? no, were not, they had 3 tremendous players and they overpayed the worst out of them.
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.
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.
Bloom actually had the stones to pay up!’ since when does chaim bloom own the boston red sox?
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.
DH.
Players really do hate it in Boston…
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 “
Yayyy!! Now do Bogaerts!…oh…wait
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.
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!
Looks like Bloom avoided another Mookie Betts scenario good for Devers and Red Sox fans should be happy a homegrown player was extended.
Players that sign long term deals are cowards that are too afraid of change.
lol wut?
Yes but…they’re rich cowards.
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?
Prob will happen after this season tbh
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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
Joe.. he’s not heavy… he’s our Deverrrrsss
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.”
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.
Might want to add KD17’s new name to that list of mutes too
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.
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.
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
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
ok old man KD17. Whomever is you caretake needs to remember to take the keyboard away from you when you start sundowning.
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.
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?
Would have looked good in a Mets uniform. We have one leg Correa
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
And probably could have afforded them all.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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?
I am now closed for business!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
in fairness to the mistake the tigers made was signing Cabrera to a second extension for even more money after his age 32 season.
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.