The Red Sox had a hell of a final day at the 2022 MLB Winter Meetings Wednesday.
The day started with great intrigue, promise, and hope — and ended in a gut punch.
Boston signed a legitimate closer and spent over $100 million on an outfield bat. Late Wednesday, early Thursday morning came the gut punch: Xander Bogaerts was signing elsewhere.
What a roller coaster of emotions.
Padres Were Desperate; Red Sox Still (Bleeped) Up
Eleven years and $280 million — that’s what Bogaerts got from the Padres, a team desperate to land a big fish in free agency.
Nobody saw an offer like that coming Xander’s way. Good on the Red Sox for not going there but beating the average annual value.
They still botched negotiations to the very end.
Their six-year, $160 million offer to Bogaerts, if presented in spring training instead of the insult that was, likely avoids this mess. It’s been reported that five years and around $150 million would have kept him from free agency.
With other teams to compete against, Boston didn’t budge even a little bit, never nearing $200 million, a level multiple teams reportedly went to or were willing to go to.
The result? The Sox weren’t even third-place finishers for Bogey’s services.
The Sox basically gave up when it was clear San Diego blew everyone away. They didn’t even compete with the other $200 million offers.
If Bogaerts was your top priority, you increase your offer to $200 million, as his market dictated. He still goes, then, great. You tried — too late, but at least you made a last-minute push.
But you didn’t even try that hard.
Were we all lied to? I think it’s more than fair to say we were. At the very least, we were misled. Is that on Chaim Bloom? I don’t know. We’ve been through this before under John Henry’s ownership, with different people in charge of baseball operations.
All Xander wanted was a fair deal after giving the club a discount on his last contract. The Red Sox refused to provide him with one in spring training and again in free agency, relative to his market.
The Red Sox now have a black hole both in the lineup and in the clubhouse. Good luck finding another player or person as good as Xander Bogaerts.
2022 MLB Winter Meetings Were Productive for Red Sox
The final day of the 2022 MLB Winter Meetings was devastating. Losing yet another homegrown star is infuriating, I know, and Red Sox Nation’s anger is more than justified. But we need to keep some perspective and not forget the progress the Red Sox did make.
Boston’s biggest weakness, the bullpen, is no longer a weakness. The bullpen may now actually be the team’s biggest strength.
The Sox signed Chris Martin to a two-year deal less than a week before signing Kenley Jansen to a two-year contract.
Joely Rodriguez, signed to a one-year deal before Thanksgiving, could also be a contributor should everything break right for him.
Add in John Schreiber and Matt Barnes, and the Red Sox have a solid bullpen that should hold leads.
Red Sox Bullpen Suddenly Solid and Has a Closer
Jansen isn’t the dominant closer he was in his prime with the Dodgers, but he’s still a good one. One Boston has needed since Craig Kimbrel left.
After back-to-back down seasons (by his standards) in 2018 and 2019, he’s figured out how to be successful with diminished velocity.
He ditched his four-seam fastball completely, incorporated a sinker and increased his slider usage. What’s resulted is a 2.77 ERA/3.14 FIP with 171 strikeouts and 58 walks over 133 innings since the start of 2021; He led the National League in saves (41 of 48) and games finished (54) in 2022.
Even with diminished stuff at 36 years old, Jansen’s peripherals largely haven’t dropped off since his days as a dominant closer.
Jansen will make $16 million in each of the next two seasons.
(Bonus: he was teammates with Enrique Hernandez and Alex Verdugo in Los Angeles.)
Red Sox Lineup Slightly Better, Then Worse on Same Day of 2022 MLB Winter Meetings
The Red Sox also spent over $100 million on Masataka Yoshida, a 29-year-old outfielder out of Japan.
Yoshida has been one of Nippon Professional Baseball’s best hitters, known for his ability to walk more than he strikes out.
He posted an on-base percentage of .400 or higher and a batting average of .300 or higher in each of the last six seasons.
Over his seven seasons in NPB, he had a .326/.419/.538/.957 slash line with only 300 strikeouts in 3251 plate appearances, winning batting titles in 2020 and 2021.
Per Baseball America’s scouting report, Yoshida is a gap-to-gap line drive hitter with some home run power who attacks early in the count. But he’s not a good outfielder; he has limited range and a weak arm. He’s also not a great baserunner.
Boston seems to like Yoshida in Fenway’s left field, where they can more or less hide him. But he should, however, give the Sox the type of at-bats they were missing last season, whether as their leadoff hitter or in the middle of their lineup.
"I think first and foremost, when you look at a player like him, the quality of the at-bat stands out and that can come from either side of the plate." – Bloom on Yoshida.
— Ian Browne (@IanMBrowne) December 8, 2022
Here’s your introduction to Masataka Yoshida.
— Tyler Milliken ⚾️ (@tylermilliken_) December 8, 2022
The leadoff hitter the Red Sox have been missing for years. pic.twitter.com/aEQUywmr1O
Masataka Yoshida to the Sox, kehd!
— SoxDingrs (@SoxDingrs) December 7, 2022
pic.twitter.com/rXymu76wSi
The five-year, $90 million deal he signed with the Red Sox only one day after being posted is the largest ever for a position player coming out of NPB. His contract surpasses Seiya Suzuki’s five-year, $85 million deal with the Cubs last offseason.
In addition to the $90 million Boston is paying Yoshida, they are also paying a $15 million posting fee to his NPB team. In total, at a yearly salary of $18 million per season, Masataka Yoshida cost the Sox $105 million.
The Red Sox made progress on Wednesday, the final day of the 2022 MLB Winter Meetings; let’s remember that first and foremost. But the other reality is the Sox also made the next few months more complicated for themselves.
Who knows what’s next for Boston…
It’s been an emotionally exhausting past few days. Oh, the joys of fandom.
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