(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
   Xander Bogaerts signs 11-year contract with San Diego Padres
Nederlands
 SAN DIEGO, California (USA) -
Xander Bogaerts will play for San Diego Padres in the coming eleven seasons.
On Wednesday-evening (December 7), on the final day of the Winter Meetings (which were held in San Diego), it was reported by several sources that the 30-year old Aruban-born short stop has agreed to an 11-year contract with San Diego, worth 280 million dollar.
The agreement has not yet been confirmed.
Early November, Bogaerts opted out of his 6-year contract with Boston Red Sox for whom he played in the Major League since 2013.
It was also reported that there are no opt-outs in the new contract, but has a full no-trade clause.
At the moment, short stops Didi Gregorius and Andrelton Simmons and outfielder Jurickson Profar are also Free Agents.
Gregorius was released by Philadelphia Phillies on August 4.
Two days later, Simmons was designated for assignment by Minnesota Twins.
Profar, who played for San Diego Padres, became a Free Agent after the season.
Closer Kenley Jansen also was a Free Agent.
He agreed to a 2-year contract with Boston Red Sox earlier on Wednesday.
This year, Jansen played for Atlanta Braves.
...Xander Bogaerts playing for the Netherlands Team...
...during the 2017 World Baseball Classic...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In recent years, San Diego Padres has strengthened its team.
Before the 2021 season, it signed pitcher Yu Darvish and on August 2 of this season, San Diego acquired outfielder Juan Soto and first baseman Josh Bell in a trade with Washington Nationals.
However, Bell was a Free Agent after the season and on Tuesday, it was reported that he has agreed to a 2-year contract with Cleveland Guardians.
Before the start of the 2021 season, the club signed star short stop Fernando Tatis, Jr. to a 14-year contract, worth 340 million dollar, which then was the third highest contract in Major League-history.
However, during the 2021 season, Tatis missed some games due to injuries to his left shoulder.
In March of this year he underwent surgery, which was related to a fractured bone in his wrist, which he had sustained in the off-season.
He was to return to the field during the season after having played in four re-hab games in Double-A, but in August, Tatis was suspended for 80 games for violating Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program when he was tested positive for the use of a performance-enhancing substance.
With that, Tatis didn't play the entire season in the Major League.
Tatis underwent shouder surgery in September and had a second wrist surgery in October.
However, it is expected he will be healthy again for Spring Training.
Tatis is eligible to return to action in May of next year when his suspension ends.
But now that San Diego has signed Bogaerts, they might move Tatis to the outfield, while Ha-Seong Kim, another short stop, might move to third second base.
Xander Bogaerts was signed by Boston Red Sox in 2009 as an amateur Free Agent at age 16.
He then made his professional debut in 2010 when he played in Boston's Rookie League-team in the Dominican Republic.
From then, Bogaerts moved up quickly.
The infielder played in Single-A in 2011, promoted to Double-A in 2012, then to Triple-A during the 2013 season.
On August 20, 2013, Bogaerts made his debut in the Major League for Boston to become the fifth player from Aruba to reach the big league.
In the remainder of the season, he played in 18 games and batted .250 (11-for-44) with one homerun and five runs batted in.
Although Bogaerts was added to the team late in the season,he was on Boston's roster for the postseason and went on to win the World Series.
From 2014 on, Xander Bogaerts became the starting short stop for Boston Red Sox.
In 2015, he was the best hitter of Boston with a .320 batting average.
With that average, he finished second in the American League behind Miguel Cabrera (Detroit Tigers).
In 2016, Bogaerts played in his first of four All Star Games.
He also was chosen in 2019, 2021 and this year.
In 2018, Xander Bogaerts again won the World Series with Boston.
This season, Bogaerts played in 150 games for Boston and batted .307, his hghest batting average since 2019.
He collected 171 basehits, including 15 homeruns and batted in 73 runs.
In his ten Major League-seasons so far with Boston Red Sox, Bogaerts played in 1,264 games.
He collected 1,410 basehits, including 308 doubles, 15 triples and 156 homeruns.
The short stop scored 752 runs and batted in 683.
Five times, Bogaerts won the Silver Slugger Award for being the best hitting short stop in the American League.
In 2011, Bogaerts played for the Netherlands Baseball Team that captured the title at the World Championship in Panama.
Afterwards, he was knighted in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
In 2013 and 2017, the short stop participated with the Orange Team in the World Baseball Classic.
Both times, the team reached the Semi-Final.
After having agreed to new one-year contracts each time for 2017, 2018 and 2019 season, Bogaerts signed a 6-year contract extension with Boston worth 132 million Dollar in April 2019.
But on November 7, he opted out of this contract to become a Free Agent.
With that, he became one of the four prime short stops who were without a contract.
The others were Carlos Correa, Dansby Swanson and Trea Turner.
Since then, it was reported that some eight to eleven teams were interested in Bogaerts.
On Monday, it was reported that Turner agreed to a 11-year contract with Philadelphia Phillies, but that has not yet been confirmed.
In February 2021, the Commandeur Pieter Boer School in San Nicolaas (where was born) on Aruba was renamed and became the Scol Basico Xander Bogaerts.
Last year, Xander's twin-brother Jair Bogaerts played in the Dutch big league for Hoofddorp Pioniers.
This season, Jair was a playing coach for HCAW with whom he captured the Dutch Championship-title.
(December 8)
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