The tone around the Red Sox is a lot different these days than a year ago. In 2018, Boston had secured the best record in baseball and was well on their way to a World Series championship. Now, they will finish the 2019 season with a Sunday afternoon game against the Orioles.
After winning a World Series, it was a relatively easy decision to bring back free agents Nathan Eovaldi and Steve Pearce while agreeing to contract extensions for Chris Sale and Xander Bogaerts. Following a disappointing season marred by inconsistency, adding to the league's highest payroll with a brand new front office doesn't sound very likely.
Xander Bogaerts was asked after the Red Sox' penultimate game of the regular season Saturday about the pending free agent decisions this new front office, whenever it's filled, will have to make and acknowledged the possibility of losing some key players.
"Obviously, there’s a lot of rumors on a lot of stuff," Bogaerts said. "I’m not in charge of any of those, those aren’t my decisions. I love each and everyone that's on this team. We've had some great memories throughout the years, and seeing some faces that might leave will be tough and we'll see what happens."
J.D. Martinez (option), Brock Holt, Mitch Moreland and Rick Porcello headline the Red Sox' list of free agents for 2019. Mookie Betts' impending contract extension will likely impact Martinez's future with the club, especially with ownership promising that the team will slash down the payroll to avoid further luxury tax payments.
At the very least for the Red Sox, Bogaerts is signed for the next six years and Boston is reportedly preparing to offer Rafael Devers a contract extension as well. If they let Martinez go in favor of Betts and retain Devers, that's still a formidable core to couple with players like Christian Vazquez, Michael Chavis and hopefully Jay Groome down the line.
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Developing a farm system that Dave Dombrowski sold off will most likely be the priority for the Red Sox moving forward.
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