With the latest injury news regarding Xander Bogaerts, the question needs to be asked: Are the Red Sox winning the breakup between the two?
To begin his decade-long tenure on the San Diego Padres, things have not gone according to plan for super-shortstop Xander Bogaerts.
Signed to a gigantic 11-year contract over the 2022-2023 offseason, the four-time All-Star has managed to hit just .252 in his first 57 games.
While his 105 OPS+ still puts him five percent above league-average at the dish, this is still not quite the same offensive output he had put up for the Red Sox over the past 10 years.
Bogaerts, 30, is currently on the shelf dealing with a wrist ailment. The latest injury news from his camp suggests that he is going to be out through the All-Star break which is a massive blow for the Padres.
At the same time, this will make fans of the Red Sox happy that their team didn't make the same financial commitment to him that San Diego did.
Red Sox: Is Boston winning the Xander Bogaerts breakup?
In short, the answer is yes.
Over this past offseason, the Padres continued to add to their super-team, bringing aboard Bogaerts, Matt Carpenter, Rougned Odor and Michael Wacha to add to an already stacked team.
The result? A 27-32 record which puts them in fourth place in the NL West. Nobody, and I mean nobody, saw this coming.
The Red Sox on the other hand aren't faring too much better, but they are at least a .500 ballclub. The gigantic amount of money the Padres threw at Bogaerts that will take him into his late 30's and early 40's was a ridiculous overpay and it's already starting to look that way in Year 1.
In Bogaerts' absence, the Red Sox have gone with Enrique Hernández as their primary shortstop, which gives them a much more versatile, cost efficient option. This is all without mentioning the fact that the saved funds on a potential Bogaerts re-signing was instead used to lock third baseman Rafael Devers up long-term, which all along felt like the smarter decision for the Red Sox.
While both the Padres and Red Sox are scuffling a bit out of the gate, only the Red Sox can breathe easy knowing that their payroll is not going to be bogged down by an aging Xander Bogaerts.