Red Sox
“I was surprised how it all unfolded. Life continues and baseball continues and they made the decision they wanted to make.”
Add former Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts to the list of people who were taken aback by Boston trading Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.
Bogaerts, who played nine seasons with the Red Sox and was Devers’s teammate for six, initially didn’t believe the news.
“(USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale) shows me on his phone: ‘Rafael Devers traded.’ I was like, ‘Nah.’ … Then I hit Devers up and he got back at me right away,” Bogaerts told WEEI’s Rob Bradford. “The moment he told me is when I knew it was for real. I had texted him, ‘Is this true?’ and he replied before everybody started (reporting it) … We didn’t know if it was true or not.”
Bogaerts, 32, signed an 11-year, $282 million contract with the San Diego Padres in December 2022. But despite being on the other side of the country from Devers and the Red Sox, he said he was aware of tension between the two parties in Boston.
“We talk quite often,” Bogaerts said of Devers. “We played alongside each other for so long. We hung out with each other at the field, away from the field, you name it. We always had a special relationship, not only on the field. We always maintained contact.
“I knew a little bit, not that I saw any of this coming.”
While Bogaerts wasn’t traded to the Padres, the Red Sox could have signed him to a contract extension well before San Diego jumped in with a massive offer. The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier reported upon Bogaerts landing on the West Coast that Boston offered him a $160 million deal. The Globe’s Peter Abraham also reported at the time that multiple clubs involved in discussions offered Bogaerts more money.
Bogaerts also witnessed, alongside Devers, the Red Sox trade Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers in February 2020.
Nevertheless, the Devers trade news wasn’t something he anticipated.
“I know them because I have been around them for a long time,” Bogaerts said of both parties. “I was surprised how it all unfolded. Life continues and baseball continues and they made the decision they wanted to make. He’s over there and they are over there and hopefully they’re both happy. But it was tough to see for sure.”
Bogaerts can relate to Devers’s position change that occurred before this season. While Bogaerts’s switch didn’t stir up public controversy, he did move from shortstop to second base for San Diego ahead of 2024. The team asked him to make the change in favor of playing Ha-Seong Kim at shortstop, to which Bogaerts obliged.
Bogaerts played 85 games at 2B and 20 at SS; he missed nearly two months due to a left shoulder fracture.
Entering Friday, Bogaerts has played 68 games at shortstop, returning to his original position following Kim’s signing with the Tampa Bay Rays in free agency before the season.
Two-and-a-half years after Bogaerts signed with San Diego, he and Devers both play in the National League West.
The Giants and Padres play each other in a three-game series in San Francisco beginning on Aug. 11.
Before that, the Giants and Red Sox face off in the Bay Area Friday, just five days after finalizing their bombshell trade. First pitch is scheduled for 10:15 p.m. Eastern Time.
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