With $331 Million Deal, Red Sox Will Build Around Rafael Devers

“If you continue taking on massive commitment after massive commitment, you never really get out of treading water around those.”

The Red Sox have largely avoided such deals lately. Officially, they have only three players signed beyond 2024: pitcher Garrett Whitlock, infielder Trevor Story and outfielder Masataka Yoshida, who signed last month for five years and $90 million after a decorated career in Japan.

Their other deals this winter have been risk-averse: two years each for infielder Justin Turner and the right-handed relievers Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin, and one year for the right-handed starter Corey Kluber and the lefty reliever Joely Rodríguez. The team hopes that three young pitchers — Whitlock, Tanner Houck and Bryan Bello — can establish themselves in the rotation, but the veteran starters — Kluber, Chris Sale, James Paxton, Nick Pivetta — offer little certainty.

The 2023 outlook would be different had the Red Sox made a stronger offer to Bogaerts before free agency or matched the Padres’ winning bid (11 years, $280 million). They could have moved aggressively on another choice from a deep class of free agents. Their passivity made you wonder if Henry simply didn’t want to pay the going rate for superstars anymore.

Would the Red Sox make those kinds of investments again? Bloom emphasized on Wednesday morning that they would.

“Absolutely — when it aligns with winning,” he said. “The end point is winning. It’s not commitments for their own sake. It’s commitments that you can win with. As we see, you win with these when they’re part of a complete team and complete organization. With every move, whether it’s a waiver claim or a large, multiyear contract, the endpoint is always: is this going to help us deliver to our fans what we’re here to deliver, which is winning baseball on an annual basis? And if the answer is yes, it’s something we should pursue.”

The Red Sox have passed on a lot of those options. They won’t be anyone’s favorite in the A.L. East. But a deal for Devers is a strong sign that a stubbornly pragmatic front office believes in its long-term direction.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/05/sports/baseball/rafael-devers-boston-red-sox.html