Top Prospect Bogaerts Raking In Double-A Portland
By Conor Duffy
The Red Sox have something very special on their hands in Xander Bogaerts. Bogaerts is still just 19 years old and after having some success last year at Single-A Greenville as an 18 year old, mostly in the power department, but this year has been much different. The guy has shown his true potential as a future star by putting together a fantastic season in High-A Salem before earning himself a late season promotion to Double-A Portland. And since his promotion (I repeat, at the age of 19), he’s put together some fantastic numbers.
Bogaerts has been on a serious roll since being called up to Portland a week or so ago. In 5 games so far, he’s gone .391/.391/.739 with 2 home runs, 2 doubles, and 4 RBIs. All this after making the biggest jump of the minors, from High-A to Double-A, he hasn’t been any worse than he was in Salem– where he batted .302/.378/.505 with 27 doubles, 15 home runs, and 64 RBIs. That was good for 5th in the league in OPS, 5th in OBP, 7th in home runs, 10th in doubles, and 11th in runs scored.
It’s really good to see a high-ranking Red Sox prospect putting together a season like Bogaerts has. Plus, there’s always the interesting tidbit that he plays shortstop– a position the Red Sox have lacked depth in since Nomar Garciaparra‘s departure– and hits for power. He actually has put together better numbers in High-A than Hanley Ramirez did when he was a year older than Bogaerts. He’s in Portland two years earlier than Ramirez, who skipped Triple-A, and so far has put up better numbers (in an admittedly tiny sample size).
However, this still prompts the question of whether Bogaerts also could skip Triple-A. It would probably be foolish to try such a thing this year, but by 2013 it would not be surprising to see him as a September call up. Still, though, you never know what the Red Sox may do as they’re not contending in mid August. This gives them an opportunity to bring up some of their younger players, and who knows– it’s unlikely but possible that we may see Xander Bogaerts.