Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts joins rare territory for home runs at his position

Xander Bogaerts blasted his 30th home run and drove in his 100th RBI to join an exclusive group of Boston Red Sox shortstops.

Scouts always projected Xander Bogaerts to develop impressive power for his position when he was a young shortstop prospect in the Boston Red Sox system. In his sixth full season, we are finally seeing that power stroke emerge.

Bogaerts took advantage of the thin air at Colorado’s Coors Field, blasting three home runs to fuel the Red Sox to a two-game sweep of the short series.

His homer in the first game of the series was a 435-foot missile to center field that would have cleared the fence in any ballpark. It was the third-longest home run of the season for Bogaerts, per Baseball Savant.

Bogaerts added a pair of homers and led the team with three RBI the next night. It was his fifth multi-home run game of the season and third in August.

The second homer Wednesday night was his 30th of the season and raised Bogaerts’ RBI total to 100. That made Bogaerts the first American League shortstop with 30+ homers and 100+ RBI in a season since Miguel Tejada in 2004.

Bogaerts is the first Red Sox shortstop with 30+ homers since Nomar Garciaparra bashed 35 in 1998. Only three other shortstops in franchise history have hit at least 30 home runs in a season. Nomar did it twice (1997, 1998) and so did Vern Stephens (1949, 1950). Rico Petrocelli‘s 40 home runs in 1969 is the franchise record for a shortstop. With over a month left in the season, we can’t rule out Bogaerts making a run at that record.

The 30-homer club is exclusive for any team. Bogaerts is one of only 26 AL shortstops to hit 30+ homers in a season. Only 19 of those have also driven in 100+ RBI in the same season. The list dwindles further when you exclude players such as Alex Bregman and Manny Machado who weren’t primarily shortstops when they reached this accomplishment.

Bogaerts is now tied for 8th in the AL with his 30 home runs, trailing only J.D. Martinez (32) on his own team. His 46 doubles trail only Rafael Devers (48) for the league-lead. Bogaerts and Devers are the only major league hitters currently on pace for 30+ homer and 50+ doubles this season. No MLB teammates have ever done that in the same year.

The power surge has vaulted Bogaerts ahead of his teammates with a .967 OPS. He’s now third in the league behind Mike Trout (1.087) and Bregman (.984). Devers (.965) and Martinez (.963) are right behind him. Yes, the Red Sox have three of the top five players in the league in OPS.

The Red Sox made quite a few questionable contract decisions last winter that didn’t pan out but extending Bogaerts wasn’t one of them. His five-year, $120 million deal will end up being a bargain if the 26-year old comes anywhere close to this type of production over the next handful of seasons.