Top available bats
Betts is in a tier by himself int the class of 2021 but the next best bat belongs to George Springer. He set career highs last season with a .292 average, .974 OPS, 39 home runs and a 6.2 WAR. He’s no Mookie Betts but Springer has made three consecutive All-Star appearances, earned a pair of Silver Slugger awards and World Series MVP honors.
Springer has some appeal as an alternative to Betts but he’s also three years older, hitting the market at the age of 31. He won’t demand the money Betts will get but Springer won’t be cheap either and there will be fewer years of his prime remaining when his new deal begins. Many of the suitors for Betts will look at Springer as Plan B and that sets up a scenario where he could receive offers for more than the Red Sox should be comfortable paying.
J.T. Realmuto will be a coveted free agent if the Phillies allow him to hit the open market. He’s the best all-around catcher in baseball with consecutive All-Star appearances and Silver Sluggers to go along with a Gold Glove.
He should easily top the 4-year, $73 million deal that Yasmani Grandal received from the White Sox. Is Realmuto worth it? Of course. Is he a target for a Red Sox team that has Christian Vazquez inked to a team-friendly deal? That’s a bit harder to justify. Vazquez would need to regress significantly from last season’s breakout campaign to convince the Red Sox to move on or relegate him to a backup role.
The same can be said for Marcus Semien. We know the Oakland A’s are unlikely to pay up to keep him but why would the Red Sox target a shortstop when they have Xander Bogaerts for several more years? Semien is a much better defender and coming off an 8.1 WAR season that earned him a third-place finish on the AL MVP ballot. His track record should leave us a little skeptical that Semien is an elite player so let’s see if he can repeat that performance this year. Even if he does, Boston isn’t replacing Bogaerts or asking him to switch positions.
The Yankees struck gold when they signed DJ LeMahieu to a bargain two-year deal last year. The veteran infielder proved he wasn’t a product of Coors Field by hitting .327 with a career-high 26 home runs and 102 RBI in his first year in the Bronx.
LeMahieu won’t fly under the radar next time he hits the market at the age of 32. It’s hard to see the Yankees allowing their division rival to steal him away which means the Red Sox would need to overpay to sign a player on the wrong side of the aging curve.