Chaim Bloom shuts down midseason Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers trade rumors
Chaim Bloom says Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers “are not for sale” regardless of what Red Sox do at trade deadline
The Boston Red Sox may or may not be sellers at the August 2 trade deadline, but if their top executives are to be believed, Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers are safe at home.
According to several reports, Bloom articulated on Wednesday that Bogaerts and Devers “are not for sale.”
The question has been asked, answered, and asked again for weeks. On Tuesday, team president Sam Kennedy went on WEEI and said there have been no discussions about trading the popular pair. Bloom echoed the sentiment later in the day when he went on NESN, saying, “we don’t plan to.”
Of course, take anything Bloom, Kennedy, or anyone at the Red Sox says with a grain of salt, especially around the trade deadline. Bogaerts and Devers’ job security should go without saying, but anyone who knows how the Sox operate is concerned and likely will remain concerned until the trade deadline officially passes. If trading them was completely out of the realm of possibility, no one would be asking, let alone dozens of times every day. Such is life in Red Sox Nation.
Xander Bogaerts’ Red Sox contract has a full no-trade clause
However, fans can take comfort in knowing that the Sox can’t actually trade Bogaerts without his permission. His contract has a full no-trade clause, meaning he’d have to agree to be dealt, and it seems unlikely he’d acquiesce, given that he’s still hoping to remain in Boston for his entire career.
If the Sox do decide to be sellers at the deadline, Bogaerts and Devers should be the only ones nailed down. Strip the roster down to the studs and build anew for next year, but make this dynamic duo the cornerstone. The Sox also have several big contracts expiring after this season, leaving more than enough money for them to ink the pair to the deals they deserve.
As the Boston Globe (subscription required) noted, David Ortiz’s Hall of Fame celebration at Fenway on Tuesday only drove home the importance of having ‘forever guys.’ Ortiz was the constant through the best and worst seasons of the 2000s-2010s, but only because he took several hometown discounts to stay in Boston. It’s terrifying to ponder a world in which he tells the lowballing Sox to shove it and departs for more money, a horrifying alternate reality in which he enters Cooperstown with another team’s logo on his bronze plaque. Fans are already in a similar reality with Mookie Betts.
Ortiz made a home in Boston; Devers and Bogaerts are homegrown. Signed and developed here, they’ve never played for any other organization and they don’t want to. How many times will the Sox let their best talents go in exchange for unproven outsiders before they learn that the grass is greener in the shadow of the Green Monster?
