Pedro Martinez cautions Red Sox not to wait too long to give Xander Bogaerts a new contract
As free agency nears, Pedro Martinez is doubling down on his warning to the Boston Red Sox.
After cautioning that losing Xander Bogaerts would damage, or even destroy, the culture of winning that Martinez, David Ortiz, and others created in the early 2000s and passed down, the Hall of Fame pitcher is now reflecting on his own departure from Boston.
Martinez became a free agent after the 2004 World Series and signed a four-year deal with the New York Mets. But speaking to the Boston Globe (subscription required) this week, the Hall of Famer revealed that he’d been willing to accept less money to stay with the Sox, and they took his devotion for granted:
"“They thought they were going to bring me back. The thing is, they did it a little too late. I wasn’t going to sit down and take a gamble waiting on the Red Sox to bring me back. I had secured what I wanted with a different team, which was the Mets at that point.And even though I [offered to] take a pay cut, they just didn’t come back to me on time. And I couldn’t take that chance to let go the best contract that I could probably get to wait for the Red Sox to kind of be sentimental and say, ‘Oh, we know Pedro loves it here. We’re going to bring him back.’No, it was the time to take care of business. I did that. I hope that Xander is not put in the same position that I was put in, having to wait, having all sorts of offers.”"
Classic, overconfident, hubristic Sox.
The idea of a player taking a ‘hometown discount’ is both a blessing and a curse. Ortiz took several to stay in Boston when many teams would’ve paid him much more, and apparently, Martinez was willing to do the same, but only to a certain extent. Unfortunately, that magnanimity has only emboldened the Sox to lowball and insult the stars who followed: Jon Lester, Mookie Betts, and now, Bogaerts.
As one of the richest teams in the league, hometown discounts shouldn’t even exist. And the concept looks all the more ridiculous when compared to how the Sox throw money at free agents. Only with their most crucial stars – the ones who’ve actually proven they can win in Boston – do the Sox lowball and wheedle. That two of the team’s biggest stars of the millennium – both still employed by the organization – have called them out repeatedly for these unsavory tactics, speaks volumes.
Wednesday will mark two weeks since the final game of the regular season. At their end-of-year press conference the following morning, the brass made it clear that retaining Bogaerts is their top priority and endeavors to that end would begin immediately.
But Bogaerts, who has been open about wanting to play here and only here for his entire career, has been waiting a long time for the kind of offer he’s earned. They’d be wise to listen to Pedro and not make him wait much longer.
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