Xander Bogaerts Willing To Talk Extension In-Season

Red Sox star shortstop Xander Bogaerts says he's now open to in-season extension talks. This is a change in tune from spring training where Bogaerts seemed to give a soft deadline of opening day.

"I've got a season coming up in front of me and I don't want to put our teammates in that type of distraction," Bogaerts said to The Boston Globe. "They don't deserve that. We had time to get something done. It didn't work out."

Now suddenly he's open to the distraction, at least somewhat.

"I don’t know how this would work. But if they talk to behind closed doors and it’s something that’s fair, he can come to me. We’ll see how that goes.”

Bogaerts doesn't seem to be letting these extension talks get to him as he's currently hitting .344 with two homers and 13 RBI. And it's easy to see why the 3-time All-Star wants to find a solution as he's likely peaking at contracts around baseball. Mookie Betts, who found himself in a similar situation with the Red Sox, was eventually traded to the Dodgers to eventually land a 12-year, $365 million deal.

Xander Bogaerts isn't respected around the game like Betts was at the time, but he will command a deal not too far south of there. A deal for Xander Bogaerts is likely to land between $200-300M in a lengthy contract -- an agreement the Red Sox may pass on. If the Red Sox were willing to let Mookie Betts go, why should anyone be shocked they treat their star shortstop the same way? Combine that with Trevor Story's $160 million contract the Red Sox just forked over this past offseason and the team being 12 games out of first place...it's adding up to disappointment for Bogaerts.

He'll still get his payday, no doubt -- it very well might come from outside the organization, though. Business is nasty in Major League Baseball, especially when super agent Scott Boras is involved. It's even possible we see a mid-season trade, rather than that extension.