Shortstop Xander Bogaerts and the San Diego Padres have agreed to an 11-year, $280 million contract, a source familiar with the matter told ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Bogaerts, 30, who played his entire 10-year career with the Boston Red Sox, is a four-time All-Star and a two-time World Series champion. He’s coming off one of his best seasons, posting a 5.8 bWAR and finishing ninth in 2022 American League MVP voting.
Bogaerts was a free agent after opting out of a six-year, $132 million contract extension he signed with the Red Sox ahead of the 2019 season. free agents which also included Trea Turner (who signed with the Philadelphia Phillies), Carlos Correa and Dansby Swanson.
The Padres already have Fernando Tatis Jr. at shortstop, but he’s missed the entire season due to injuries and an 80-game suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. San Diego also met with Aaron Judge and Turner before the big stars opted for different teams.
“From our perspective, you want to explore and make sure we look at every possible opportunity to improve,” chief executive AJ Preller said before the Bogaerts deal surfaced. “We have a real desire to win and have done so for a long time.”
Prior to the 2022 season, Boston offered Bogaerts a second extension, which would have added an additional year to his contract and paid him $90 million over his final four seasons. The offer was viewed in the industry as significantly below market value for a player of his stature.
In April, a Red Sox front-office official told ESPN that a good season for Bogaerts would reduce Boston’s chances of signing him.
“We’re not signing 10-year contracts for big money because those contracts usually don’t work out well for teams,” the front-officer said.
But the Red Sox have had a change of heart in recent months, with baseball manager Chaim Bloom publicly declaring that Bogaerts is the team’s top priority in free agency this offseason.
MLB Network first reported the deal between Bogaerts and the Padres.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.