“11-year, 421 billion contract, reckless but necessary”… Reflections on Boston from Betts & Bogarts

The expression of losing a cow and fixing a barn fits perfectly. The Boston Red Sox did not miss the next franchise star. 

Carlos Baerga, a former major leaguer and also active in the KBO League Samsung Lions, posted on his SNS account on the 5th (hereinafter Korean time), “Boston and Devers have a large contract worth 332 million dollars in 11 years (approximately 422.3 billion won). It was signed,’ he said for the first time.

Since then, national media such as ‘USA Today’, ‘ESPN’, and ‘The Athletic’, as well as Boston’s local media ‘Mass Live’, continued follow-up reports. “The contract starts in 2024,” said Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. A $20 million signing bonus is included. The total amount of the contract is $331 million (421 billion won), not $332 million,’ he added. 

Bogatz’ 11-year, $331 million is the sixth highest ever. Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout (12 years, $426.5 million), Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts (12 years, $365 million), New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge (9 years, $360 million), New York Mets’ Francisco Lindor (10 years, $365 million) $341 million) and only San Diego Fernando Tatis Jr. ($340 million in 14 years) exceed Devers’ total. 

Devers, a right-handed and left-handed third baseman from the Dominican Republic, made his big league debut in 2017 and played for Boston for six years. He is also a member of the 2018 World Series winning team. In 689 career games, he has a batting average of . He boasts of a two-time All-Star and one-time Silver Slugger. 

Following 32 home runs in 2019, he hit a personal record of 38 home runs in 2021. Last year, he played an active role in 141 games with a batting average of .295, 164 hits, 27 homers, 88 RBIs, and an OPS of .879, and was named 14th in the American League (AL) MVP vote. 

Even if Devers is the star of the franchise, opinions are divided on whether Boston’s total is reasonable. However, the general opinion is that Boston’s previous moves can fully convince the Devers contract. 

North American sports media ‘The Athletic’ said, ‘Boston is getting serious again. He stood tall again by signing the sixth largest contract in history with Devers. Now you don’t have to wonder where the best player on the team will play next season. ‘But Boston isn’t completely back. They still need to make progress to become a competitive team. You’ll understand what happened to them after Betts left. It’s a big contract in the market, but it’s according to their circumstances.’

“That’s the average annual value the Red Sox didn’t give to Betts. And it’s an 11-year guaranteed contract that wasn’t given to Bogarts,’ he said. ‘I didn’t work with Judge, Correa, or Seager, but it had a repercussion on the market.’ Devers is the player chosen for Boston’s future. The $331 million contract was reckless but necessary. After he missed many other opportunities, he was happy to sign a big deal.’ 메이저놀이터

‘ESPN’ analyzed it more coolly. The media said, ‘$331 million is the sixth largest amount. It is more than Bryce Harper (13 years, $330 million) who won MVP twice. But Devers has never finished in the top 10 in MVP voting. He has only finished in the top 10 in WAR rankings by position once, in 2019, when he was 10th. A low on-base percentage with few walks is not a match for an elite player. Since 2019, Devers has a wRC+ (adjusted run production capacity) of 132, but is 18th among players with 1500 or more at-bats. Devers is very good, but I’m not sure he’s a top 10 hitter. He is also a below-average third baseman’.

But ‘Devers is coming into his 26-year-old season and could be better in 2022. But a hamstring injury plagued him. He missed only 15 games in the preceding three seasons and missed 21 in 2022. “His durability is a reason to be confident in his production over the long term,” he said. “This contract gives Devers a chance to become a Boston legend. A player like this is definitely valuable to the club over the next 10 years. He is 14th on the team’s WAR rankings through his 25-year-old season. He is already one of the best young players in Boston’s history and Boston is confident that his prime will be successful,’ he said, referring to the positives of Devers’ signing.