The Red Sox have a surplus of position players after signing Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez, but they are not expected to trade the young shortstop.
When the Boston Red Sox snagged Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval in a free-agent spending spree, a dream scenario materialized for the Mets. Could the team fill its hole at shortstop with Xander Bogaerts, a 22-year-old phenom with superstar upside?
Despite the logjam in Fenway, Bogaerts should maintain his starting shortstop job with Ramirez moving to left field. Yet an anonymous source told the New York Post that the Mets will do their due diligence to see if the Red Sox shop the young infielder.
"It’s not like we’re knocking down their door to see if [Bogaerts] is available," the source said. "But we’ll wait and see how things shake out."
Bogaerts failed to immediately meet the hype in 2014, hitting .240/.297/.362 with 12 home runs and an 82 wRC+, making him a below-average bat during his rookie campaign. Yet it's far too early to write off someone who was billed as Baseball America's second-best prospect entering the season.
New York shouldn't make any of its pitching prospects off limits if Boston makes Bogaerts available, but landing him remains a pipe dream at this point. Anyone short of Matt Harvey likely wouldn't persuade the Red Sox to trade a young hitter boasting a limitless ceiling and playing a scarce position.