My second entry for the BP Boston Roster Recap Series was posted this morning. For this entry I reviewed Xander Bogaerts season. As was the case last year for Xander, he had a stellar first-half and then things came undone in the second-half. In 2017, his second-half woes can mostly be tied to a wrist injury he suffered just before the All-Star break. But the injury shouldn’t be blamed for the entire downturn in his performance, as there are aspects of his game that are non-injury related that still need improvement. With that recognized, Xander remains an excellent player, who, along with Mookie Betts, is a franchise cornerstone.
However, while Xander has played well in each of his four seasons in the major leagues, he has yet to put together the standout, MVP-caliber season that many expected he would. And because Xander has not met the lofty expectations set for him there is a growing crowd of folks who would like to see Xander traded this offseason. Oddly enough, one of the faces in this crowd is NESN television analyst Jerry Remy, who tweeted an article about the need for the Red Sox to trade Xander “before it is too late”. I think this is an absurd stance to take. Winning franchises just don’t push their 25-year-old, above-average shortstop out the door because of a bad half-season in which his wrist was mucked up. Can Xander be better than he has been when healthy? Well, maybe. It will be great if he does perform even better than he has, but the critical thing is that even what he has been is undoubtedly worth having.
Head over to BP Boston and read about Xander’s up-and-down season: Roster Recap: Xander Bogaerts Has Another Rough Second Half.
My previous Roster Recap articles for the series can be found at the following links: