Meet Xander Bogaerts

The Guru
Contributing Writer

Red Sox Nation has been clamoring for the call up of the Red Sox top prospect Xander Bogaerts for months. Fans got their wish Monday and Xander met the team in San Francisco.

It's unclear how much playing time the 20-yer-old shortstop/third baseman will actually get. Bogaerts is not in Monday's lineup, but he may make his major league debut Tuesday at AT&T Park..


As the Red Sox prepared to play the Giants, manager John Farrell outlined the plan for Bogaerts,
"Well Xander comes to us and he'll rotate through the left side of the infield. As Ben (Cherington) and I and others talked about our position players going down the stretch here, and trying to find best ways to build in some scheduled down days, Xander will provide that at shortstop with Stephen (Drew). And the reason why we brought Xander was a right-handed bat to complement him. That's not to say a platoon situation by any means, but [we] felt like it was time for him to come here and start his major league career."

Bogaerts is widely considered one of the top prospects in the game, with Baseball America listing him as the No. 4 prospect in all of baseball, while MLB.com has him at No. 6.

Between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Pawtucket Bogaerts hit .297 with 15 home runs, 67 RBI and 44 extra-base hits in 116 games. Bogaerts, a native of Aruba, also played for the Dutch national team at the World Baseball Classic that finished fourth.

Bogaerts is the youngest position player for the Red Sox since Dwight Evans debuted in 1972. Among current major leaguers, only Bryce Harper of the Nationals and Jurickson Profar of the Rangers are younger.

Here he is Red Sox Lifer's: Xander Bogaerts, the future of the Red Sox.




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