Phillies In Tight Race With Dodgers For Xander Bogaerts

Xander Bogaerts will be one of the sought-after shortstops in the MLB offseason, and a move to the Philadelphia Phillies could make sense.

Currently signed with the Boston Red Sox, Jon Heyman of the New York Post suggested that there is real interest in the services of the four-time All-Star.

However, closing a deal would be complicated.

The fact is that the Phillies are over the luxury tax threshold in 2022.

So to get someone like Bogaerts into the fold, Philly would have to give up $1 million of their international pool bonus as well as their second and fifth-highest picks in the 2023 MLB Draft.

There is no telling if the Phillies can pull some strings, but there is a familiar figure in the person of Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.

It was Dombrowski who signed Bogaerts to a six-year contract extension worth $120 million in April 2019 with the Red Sox, but the Aruban professional baseball player opted out of the final three years of the said deal.

If not Philadelphia, Heyman went on to identify two other teams that could make sense for the “X-Man.” These are the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs.

For the Dodgers, pursuing Bogaerts could be an option, especially if Trea Turner decided to leave the ballclub.

The Dodgers extended a qualifying offer to the one-time World Series champion, offering the two-time All-Star a $19.65 million, one-year deal.

Turner is expected to reject the offer, especially since he knows he will be one of the most scouted shortstops in the offseason.

As for the Cubs, it could also make sense since possibly getting Bogaerts may allow them to move Nico Hoerner to second base according to the aforementioned scribe.

Finally, Bogaerts and Turner are not the only big-name shortstops expected to be available in the offseason.

Aside from them, Carlos Correa and Dansby Swanson are also expected to attract interest.

Hence, the Phillies, Dodgers and Cubs do have options at the shortstop position in the offseason.

But before that, affected MLB teams will have to wait and see who will stay and who will go.