Padres News: We Are Now Seeing 2nd Wave of Investment Return on Xander Bogaerts Signing
When Xander Bogaerts decided to sign with the San Diego Padres ahead of the 2023 season, it caught the baseball world by shock in a way. Everybody knew that Manny Machado was going to be expecting his own new contract soon and a number of key rotational guys had already been paid. Giving Bogaerts a $280 million contract showed the Peter Seidler and the rest of the organization was no worried about finances.
However, there was a whole other layer to this and it was that Bogaerts had already established himself as one of the best short stops in the league and San Diego already had a star SS on their hands with Fernando Tatis Jr. But the Padres saw what Manny Machado and a shortened Friars roster did in 2022 and decided to bring together as many stars as possible and just make it work.
Tatis was still under suspension for PED use during the time of the signing and maybe the Friars were unsure about how he would look when he finally returned. Trea Turner was another star infielder they reportedly met with and even offered up to $300 million too. However, they ended up rolling with X-Man and it has worked out nicely thus far.
Especially when you see how Nando has been performing in right field.
It started off with just a couple of highlights and taunts towards opposing crowds but now the MLB is starting to finally realize what El Niño is doing in the outfield. Sunday was a perfect example of this as he recorded his second-fastest throw of the season in a heave to Austin Nola to save the game in the eighth inning.
So even though Tatis wasn't too open to the change at first, it has indeed worked out. He was initially avoiding questions about the matter when asked about it at FanFest back in March.
"Uhhh, I gotta talk to my manager. But I'm open. I feel like this is a great team that we have, this is a great roster that the front office has built together, and I feel like everybody's on the same page, and that page is winning. So whatever it takes, we're gonna do it."
(Via 97.3 The Fan)
But even before Nando made his way back to the lineup, Bogaerts was already shining in brown and gold. He kept the Friars afloat offensively in the first month of the season as he batted .290, clocked in six home runs, and posted an OPS of .883.
Change is always hard at first but if approached in the correct manner, it works out!
