Inside The Red Sox

Where ESPN Ranked Red Sox's Impending Free Agents In Upcoming Class

Xander Bogaerts, Nathan Eovaldi and J.D. Martinez are the most prominent of the bunch.
Scott Neville|
Where ESPN Ranked Red Sox's Impending Free Agents In Upcoming Class
Where ESPN Ranked Red Sox's Impending Free Agents In Upcoming Class

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Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox have some notable names on expiring deals and could see some of their most prolific players head elsewhere this offseason should the club try to shake up their core after a lost season.

Among the most notable impending free agents are shortstop Xander Bogaerts, designated hitter J.D. Martinez, outfielder Tommy Pham and starting pitchers Nathan Eovaldi and Michael Wacha.

ESPN's Jeff Passan took the time to break the upcoming class into tiers, ranking 112 players into the top four sections and then tossing out some fliers in the final tier. The groupings include five members of the current club and one recent departure worth noting.

The top tier included just four players: New York Yankees' Aaron Judge (who sounded open to the idea of ending up in Boston this offseason), New York Mets' Jacob deGrom, St. Louis Cardinals' Nolan Arenado and Los Angeles Dodgers' Trea Turner. 

Bogaerts was one of just eight players to make the second tier, putting him in the top 12 players of the free-agent class. He'd be No. 7 overall if his rankings were in exact order, though he did not specify.  

"Do not question the bat," Passan wrote Wednesday. "Bogaerts leads the American League in batting average, and he's slugging .521 in the second half. For teams that want a pure hitter, there might be no better bet. How teams project he'll age will dictate where Bogaerts winds up. He will be 30 on Opening Day, and he has been solid enough at shortstop this season that a move off the position isn't yet necessary."

The glowing review of Bogaerts is both accurate and concerning for Red Sox fans who would love nothing more than to see the slugger remain in Boston for the rest of his career.

For what it's worth, Passan grouped Bogey with some of the league's best, including Minnesota Twins' Carlos Correa and Houston Astros' Justin Verlander.

The next tier consisted of 12 players, including Eovaldi, who has had a solid season when healthy but has taken two trips to the injured list. He made the third tier -- among the likes of Chicago Cubs' Willson Contreras and Yankees' Andrew Benintendi -- due to his high-end fastball, five-pitch mix but a propensity to give up the long ball (he's allowed 21 home runs in 18 starts).

Tier four is where things started to open up, with 45 players in the pool, including three members of the current roster and one familiar face. 

Martinez, who may have more to prove than anyone else on the Red Sox roster, Pham and Wacha were all bunched into this tier. Catcher Christian Vázquez, who was traded from the Red Sox to the Astros at the Major League Baseball trade deadline, also was placed in the same pool.

Chris Sale was also listed in the tier as a potential opt-out but there is a nearly 0% chance he would turn down two years, $55 million after yet another injury-plagued season. 

The Red Sox enter a pivotal offseason with a significant amount of money coming off the books and some notable names entering the free-agent pool. Boston will be in the headlines all offseason, potentially with as many big names coming in as they will have going out. 

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Scott Neville
SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the Boston Red Sox for Sports Illustrated's new page "Inside The Red Sox." Before starting "Inside The Red Sox", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer.  His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join the Sports Illustrated Media Group in his current endeavor as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Red Sox" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu

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