Five Red Sox Players Who Can Opt-Out Of Contracts In Favor Of Free Agency

Five players can alter Boston's offseason drastically

Scott Neville | Oct 12, 2022

Five Red Sox Players Who Can Opt-Out Of Contracts In Favor Of Free Agency /

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Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox have five players on deals with options in their respective contracts waiting to be exercised.

These five options will be accepted or declined within the first five days following the conclusion of the World Series, same as the exclusive free-agent window.

Here are the five Red Sox players with options in their deals:

SS Xander Bogaerts
If you've been keeping tabs on the Red Sox's upcoming offseason then you've heard about Bogaerts' contract situation a number of times.

Bogaerts has a player option -- meaning he has the option to accept or decline without any team interference -- for three years, $60 million that also includes a $20 million vesting option for 2026 -- a goal-oriented option -- that will kick in automatically if he collects 535 plate appearances in 2025.

Bogaerts will opt out of his deal barring a stark change in direction for the 30-year-old shortstop. He's currently getting paid under market value and is not expected to take a hometown discount this time around. Still, he's made his affection for Boston clear and many members of the Red Sox organization have made their intention to bring back Bogey clear.

At the end-of-season press conference, Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom claimed he was going to start working on a new deal with Bogaerts "right away" and even set a timeline by which he'd like to get the deal done.

2022 Season: .307/.377/.456 with 38 doubles, 15 home runs, 73 RBIs and a .833 OPS in 150 games

LHP Chris Sale
Did you know Sale could effectively end the last awful contract dealt out by former president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski by opting out of his current deal this offseason?

Sale has a two-year, $55 million player option this winter. Upon acceptance, he'll also keep a $20 million club option for 2025 at the end of his deal. Unfortunately, there is no chance Sale will turn down this contract after making just 11 starts in the last three seasons entering his age 34 season.

Sale still has the ability to become an impactful part of the Red Sox's rotation, but he's being massively overpaid for his current value and hasn't been able to stay healthy since 2019.

2022 Season: 0-1, 3.18 ERA, 5-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, 141 ERA+, 2.41 FIP in 5 2/3 innings pitched across two starts

1B Eric Hosmer
Hosmer also has a sizeable contract that he's nearly guaranteed to accept but the Red Sox barely will pay any of it.

The 32-year-old has a three-year, $40.875 million player option that will put a hurting on the San Diego Padres. Of the just under $41 million, the Red Sox will pay $720,000 in 2023, $740,000 in 2024 and $760,000 in 2025.

The remainder will be paid out by the Padres, thanks to Bloom's successful trade deadline negotiation.

2022 Season: .268/.334/.391 with 19 doubles, eight home runs, 44 RBIs and a .716 OPS in 104 games

LHP James Paxton
The soon-to-be 34-year-old has a very unique contract situation coming up after not throwing a single pitch for the Red Sox this season.

Boston will have the ability to exercise a two-year, $26 million club option -- meaning the team has the ability to activate the contract without the player's permission -- in what would be a gamble for Bloom and company.

If the Red Sox decline the club option, Paxton has the ability to exercise a one-year, $4 million player option.

It's hard to predict this situation, but Boston could find better ways to allocate $13 million a season than to give it to an aging veteran coming off of Tommy John surgery. Paxton likely could do better on the open market than to accept $4 million as well.

2022 Season: Missed entire year with Tommy John surgery

OF Tommy Pham
Entering his age-35 season, Pham has a hefty mutual option on the table.

After initial reports indicated that the former Cincinnati Reds outfielder, had a $6 million option, it's now being reported by multiple sources that his option actually is for double.

It would make sense for Pham to accept the $12 million option, but the team should not even consider retaining Pham for that price. If either side declines, the deal is voided, which should happen here.

2022 Season: .236/.312/.374 with 23 doubles, a triple, 17 home runs, 63 RBIs and a .686 OPS in 144 games

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Published Oct 12, 2022

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