Sam Kennedy says Red Sox want to keep Xander Bogaerts ‘forever’

As Opening Day approaches, the Red Sox and Xander Bogaerts are apparently, even as we speak, talking about what it would take to keep the beloved shortstop in Boston.

Whether or not that comes to pass, though, there’s no doubting how much respect Bogaerts has earned with the Red Sox’ front office.

During an interview with 1080 WTIC NEWSTALK in Hartford Wednesday morning, Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy waxed poetic about the two-time World Series champion shortstop and his commitment to winning, which even extended to recruiting Trevor Story — his potential replacement — to join the team.

“We wouldn’t have Trevor Story without Xander Bogaerts,” Kennedy said. “He was the key member of the recruitment effort. What he did to bring Trevor in was extraordinary, reaching out and wanting to add another player to what we hope will be a championship-caliber team.”

Bogaerts has received praise from Story, manager Alex Cora, and others in the Red Sox organization for actively selling the newly-signed free agent, who has primarily played shortstop in his career, on coming to Boston. The Red Sox star’s reasoning for doing so was simple: “Because I’m obsessed with winning.”

In the immediate future, Bogaerts will be looking to win as a member of the Boston Red Sox — the team that signed him as an international free agent back in 2009. After the season, he can opt out of his current contract in search of a bigger payday.

Kennedy reiterated his hopes that Bogaerts’s next contract will keep him in Boston for the rest of his career.

“He’s been with the organization since he was a teenager,” Kennedy said of Bogaerts. “He’s family to all of us given we’ve known him since his teenage years, and we hope he’s with the organization for his entire career. We’ve engaged in extension talks in the past with him back prior to the 2019 season, and my hope is we’re able to talk to him and get him and keep him a part of the Red Sox forever, and I’ll leave it at that.”

For what it’s worth, the feeling seems mutual. Bogaerts said earlier this week he would like to remain in town if possible, calling Boston “a great city and a great organization.” If the two sides can’t reach an agreement on a new deal before Opening Day, however, Bogaerts’s future with the Red Sox won’t be decided until the end of the season.