It is only fair.
When a fan base spends the better part of two and a half seasons questioning the wisdom of giving a lot of money to a free agent who then is mired in mediocrity and injury but then breaks out and shows what they are made of, we acknowledge we could have been wrong.
Last month I wrote a lukewarm appraisal of the encouraging signs being seen from Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts. The numbers indicated that he was hitting better than what the results were showing. There was hope that it was just
a question of time before we saw the turn in luck that would allow the results to show up.
It seems we have reached that point in time. Xander Bogaerts is playing like the guy the Padres spent all that money to sign. For the season so far, he is sitting .268/.346/.380 with a .726 OPS. Those are decent numbers and sit about in the middle of where he has trended for his career. One improvement is that he already has as many homers (6) this season as he did for all of last season and five less than all of 2023.
But the really encouraging part is that Bogaerts has torn it up over the last six weeks and has been the best hitter on the team over the last 15 days.
For the month of July (16 games) he has three doubles, a grand slam home run, and five RBI with nine walks and ten strikeouts for a .321/.415/.429 slash line and a .844 OPS. That’s as good as he has done for his career as a Red Sox star. Over the last 15 games, he is hitting .382/.475/.559 with a 1.034 OPS, which sits first on the team in average and OPS in that span.
Over the past 26 games (107 plate appearances) he has a .380 average and a 1.027 OPS. This goes back to the last couple weeks of June, when his surge began.
Padres hitting coach, Victor Rodriguez, worked with Bogaerts as a minor league and major league player in the Red Sox organization. He has stated in the past that Padres fans have “not seen the real Xander.” Bogaerts has said recently that he is feeling good at the plate and is mechanically right now. It is showing in his performance and with the improved results being seen. He is also down to an 18% chase rate over this stretch, 4% lower than earlier in the season.
It is probably not a coincidence that we are also seeing the best defense we have seen from Bogaerts as a Padre. He has been consistent, solid and his defensive metrics have also improved over his two previous seasons as a Padre.
This version of Xander Bogaerts has been fun to watch and if he can continue to hold onto his mechanics and stay healthy, we will get to see the player the Padres invested in when he signed before the 2023 season.
This was written before tonight’s loss.
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