Major League Baseball

Who is the future face of the Boston Red Sox?

Published Mar. 17, 2022 6:24 p.m. ET

By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

The date is March 28, 2024, and the Red Sox are opening their season at home.

Picture a beautiful, crisp, spring afternoon in New England. Fenway Park is packed to the brim with rowdy Sawks fans amped up to cheer on their beloved club for yet another baseball season.

But cheer for whom exactly? Who is the face of that Red Sox team?

Perhaps that’s an unnecessary question, but what is life but meaningless pursuits?

The future in Boston is murky, like dirty water.

Granted, the Red Sox are set up quite well for the future. They were just two games away from reaching the World Series last season and bring back much of that same roster. General manager Chaim Bloom is one of the most highly regarded executives in the game and has made some shrewd moves since becoming head honcho in fall 2019. Boston’s farm system has taken a leap forward under Bloom and now sits in the top half of most organizational rankings.

Plus, the Red Sox still wield more financial might than anyone save the Dodgers, Yankees and Mets. There’s no reason whatsoever to panic.

It’s just that the Red Sox have always had Dudes™.

Even when the Sox were cursed, hard-luck losers for much of the 20th century, the franchise had a remarkable string of iconic players. From 1946 to 2019, the Red Sox had at least one future "Hall of Famer" suit up for them every year except 1997. Ted Williams handed the torch to Carl Yazstremski, who passed it to Jim Rice and Wade Boggs, who gave it to Roger Clemens (there’s the reason "Hall of Famer" is in quotes), who gave it to Pedro Martinez, who gave it to David Ortiz, who gave it to Mookie Betts (yes, this fun fact involves a bit of gambling on the future). That list doesn’t even include non-Cooperstown superstars such as 1975 MVP Fred Lynn, 1996 MVP Mo Vaughn or 1997 Rookie of the Year Nomar Garciaparra.

"BUT WHAT ABOUT RAFAEL DEVERS AND XANDER BOGAERTS?" you scream into your phone. Chill, my friend, I hear you. But unfortunately, those two cornerstones might not be on the roster for much longer. Bogaerts has an opt-out after this season that he’ll likely exercise if he replicates last year’s numbers, and Devers is set to hit the free-agent market for the first time after 2023.

Granted, that’s still a few years away, and there are more immediate fish to fry, but there’s a shadow of uncertainty surrounding the 2024 Red Sox roster. The club could, of course, extend either or both of Bogaerts and Devers, but after the Betts kerfuffle, in which Boston dealt him to L.A. instead of shelling out big money for an extension, there’s reason for skepticism.

So let’s gaze into the crystal ball a bit and daydream about which player is most likely to be the face of the Boston Red Sox in 2024.

THE CURRENT STALWARTS

Rafael Devers

The baby-faced assassin is coming off another superlative offensive season in which he clubbed 37 doubles and 38 homers, posted an .890 OPS (third among MLB third basemen) and finished 11th in American League MVP voting. There’s no doubt that Devers can swing it, but there’s also no doubt that he cannot pick it.

His defense at the hot corner was abysmal in 2021, ranking in the first percentile league-wide in Outs Above Average. Defensive metrics are notoriously finicky, and Devers will make the occasional sensational play, but he’s only going to get worse with the glove as he gets older and slower. It’s easy to imagine him needing to move to first base in a few years.

Would the Red Sox really break open the piggy bank for a future first baseman when their top prospect (more on him later) is a first baseman who should be in the big leagues at some point this season? Rafy is a lovable fan favorite and the face of the current squad, and he has publicly said he’d like to stay in Boston, but remember, Betts was all that stuff too once upon a time, and now ... well, now he’s on the Dodgers.

Xander Bogaerts

Before the 2019 season, Bogaerts and the Red Sox agreed to a six-year, $132 million deal that includes an opt-out after 2022. The Aruban shortstop is set to make $20 million per year for the remainder of the contract, a rate well below market value when you consider that Corey Seager and Marcus Semien just got $33M and $25M per year, respectively, from Texas, Javy Báez got $23.3M from Detroit, and both Trevor Story and Carlos Correa should get at least $20 million per year whenever they sign.

TL;DR: Bogaerts is likely opting out after this season.

Now, obviously, the Red Sox could bring him back on a new deal, and like Devers, Bogaerts had an outstanding 2021, finishing one spot behind his teammate in AL MVP voting, with a .863 OPS that ranked him fourth in baseball among shortstops.

But as with Devers, there are questions about Bogaerts’ defensive future. Most notably, he kinda stinks at shortstop. The defensive metrics are more mixed on him than on Devers, but Bogaerts will eventually need to move to second or third.

He was quoted in the media just a few days ago saying he has no intention of moving off shortstop in the near future. If he’s that passionate about playing the six, he can probably find a team to pay him to do so, but I’m skeptical that team is the Boston Red Sox.

Other guys on the current roster

* Chris Sale: It’s difficult to be the face of a team as a pitcher, especially when you’re an injured one.

* Alex Verdugo: Maybe the effervescent outfielder takes a leap forward, but his play thus far has been more solid regular than superstar.

* Enrique Hernandez: He was Babe Ruth for a few weeks in October 2021 but will hit free agency again after 2022.

* J.D. Martinez: Just Dingers is already 34 years old, on the decline and a free agent after next year.

* Jackie Bradley Jr.: He’s back! Maybe this is the year his bat finally comes together! Breakout star at 31!

THE TOP PROSPECTS

Triston Casas

Boston’s first-round pick in 2018, Casas has done nothing but hit since entering pro ball. The mammoth first baseman has a sweet, left-handed swing and prodigious power that earned him unanimous praise on the offseason prospect list circuit, reaching as high as 16th in FanGraphs’ rankings. Casas showed out as a member of the 2021 U.S. team in Tokyo, too, belting three home runs in Olympic play and being named to the all-tournament team.

There’s obviously a ton of volatility with a 22-year-old first baseman, but Casas should make his MLB debut this season. A lot could go wrong, but he’s penciled in as the Sox’s starting first baseman on Opening Day 2023 and for a half-decade after that. Sounds like a potential face of the franchise to me.

Marcelo Mayer

The Red Sox’s 2020 season was one of the more impressive tank jobs of all time. In the abbreviated season, they trotted out one of the worst pitching staffs ever and finished last in the American League East (a game behind Baltimore!). That earned them the fourth pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, which they used on California high school shortstop Marcelo Mayer, widely regarded as the most talented player in the draft.

Mayer’s fall to the fourth pick had everything to do with how the teams ahead of Boston chose to allocate their bonus money and nothing to do with Mayer himself. He ended up getting a bigger signing bonus from Boston than first overall pick Henry Davis got from Pittsburgh, and the Red Sox fell into a potential generational talent.

Mayer is a fantastic defensive shortstop for his age, with a powerful, left-handed swing that could one day work in the middle of a big-league lineup. Time will tell if he reaches his potential, but it’s an extraordinarily rare combination of traits. It’s unlikely he’ll be ready for the bigs by Opening Day 2024, and thus, he doesn’t help with this particular exercise, but if everything clicks for Mayer, he could be The Dude in Boston come 2025 and beyond.

Nick Yorke

Most prognosticators thought the Red Sox made an overdraft when they nabbed Yorke 17th overall in 2020, but so far, he has proven the haters wrong. Yorke is a second baseman who can really hit and might grow into average power one day. His scouting reports are dotted with the "gamer" and "great makeup" labels that could one day dominate Boston sports radio.

Yorke still needs to prove himself in the high minors, but he could be ready by 2024 if he keeps hitting. Yes, he’s taller than Dustin Pedroia by a few inches at least, but this is the closest thing the Red Sox have to that type of guy. Dark horse candidate here.

THE UNFORESEEN NEWBIES

Carlos Correa

He’s still a free agent! How about that? The recent buzz on the market’s top player points toward a reunion with Houston, but that’s nowhere near a done deal. Even though there was some bad blood in October between the polarizing shortstop and the Red Sox in the ALCS, the fan base, the clubhouse and the organization would be foolish to let that impede their bringing in one of the most electric players in the league.

But a potential Correa addition would push Bogaerts to second base, something Bogaerts said, as recently as this week, he doesn’t want to do. Forcing the clubhouse’s leader to switch positions against his will to bring in a guy the entire team hated five months ago would certainly require some team chemistry massaging. But a match here isn't out of the question, and Correa could become the face of Red Sox baseball for years to come.

Freddie Freeman

Haha. NEVER MIND.

Shohei Ohtani

The name you’ve all been waiting for. Let’s get hot and spicy.

The 2021 AL MVP, aka the most captivating human being in sports, aka the two-way magician, aka the most famous person in Japan, has two more years on his comically low, pre-free-agency deal with Anaheim. Unless he signs an extension there, Ohtani will hit the open market after the 2023 season at age 29.

If he keeps up his two-way sorcery from last season, the man, the myth, the legend could command a historically massive contract that might restrict his market to the true big-money behemoths of the game: both New York clubs, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston.

Coming out of high school, Ohtani was closest to signing with Boston or L.A. before he decided to enter the NPB. Two years is a long way away — the past two years have felt like two decades — but this is a pipe dream with some legs.

THE VERDICT

My hypothetical ranking would be …

Casas
No face of the franchise, but the Sox are still good, like every pre-Wander Franco Rays team
Devers
Somebody we can’t even imagine
Bogaerts
Ohtani
Yorke
Mayer
Correa

What do you think? Who will be the face of the franchise in 2024? Let me know on Twitter @CespedesBBQ and @Jake_Mintz.

Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.