I am a Red Sox fan and I will die as such with the same level of insanity and bellicosity as I have always had since October of 1986 when as a punk 8 year old I told every Mets "fan" on my school bus to F off. They have been a part of my soul ever since.
I'm beyond past the point of wanting to re-litigate Mookie for the millionth time. Frankly, someone needs to get in his ear out in LA and tell him to STFU about it and worry about being a Dodger. These last set of comments lack any credibility and make him look like either an idiot or a liar. The world crashed down, and he grabbed what he could grab despite earlier comments made under different circumstances, and there's nothing wrong with that...but don't piss down my leg, Marcus Lynn, and tell me it's raining. There is no way he signs his present contract with the Red Sox after 2018 or in 2019, so just stop.
I love Xander. Xander has been an outstanding example of what a Red Sox developed player should become. A leader, a producer, a championship-level player. No I do not wish to pay premium money for Xander's decline. No I do not wish to be the Detroit Tigers. Yes I am excited to see Marcelo Mayer or Nick Yorke or any of the other half-dozen shortstops they've drafted in the last 5 years make us all forget Xander...just as Ellsbury made us forget Damon, and Betts made us forget Ellsbury, etc. etc. etc. That's what sustainable and forward-thinking franchises do, and we have the four straps won with four different rosters to prove it.
Devers is a different case. A serious, major market organization pulls out all stops to keep a player like him at his age and with a higher ceiling to reach and a path to usability as a 1B or DH into the back half of the contract. A serious, major market organization also has all its boy geniuses in a basement conference room somewhere figuring out what, when, and how on Soto, who is an equal or superior generational talent to Devers. The Boston Red Sox(TM) - a global brand with nearly limitless financial resources - had better be all in just as I am sure other equivalent titans (NYY, LAD, NYM, Cubs, PHI) will be. Yes, the Red Sox can afford both. Yes, the Red Sox need to seriously consider a package to get Soto and a full court press to sign him thereafter. Yes, the Red Sox can creatively assemble a competitive roster around the two of them (pointing right to you, Chaim).
Now, if neither happens, will I turn my back on them? No, just like I didn't turn my back on them in 2014 and 2015 when they were disassembled piece by piece. It will be depressing but I'll trudge on, as I suspect just about all of you will do as well. And another way will be found, eventually.