Xander Bogaerts

Mike Lord, a scout for the Boston Red Sox, discovered Bogaerts at the age of 16, in 2009. After not playing baseball for two weeks due to the chicken pox, Bogaerts played for Lord, who recommended him to Craig Shipley, the Red Sox' vice president of international scouting. Shipley flew to Aruba to watch Bogaerts play. The Red Sox signed him to a contract with a $410,000 signing bonus.

Bogaerts made his professional debut in 2010 in the Dominican Summer League (DSL), where he had a .314 batting average, .396 on-base percentage, and .423 slugging percentage. He led the DSL Red Sox in each of those categories, along with hits (75), home runs (3), RBIs (42), and total bases (101). He was fifth in the DSL in RBIs and tenth in total bases, and he had a .929 fielding percentage. The next year, at age 18, Bogaerts played for the Greenville Drive of the Class A South Atlantic League, where he had a slash line of .260/.324/.509, fielded .924, and hit 16 home runs in 72 games.

Bogaerts played for the Dutch national team in the 2011 Baseball World Cup (which the team won), the 2013 World Baseball Classic, and the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

Xander Bogaerts is the fifth Aruban to play in MLB, following Sidney Ponson, Calvin Maduro, Gene Kingsale, and Radhames Dykhoff. In 2011, after winning the gold medal in the Baseball World Cup, Bogaerts was inducted into the Knights Order of Orange-Nassau by the Governor of Aruba. Bogaerts speaks four languages: English, Spanish, Dutch, and Papiamento, the latter two being Aruba's official languages.

During the 2012 season, Bogaerts started out in Class A and ended up playing with the Portland Sea Dogs of the Class AA Eastern League. He was named to appear in the 2012 All-Star Futures Game. Heading into the 2013 season, Bogaerts ranked sixth in the MLB.com Top 100 Prospects list, eighth in the Baseball America Top 100 Prospects list, and was ranked the fifth-best prospect by ESPN's Keith Law, who described him as "Still just 20 years old, Bogaerts has been playing solid shortstop for Portland with a solid walk rate but isn't yet generating the power expected from his explosive swing."

Bogaerts started the season with Portland and was promoted to the Pawtucket Red Sox of the Triple-A International League in mid-June. The Red Sox promoted Bogaerts to the major leagues on August 19. Bogaerts made his MLB debut on August 20 against the San Francisco Giants. He got his first major league hit five days later against the Los Angeles Dodgers. On September 7, Bogaerts hit his first MLB home run against New York Yankees pitcher Jim Miller. At the end of the 2013 Minor League season, Bogaerts gained USA Today Minor League Player of the Year honors and was named to the 2013 Baseball America Minor League All-Star Team. During his brief stint in the majors in 2013, Bogaerts appeared in 18 games batting .250 with a home run, five RBIs, and a stolen base.

In 2015, Bogaerts led the Red Sox with a career-high .320 average (along with seven home runs and 81 RBIs), finishing second only to Miguel Cabrera for the American League batting title. From late July, Bogaerts began to bat second or third exclusively. He had 10 hits with the bases loaded, the most in MLB for 2015. He received the American League's Silver Slugger Award for shortstop. On top of his breakout offense, Bogaerts was also a finalist for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award at shortstop.

In 2016, Bogaerts again began the season as the Red Sox' starting shortstop, primarily batting third. Between May 6 and June 2, Bogaerts hit safely in 26 consecutive games. His hitting streak came to an end in a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on June 3. He was chosen to play in the 2016 MLB All-Star Game, the first of his career; he started at shortstop and was 1-for-2 at the plate. Bogaerts finished the season batting .294 with 21 home runs and 89 RBIs, and was once again given the American League's shortstop Silver Slugger Award.

Bogaerts became eligible for salary arbitration in 2017. He and the Red Sox avoided an arbitration hearing by agreeing to a $4.5 million salary for the 2017 season. In 2017, Bogaerts usually hit in the sixth spot in the batting order. On July 6, he was hit on the right wrist by a pitch from Jacob Faria of the Tampa Bay Rays. It was later diagnosed as a sprained joint. Despite this, Bogaerts declined being placed on the disabled list, and played while injured for the rest of the season. He later admitted this was a mistake, stating that he went through a two-month stretch in which he could not swing comfortably. As a result, he finished the season batting .273 with just 10 home runs and 62 RBIs.

The Red Sox and Bogaerts came to terms on a $12 million salary for the 2019 season in January. On April 1, 2019, the Red Sox announced that they signed Bogaerts to a six-year contract extension worth $132 million. On July 3, MLB announced that Bogaerts had been selected for the 2019 All-Star Game. On September 7, Bogaerts registered his 1,000th MLB career hit, in a game against the New York Yankees. Bogaerts finished the 2019 season with a .309 average, 52 doubles, 33 home runs and 117 RBIs (second in the American League). He finished fifth in 2019 AL MVP voting. He also won his third Silver Slugger Award.