Xander Bogaerts Returns to McCoy Stadium on April 24 & 25
Boston Red Sox SS Xander Bogaerts is slated to play a pair of rehab games with the PawSox tomorrow (Tuesday) and Wednesday when Pawtucket hosts Toledo at 6:15 pm at McCoy Stadium both nights.
Boston Red Sox SS
Bogaerts was placed on the Red Sox 10-day disabled list on April 9 after suffering a small crack of the talus bone in his left ankle on April 8. The injury occured when he landed on the 3rd base dugout steps at Fenway while sliding into the dugout to (successfully) keep a loose ball in play vs. Tampa Bay. Xander was off to a terrific start with the Red Sox batting .368 in his first 9 games (14-for-38) while leading the majors with 7 doubles at the time (he also had 2 HR & 9 RBI).
Bogaerts is in his 5th full Major League season while still only 25-years-old. He came into this season with a career batting average of .283 in 623 major league games (all with the Red Sox) with 51 HR & 283 RBI. He was an American League All-Star in 2016 (hitting .294 in 157 games) and hit a career-best .320 in 156 games in 2015. Since 2015, Xander had started 462 of the last 495 Red Sox games prior to this injury…only two players had more starts at SS in that time (Alcides Escobar and Elvis Andrus).
In June of 2013, Bogaerts joined the PawSox and at 20 years old was the youngest player in the International League that season. He hit .284 with 9 HR & 32 RBI in 60 games for the PawSox before being promoted to Boston on August 19, 2013. That October, in Game 1 of the 2013 World Series at Fenway, he became the 11th youngest position player to start a World Series game at the age of 21 years & 22 days old.
A native of Aruba, Xander speaks English, Spanish, Dutch, and Papiamento.