Standing in front of his locker in Fort Myers last week, Xander Bogaerts wanted to know about Maine weather. He saw the frightening pictures of recent snow at Hadlock Field.
“So, how cold?” Bogaerts asked the reporter from Maine.
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In the 40s at night, he was told.
“Forties? That’s not too bad,” Bogaerts told himself more than anyone.
“When does the cold go away?” he asked.
June, came the answer.
“June!” Bogaerts said. “Man, I was hitting .100 in April last year, and it wasn’t that cold.”
Bogaerts paused, a smile coming over his lips. “I might bunt a lot,” he said.
That comment cracked up his clubhouse neighbor in spring training, Jackie Bradley Jr. Bradley can laugh. He played in Portland last year when it was warm, and he is not coming back.
Bogaerts? He played in Portland for 23 games at the end of last year, and now he is back, ready to start the 2013 Sea Dogs season Thursday — at Hadlock, where the snow has been cleared away.
Bogaerts is only 20, but it is conceivable he could join Bradley in the major leagues this year.
The current hysteria over Bradley, and his major league debut Monday with Boston, overshadows one point — Bradley is not considered the best Red Sox prospect. He is No. 2 on Baseball America’s list.
Bogaerts is No. 1.
While Bradley groomed his game in high school and American Legion ball, and then with the stellar University of South Carolina program, Bogaerts hails from Aruba, the southern Caribbean island known for its beaches, but not its baseball.
Bradley is gifted and polished. Bogaerts is pure, raw talent.
“He’s blessed with such great hand speed and some strength,” said Dave Joppie, Portland’s hitting coach last year.
“He has a knack for finding the baseball with the barrel of the bat.”
And to think, the Red Sox almost didn’t find him.
In 2009, a Red Sox scout was conducting player evaluations in Aruba, in that constant search for unknown talent.
Xander Bogaerts, then 16, was not there. He was still bed-ridden, recovering from the chicken pox.
The phone rang at the Bogaerts home. Xander’s twin brother Jair was calling from the tryout.
“He told me to get down there,” Bogaerts said. “I had to ask my mom. She finally let me go.”
The Bogaerts brothers impressed. Both eventually signed with the Red Sox, Xander for $500,000 and Jair for $180,000. Both played in the Dominican Summer league in 2010.
Then in 2011, at the age of 18, Xander was pushed past two rookie leagues, to Class A Greenville. He hit 16 home runs in 72 games. Boston had a top prospect on its hands.
The 2012 season began with Jair being traded to the Chicago Cubs in the deal involving general manager Theo Epstein leaving Boston for Chicago.
“That was tough,” Xander said. Jair would eventually be released by the Cubs.
But Xander kept hitting. Bogaerts hit .302 with 15 home runs last season in advanced Class A Salem, before jumping to Portland for those 23 games (.326, five home runs, 10 doubles).
Bogaerts simply crushes the ball. He is 6-foot-3, 185 pounds, and expected to get stronger. The potential is there. The talent simply needs to be refined.
“There are still some inconsistencies, approach-wise, that still need to be ironed-out,” Joppie said. “He’s learning how to slow the game down — because he can go 100 mph. He’s learning how to replicate his swing from the ground up ?p>”Once he learns how to stay consistent, it’s going to be very scary.”
Boston invited Bogaerts to major league spring training camp. His time there was interrupted by the World Baseball Classic. Bogaerts played third base for the Netherlands (The Braves’ Andrelton Simmons was the shortstop).
“The WBC was a great experience,” he said. “I think it will benefit me because when I get up to the big leagues I will have already experienced big crowds.”
No one doubts that Bogaerts will get to the big leagues. The questions are when and at what position?
The speculation has always been that Bogaerts will become too big (read: slow) to play shortstop. But Sea Dogs manager Kevin Boles said Bogaerts has only improved at the position. And during spring training, Red Sox manager John Farrell made it clear that “we view Xander as a shortstop.”
A lot will depend on Boston’s needs. The Red Sox have a pretty good, young third baseman in Will Middlebrooks. Boston may have one of the best young fielding shortstops in Jose Iglesias.
“I’m working hard to stay at shortstop,” Bogaerts said. “I don’t have a problem with (being too big).
“But whatever position the organization wants me to be, I’m open to do it.”
The way Bogaerts hits, it is unlikely the Red Sox will hold him down for long. The end of this season is possible. Next year likely.
One thing Bogaerts needs to know: the road upward — to Triple-A Pawtucket, R.I., and to Boston — is not much warmer than Portland, Maine.
“I’m not accustomed to cold weather,” he said, then shrugged. “I’ll have to get accustomed to it.”
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