Yet for all who bear witness to it, the coming-of-age of 23-year-olds Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts, of 25-year-old Christian Vazquez, of 26-year-olds Jackie Bradley Jr. and Travis Shaw has been little short of breathtaking to witness. All are arriving at understandings about who they are as players, at a time when their primes are ahead of them – and when all are under team control for not just this season (when the quintet will make less than $3 million combined) but at least three beyond it.

The notion of the bridge, articulated by former GM Theo Epstein in December 2009 but quickly banned from public discourse, has nonetheless loomed over the franchise for years, a dream of the next core of young players that would be capable of taking flight together with the possibility of sustained success for a number of years. There are many members of the Red Sox organization who have been around for the entire wait for that window to open, others who are newer to the undertaking.

Hitting coach Chili Davis has seen something similar, when he oversaw a breakout young group (Josh Donaldson, Josh Reddick, etc.) with the A’s in 2012. Even though the A’s couldn’t afford to keep the group assembled, that group led Oakland to three straight playoff appearances. And now, he’s witnessing a second lightning strike in Boston.


“All those guys [with the A’s] just broke out. They started learning how to play together. Then they put it together, and once the train started moving, it just kept going,” Davis said after watching his team hammer the Rockies, 8-3, on a night when Bradley extended his hitting streak to 28 games and Bogaerts collected knocks in his 17th straight contest. “This is a good group of guys that are in the big leagues at a really young age – Bogey, Mookie, Jackie – you can just keep going on and on. They’ve found their stride and they’re enjoying it right now.”


Meanwhile, in Southern California (via Texas), there’s a different sort of outlook.

Josh Hamilton, who is being paid by the Angels to play for the Rangers, will require his third knee surgery since September and will miss all of the 2016 season. It is time for him to come to terms with his baseball mortality, writes Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News.

This is the fourth season of the five-year, $125 million deal that Hamilton signed with the Angels after a top-five finish in MVP balloting in 2012. To this point, Hamilton has hit .255 with a .312 OBP, .428 slugging mark, and 39 homers in 290 games (an average of 73 games per year over the first four years of the deal). He never came close to approximating the impact in Southern California that he had in his first stint with Texas.

The Angels deemed him of such little value after the first two years of the deal that they assumed nearly all of Hamilton’s remaining salary to send him to the division rival Angels in early 2015, with three years of the contract remaining. They’re saddled with both his contract and that of a fading Albert Pujols, and with little homegrown talent on the horizon -- resulting in curiosity whether the Angels, now 21-26, will have to deal the best player in franchise history (Mike Trout) in order to address their deficiencies.


In many ways, Hamilton’s contract stands as a monument (one of about 1,274) to the brutal return that the industry has received on nine-figure free-agent contracts for position players. Here’s a look at all of the nine-figure free-agent deals for position players since the winter of 2009-10 (this winter’s deals are excluded given their recency):

Robinson Cano (2013-14 offseason): 10 years, $240 million – 2+ years completed, 12.1 total WAR

Shin-Soo Choo (2013-14 offseason): 7 years, $130 million – 2+ years completed, 3.6 total WAR

Jacoby Ellsbury (2013-14 offseason): 7 years, $153 million – 2+ years completed, 6.2 total WAR

Josh Hamilton (2012-13 offseason): 5 years, $125 million – 3+ years completed, 3.4 total WAR

Prince Fielder (2011-12 offseason): 9 years, $214 million – 4+ years completed, 7.5 total WAR

Albert Pujols (2011-12 offseason): 10 years, $240 million – 4+ years completed, 13.5 total WAR

Jose Reyes (2011-12 offseason): 6 years, $106 million – 4+ years completed, 8.9 total WAR

Carl Crawford (2010-11 offseason): 7 years, $142 million – 5+ years completed, 3.7 total WAR

Jayson Werth (2010-11 offseason): 7 years, $126 million – 5+ years completed, 8.9 total WAR

Matt Holliday (2009-10 offseason): 7 years, $120 million – 6+ years completed, 20.3 WAR

The takeaway: These were all players who were signed with the track record of stars. To date, only Cano (with the exception of the first half of 2015) has performed to that level since his signing – and there are still more than seven years left for that perspective to change.


Only Holliday appears a certainty to offer anything close to solid return on the investment over the full life of his deal. Hamilton, Reyes, Crawford, and Werth have all offered pennies on the dollar. The coming four to five years for Choo (currently on the DL), Ellsbury, Fielder, and Pujols could turn very ugly.

Even as Hanley Ramirez continues to alter the perception of his deal, the Red Sox have first-hand experience with the poor yield of big-money position players given their experience with Crawford and now Pablo Sandoval. As much as pitching is viewed as the ultimate free agent risk, it’s hard to suggest that big-ticket position players offer any greater sense of comfort for long-term megadeals.

That, in turn, highlights how well positioned the Red Sox appear to be, given their young position players who are either entering their prime years or who have yet to arrive at that stage of their careers. For the Red Sox, the bridge is now in the rearview mirror – with other prospects in position to cross it behind this group.

Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexspeier.