The hot stove has cooled off, but that might not be a bad thing for the Boston Red Sox.
Ever since the flurry of Major League Baseball free-agent signings right before Christmas, there haven’t been many big moves. Teams seem to be waiting out individual players’ markets, hoping to snag their next top talents without bidding against themselves.
The Red Sox talked a big game at the start of the offseason about spending the necessary free-agent dollars to get back into the playoff hunt, but so far, their biggest move by far was the Garrett Crochet trade. The most they’ve spent on a free agent was $21.05 million for Walker Buehler.
Perhaps Boston has simply been waiting for the right time to pounce and bring in the free agent who has most frequently been speculated to be a fit of late–former Houston Astros All-Star Alex Bregman.
On Thursday, Sports Illustrated’s Will Laws and Nick Selbe predicted that Bregman would land in Boston, giving them the right-handed bat they’ve so desperately needed all winter.
“The Astros appear to have ruled out a reunion with their longtime third baseman by trading for Isaac Paredes and signing Christian Walker, and there are precious few teams with a hole at the hot corner willing to shell out the sort of contract Bregman is looking for,” the authors wrote.
“Bregman isn’t likely to sniff an MVP runner-up finish again, but he settled in as a 4 WAR, mid-20 HR threat during his last few years in Houston.”
In 98 career plate appearances at Fenway Park, Bregman has a 1.245 OPS–the highest of any player in the history of the venue. He’d either play second base for the Red Sox or Boston would move Rafael Devers off third base and trade either designated hitter Masataka Yoshida or first baseman Triston Casas.
Bregman was projected for a seven-year, $189 million contract earlier this winter by The Athletic. It seems as though the Red Sox are waiting for that price to drop, and maybe it already has, but looking for a discount can always backfire if another team becomes aggressive unexpectedly.
Will Bregman ultimately wind up in Boston? The answer to that question could heavily dictate whether fans see this winter as a success.
