In their ongoing search for a new second baseman to replace their longtime fixture at the position, Gleyber Torres, the New York Yankees have been linked to what often feels like every middle infielder who might be available either as a free agent or through a trade. The Yankees never even made Torres an offer to keep him in New York, and around Christmas he inked a $15 million, one-year pact that will take him to the Detroit Tigers.
But the top free agent on the market, one who would fill the second base need for the Yankees or for their traditional arch-rivals the Boston Red Sox, is former Houston Astros two-time All-Star and two-time World Series winner Alex Bregman. Bregman has spent the vast majority of his big league career with the Astros as their third baseman. He even won a Gold Glove at the position in 2024.
Bregman Open to Second Base Switch
But Bregman, according to his agent Scott Boras, has expressed his openness to a switch over to second base. At least that is how a statement by Boras has been widely interpreted.
“You just don’t have many players on the dirt that do what he does,” Boras said back at the start of the free agency period in November. “Also that Bregman can play second base, third base, his leadership, it’s a market certainly that the Astros are very aware is very healthy to him.”
According to veteran Boston sportswriter John Tomase, then with NBC Sports Boston, “Boras says nothing unintentionally, and that comment is surely designed to expand Bregman’s market. Suddenly the Red Sox make much more sense as a destination.”
Bregman has been reported to want a long-term, $200 million contract.
In fact, the Red Sox drafted Bregman as a second baseman out of high school in 2012, but he chose to play college baseball at LSU instead. The Astros then took him with the second overall pick in 2015.
Now, Boston is the team where Bregman will be headed, possibly in just days — at least if a report by former 14-year major leaguer, and Red Sox infielder (for one season in 2002) Carlos Baerga is correct.
Baerga is now a Spanish-language broadcaster for Cleveland Guardians games, and a podcast host. He has made a practice of publicly sharing what he says is his inside information from MLB contacts, often about player movement, trades and signings.
Market For Bregman Appears Narrowed to Boston, New York
In December, it was Baerga who first reported that the New York Mets had stunned their free agent first baseman Pete Alonso by offering him a short, three-year contract rather than the much longer deal he was, and still is, seeking. Baerga’s report was later confirmed.
That of course does not mean that Baerga is always on the money. But the accuracy of his latest report will become clearer probably by the end of this week, because late on Monday night he took to his X (formerly Twitter) account to write that, “The Boston Red Sox could be reaching an agreement with Alex Bregman in the next few days and he will be playing second base.”
Bregman has also been closely linked to the Detroit Tigers, where he would be reunited with his 2017 World Series-winning Astros manager A.J. Hinch. But according to a report Tuesday morning by the Detroit Free Press, negotiations between Bregman and the Tigers were “at a standstill with less than one month until the first full-squad workout in spring training.”
The Toronto Blue Jays were also reportedly looking at a Bregman signing, but they appeared to take themselves out of the running when they signed former Baltimore Orioles switch-hitting slugger Anthony Santander over the weekend.
That leaves only the Yankees and Red Sox as contenders for Bregman, if public media reports are accurate, and according to the former big leaguer Baerga, Boston now has the advantage.
