Free agent Alex Bregman has a new home after agreeing to a three-year, $120 million contract with the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night, sources say ESPN’s Jesse Rogers I spoke.
The $40 million annual salary is more than $10 million a year than other teams were offering, sources said. This transaction includes two opt-outs and postponed money.
The biggest free agent left on the market, Bregman is expected to play Boston’s 2 base after playing mainly third place with the Houston Astros since 2020. Staff after the team got Garrett Crochet via Trade and signed Walker Buehler and Aroldis Chapman via Free Agency earlier this offseason.
Boston manager Alex Cora had been hoping for Bregman very badly because he had coached him in Houston before. The deal brought the Red Sox a big splash after guaranteeing free agents only $52.3 million this winter, bringing huge frustration from the fan base of a team that hasn’t been in the postseason since 2021.
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Previously playing all nine seasons with the Astros, Bregman was attracting attention from several teams as the Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs are the biggest links alongside Boston and Houston. The Tigers provided him with a six-year, $171 million deal, while the Astros were $156 million for about six years, sources said.
Bregman’s right-handed bat has a proven track record of success at Fenway Park. There’s a batting average of .375 with seven home runs and 15 RBIs in 21 career games. His career at Fenway of 1.240 OPS is the best in major league history among players with at least 90 plate appearances.
After a strong slump at the start of the 2024 season, Bregman’s bat began appearing in June, with the rest of the team continuing.
Bregman, who turns 31 on March 30, finished the season with an average of .260 batting, 26 home runs and 75 RBIs in 145 games. Houston lost consecutive Al Wild Card series games to the Tigers.
The two All-Stars had surgery after the season to remove a bone tip from the right elbow, and agent Scott Bolas will move to 2 bases if necessary, as Bregman, who has only played 3 bases since 2020. He said he had a will.
With star Rafael Dever already in third place for the Red Sox, the expected move for Bregman to second allows him to stay there. And while Bregman had only recorded 32 innings for the second time in his major league career, Cora called him the guy he assumed was “the second baseman of the gold gloves” when he was together in Houston last month. .
Bregman, who is away from his five-year, $100 million contract, cut .275/.376/.488 with 157 home runs and 554 RBIs from 2017-2023, with 34.2 fan graphs outweighing the alternatives, all He ranked 8th most in the position players. Overall, he has a career batting average of .272 with 191 home runs and 663 RBI.
He rejected the Astros’ one-year, $21.05 million qualifying offer on November 19th. That means Houston will receive a compensatory pick after the fourth round of this year’s MLB draft. Boston loses the second-highest pick to sign him, losing an international signature bonus pool allocation of $500,000.
Bregman’s ascension correlates directly with the Astros’ dominance run as his first full season came in 2017 when the franchise won its first championship. Field Manager AJ Hinch.
The Astros have made seven consecutive appearances in the AL Championship Series, winning another World Series. Meanwhile, Bregman established himself as one of the game’s best third baseman, along with Jose Altuve, one of the team’s core leaders.
Bregman was originally drafted by the Red Sox, who graduated from high school in 2012, but he chose to go to college at LSU. Houston then chose him second in the 2015 draft.
The Red Sox will be holding their first full-scood workout on Monday in Fort Myers, Florida. They will host the Astros in the regular season of August 1-3 and will be visiting Houston on August 11-13.
News of Bregman’s contract with Boston was first reported by Athletic.
This report used information from ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Buster Olney and Alden Gonzalez.
