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Fenway fits Bregman, and Bregman fits the Crimson Sox in ways in which lengthen past his palpable worth on the sector.
It won’t be a straightforward negotiation. It’s undoubtedly not going to be low-cost. It would even be a contract that brings some remorse just a few years down the highway.
That’s all true, and but none of it actually issues.
The Crimson Sox can’t let Alex Bregman grow to be the Adrian Beltré of this decade, an ideal match (at third base, no much less) who doesn’t stick round, a what-could-have-been one-and-done in Boston.
They should get him signed, even when the phrases sting slightly, and even when the size of the deal brings pause.
Bregman, the rock-solid Astros star, left Houston after eight seasons, two World Sequence titles, and, uh, one noisy scandal, to signal a three-year, $120 million contract with the Crimson Sox in February.
However anybody who paid consideration to the main points — and the leverage Bregman and his agent, the famend Scott Boras, secured — acknowledged that it was solely a three-year, $120 million deal if Bregman needed it to be.
The contract included opt-outs after this season in addition to 2026. So if he proved to be an excellent match with the Crimson Sox and produced at his traditional reliable-to-excellent price, he might return available on the market, and on the very least attempt to wring even higher phrases out of the Crimson Sox.
Nicely, you recognize what has occurred. He’s in place to do some wringin’.
Save for a quadriceps damage that price him 43 video games from Might 23 till his July 11 return, Bregman has been precisely what the Crimson Sox want on the sector and off.
A Gold Glove winner for the primary time final season, Bregman has performed his traditional stellar protection at third base, which has helped stabilize a Crimson Sox infield that was held hostage to a point by present Giants invisible man Rafael Devers’s defensive shortcomings in latest seasons.
Bregman has a righthanded swing tailored for Fenway, and has mashed there to a .314/.423/.605 slash line in 222 profession plate appearances, which is moving into Fred Lynn, This-Man-Was-Born-To-Hit-Right here territory. (Lynn slashed .347/.420/.601 in 1,833 plate appearances at Fenway, and that is the place you say “He’d be in Cooperstown if he’d stayed right here his entire profession” and I nod in settlement.)
But Bregman has hit even higher on the highway in his first yr with the Crimson Sox, with a .950 OPS and eight residence runs, in contrast with .866 and 4 homers at Fenway. His three-run bomb as a pinch hitter within the eighth inning Sunday at Wrigley Subject — which turned a tenuous 2-1 lead right into a 5-1 benefit and an opportunity to exhale in opposition to a really proficient Cubs crew — ranks as one of many extra memorable moments of a season that has stacked up various highlights lately. (It needs to be famous that the homer got here off former Crimson Sox Drew Pomeranz, who’s the lefthanded reliever on the Wait, That Man Is Nonetheless In The Majors? crew.)
Fenway fits Bregman, and Bregman fits the Crimson Sox in ways in which lengthen past his palpable worth on the sector. I’ll admit, I’ve at all times thought clubhouse management — significantly in how veteran gamers set an instance for youthful ones — is a bit exaggerated, and typically loads exaggerated.
Younger ballplayers do have to be proven the ropes, to be taught the protocols and logistics and do’s and don’ts of being an enormous leaguer, however I additionally imagine their character as human beings, for higher or worse, is developed earlier than they get that dream-come-true message that they’re headed to the large leagues.
However I’ll concede that the extremes do matter. I’m certain past a doubt that — to supply a selected instance — Carl Everett poisoned the properly with some younger gamers on the 2000-01 Crimson Sox. They discovered precisely how to not behave, and mimicked it.
And I’ve come to imagine {that a} participant comparable to Bregman — who makes a acutely aware effort to do the whole lot proper throughout the confines of a ballgame, who makes himself accessible and shares his information with youthful gamers, and who has the sort of expertise, together with 99 profession playoff video games, that calls for respect — has nice worth past the numbers on his Baseball Reference web page, even when the popularity stain from the Astros’ scandal by no means fully fades.
No, Bregman wasn’t chief baseball officer Craig Breslow’s most impactful pickup within the offseason. That designation belongs to ace Garrett Crochet, the primary purpose this crew ought to have the ability to keep away from extended shedding streaks. The Crimson Sox haven’t had anybody like this since earlier than Chris Sale became the poor man on the “Operation” sport board.
However Bregman makes for a heck of a runner-up. In some ways, he fills what has been lacking from this crew since Dustin Pedroia needed to retire earlier than his time.
He’s precisely what the Crimson Sox want now, and at 31 years previous, he’s the proper complement going ahead as Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer turn into the franchise cornerstones.
Perhaps it received’t be simple to lock him up. Whereas we typically neglect that Boras works for his purchasers and never vice versa, gamers that rent him aren’t seeking to be somebody’s cut price.
However it should be famous that Xander Bogaerts and Jason Varitek had been amongst those that signed offers right here regardless of Boras believing they might have acquired more cash and/or years elsewhere.
Bregman and his household do appear to like Boston, and Fenway definitely has been pleasant to him. The Crimson Sox blew it once they let Beltré — one of many most interesting third basemen of all time, a pleasure to observe, and a 2024 Baseball Corridor of Fame inductee — get away 15 years in the past.
They will’t make the identical mistake with Bregman.
The man made his title, and all that means for higher and worse, in Houston. However he was born to play in Boston. Pay him like you recognize it.
