February 13, 2025 • 15 mins
With the season slowly approaching now following pitchers and catchers starting to meet and not too sure on if he would return an Astro or not, the wait has finally concluded. Breaking the news yesterday evening Astros beat writer for The Athletic, Chandler Rome announces that the veteran third baseman Alex Bregman has found a new home signing a 3-year $120M deal with the Boston Red Sox. Including two opt-outs the veteran is now on his way and set to carry on his career now in Fenway Park following his long awaited signing throughout the offseason. Chandler joins the guys walking them through a bit of the thought process regarding Bregman's signing followed by where this leaves the Astros now with their highly praised third baseman now apart of the Boston Red Sox organization.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
But the Sewn Salisbury Show continued.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Astro's beat writer at The Athletic and also co host
of the Crush City podcast, Chandler Rome.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Chandler, Welcome in man, Good to have you on and
great job with this story. And I know it was
a long grind. Let me start here. What took so
long with the Alex Bregman gig?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I think a couple of things.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I think obviously the market didn't manifest like we or
Bregman thought it would. You know, in November, I think
everyone you know, we looked at two deals as kind
of baseline deals for him. It was the Matt Chapman
deal with with San Francisco, and then when Willie Adamas
got his deal from also from San Francisco. You know,
(00:48):
Domas isn't a isn't a third baseman, but still he
was the second best infielder on the market, just longevity
and career wise.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
So you looked at those two.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Deals and you knew that Bregman wanted to try to
eclipse both of those, and it became kind of clear
that that wasn't going to happen. And you know, when
when you have Scott Boris as your agent, you know
Scott tries a lot of times to shatter or match records.
He tries to enhance, you know, one thing with his clients,
(01:19):
whether it's AAV, whether it's total money, whether it's years.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I mean it.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I think it came down to, honestly, like, what did
Bregman value? Did he value the opt out after the
first year to get back on the free agent market
next year? Did he value you know, long term sustainability?
Because if he stays with the Red Sox for all
three years, they're probably positioned as well as anyone to
really compete for these next three years, albeit in a brutal,
(01:47):
really difficult division. Was he focused on the AAV solely
because clearly the tip of the Red Sox blew everyone
out of the water abb wise. So I think it
was a combination of a lot of things. But why
did it take so long? I think because his market
just didn't play out like he presumed it would in November.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
All right, just for fun, if the Astros would have
offered him forty million dollars a year for three years
and give it him the same deal, would he still
be in Boston? Did he want out?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I can't. I can't say I can't speak to that authoritatively.
I'm I think everyone looks at jose Altuve and how
Jose al Tuvey has handled his astro's career, and like
that's kind of the As a fan, that's who you want, right,
you want the guy that tells his agent, you know,
make it work here. I don't want to play anywhere else.
(02:42):
I don't want to go anywhere else. I don't want
to ever put another uniform on. That's not how Alex
Bregman or quite frankly, George Springer, Carlos Korea, any of
these guys. That's not how they operate. But that doesn't
mean that they didn't want to come back. Like Alex
Bregman was very interesting come back to Houston. It he
was also going to get what he believed was his
(03:04):
market value, what he believed was his worth. And I
find it funny now everyone's telling me what Bregman's worth
and what he's not worth. You're worth what someone will pay, right,
so he's what.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
You can negotiate.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yes, absolutely, he's worth forty million dollars. I mean the
Red Sox are gonna pay him forty million dollars a year.
He's worked that because someone's gonna pay him that. So
it's not a situation where he had sworn off Houston
and didn't want to come back, But he wasn't going
to come back on a on a hometown discount on
something that he felt was below his market value.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Astro's beat writer for the Athletic Chandeler Room does a
great job and it's covered this story through and through
joint this here on Sports Talk seven ninety Seawan Salisbury show.
Is his base baseball behind him or in front of him?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
You know, I this is a great ballpark for him,
with the monster and left field. He hits extremely well there.
I'm sure you've seen the stats. Oh yes, you know
through the night how well he hits at Fenway. You know,
I don't think and look, I would never doubt Alex
bregmant or anything, but I think his days of hitting
forty homers are probably behind him. I don't think you're
(04:08):
going to see that power kind of surge back. But
you know, you look at last year and I wonder
whether some of his struggles last year, and struggles as
a relative term, he was fine last year. He wasn't elite,
but he was fine. I wonder if some of that
was pressing in a platform year. He did a lot
of things last year played discipline wise that he just
(04:30):
doesn't do. He swung a lot more than he usually swings.
Maybe part of that was that the team started so
poorly and they kind of all got a little antsy
and kind of thought they had to do a lot.
But I've described bregnant this way to a lot of
people during this whole thing. His war, his wins above replacement,
it's all dirty war. It's all like he posts every day.
(04:54):
His defense is elite. He's gonna swing it strikes and
not swing at balls. He's gonna put the ball in play,
He's going to get on base. That's not the stuff
that is like the sexiest, and it's not the stuff
that's going to like jump out on like when you're
talking analytics, when you're talking about evaluating a player.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
A lot of it's kind of dirty war that you
don't see a lot. So he's a mutter. He's a mutter.
He showed like you said, he shows up no matter what.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
His mother was a mutter. There there you go.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Chandler Rome, a beat writer for the Astros and the
Athletic joins us here on the Sean Salisbury Show. Let's
go back to the beginning of this Chandler and you know,
we're all like, well he coming back, Is he gonna leave?
What kind of money? And you know the two hundred
plus million dollars that he wanted up front? Did they
was there a time during this negotiation with Boris and
Bregman and the other teams that they thought, this is
(05:48):
this is not happening. Hell in the world are we
not getting we want? Did they really believe that that's
where the market was going to be for him?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
I mean, I think they did.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I think I think once Matt Chapman got that deal
from the Giants, I think it was duringy toward the
end of last season.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
It was like an end season extension, right.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Everyone looked at that, and you know, Chapman is obviously
the better defender, just he's a generational defender at third base.
But Bregman is a year younger than him and better
in every available metric. He is a better player than
Matt Chapman by every metric other than defense.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
And you're younger.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
So you kind of looked at that deal and like, well,
if he's getting that, you kind of had to figure
that just inherent market value wise, Bregman was going to
get something more than that. So you know, guys Hire
Scott Boris to get them deals like this. Now, look,
I I'm not going to sit here and say this
is the deal that Bregman envisioned when he when he
(06:44):
went into free agency, right I think I think he
wanted the two hundred million. You know, he wanted the
big long deal, the seven eight years and the longer.
But that just that never manifested. And now he's going
to be He's tied with Aaron Judge or the AVU
for the six highest av in baseball.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
That's a that's a nice fallback prize.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Chandler, what the Astros point of view? Was it a
foregone conclusion today legitimately think their offer was was gonna
keep him? Was there a time during this when it
was when it was kind of felt stalled to us
that the Astros thought, you know, if we heighten it,
we're gonna get him. Or when the season ended in
free agency began, was it just well if he comes back, great,
but we're prepared. And then by making the trade with
(07:28):
the Chicago it felt like they were prepared to move on.
But did they Was there a point that they thought
that Bregman was truly gonna be an Astro again?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Even when they re engaged about three weeks ago, like
I know, there was some reporting out there that made
it feel like, oh, it was Fade accompany, he was
gonna come back to the Astros and that I never
got that feeling from anyone now they were in. Don't
get me wrong. They did re engage, the offer never left.
I don't know if they increase the offer. I don't
(08:02):
know that, but that would go against how Jim Crane
has handled a lot of these free agents in the past.
In the past, it's been here's our offer, we love
you for what you did. Here, here's our best offer.
If you can't get that on the open market, come
back to us and we'll welcome you back. There's never
been much room for flexibility with those offers.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
There wasn't with Correa.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I don't believe there was with Springer either, So I
don't know that they up their offer. But as you
look at what the Tigers offered him, obviously the Tigers
offered him more total money in the same years, and
then the Ashes were never going to approach a forty
million dollar AAV so, I mean, in reality, they had
a third best offer to Bregman, And you know, I
(08:44):
don't I never got the sense from anyone in the
organization that they felt it was like tangible and real
that he could come back.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I think they were.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I think they were hopeful that this drug into like
the middle of spring training and them like maybe end
of February early March, and he just kind of had
to make a decision. I think that was that was
maybe what they were a more realistic view.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Did the Boris Bragmant camp ever panic during this.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
They're They're used to this. I mean, stop Borris clients,
Scott Borris clients are used to this. And you know,
I don't know what Scott told Alex privately and vice versa,
you know, but he's got to have a scripts kind
of rehearsed as to how to tell these guys to
wait and to kind of, you know, let the market
bear out, and you know, all things considered, I think
(09:35):
it was a pretty good a pretty good deal. Again,
not what he wanted when free agency started, but when
you get down to it, I mean He's gonna make
forty million dollars this year for a team, for a
playoff contending team, and he is going to a bigger market.
He's got the opt out after year one. He can
parlay this into exactly what Matt Chapman did last year.
(09:56):
Matt Chapman got the Pillow deal from the Giants, had
a really nice and they extended him at the end
of the season. I'm not saying the Red Sox are
going to do that, but he can parlay this into
getting the sort of deal he.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Thought he was going to get this offseason.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
He can parlay this into getting that this coming, this
this next winner.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Channel.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
At the beginning of the show, I said, you know,
through all this and the boris and the patients and stuff,
and people always ask us, well, what's taken so long
and why hasn't he signed here? This is why. At
forty million a year, this is why. And he wins.
He gets opt outs back to back years. He still
wins in all this. Maybe not like you said that,
he didn't get the six year and long term deal,
but he can still parlay it into six or seven
(10:36):
years somewhere else. If it doesn't work in Boston, or
even if it does, which is amazing forty million a year,
all right, if not the Red Sox, where who is closer?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, I mean, I think it came down to there
in Detroit. I mean cause I think Detroit had the
next best offer. And I look, I know from I
talked two people around Bregnant, around the Tigers, and the
Tigers were really confident. The Tigers thought that they that
they had put together a really good offer for him,
and you look, I mean it was that's a tough
offer to turn down. And you wonder, if the Tigers
(11:07):
do give him the opt out after the first year,
does he go there? Because all the reporting that I
saw my colleague Cody Stavenhagen, who covers the Tigers for US,
you know, he said that they only gave him the
opt out after year two. They wouldn't give him after
year one. So maybe if they give him the opt
out after year one, maybe he's in Detroit. But that's
(11:27):
a tough ballpark to hit in. That's a tough ballpark
for anyone to hit in. Much less Bregman. He would
have gone to Detroit and been their third baseman. But
it would have been you know, I think it was
between the the I think it was a two horse
race between the Red Sox and the Tigers.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Will there ever be you know, I'll let you go
here in the next minute or so, I know you've
got a busy schedule. Was there ever a point in
time where the Red Sox or will they? Devers does
not want to move from third? But Devers is an't
isn't an average third basement defensive He's okay, but Bregman's
elite will there well? Will he ever make the decision
to allow that to happen and go rake in another position,
(12:04):
to let Bregman be where he rightfully belongs at third base?
Is that the plan or what is the plan for Boston?
Speaker 1 (12:10):
You're being really nice, Sean Colin Rafael Devis is he
is nice.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I've average because his bat makes up for a lot
of woes at third brace. He's not a good defensive player.
Let's put it that.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Way, right right. Everything's been hypothetical to this point.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
When when Alex Coral was talking about Bregmant at the
Winter meetings, he talked about him as a potential goal
glove second baseman. That was all in theory. Now that
they are like pens to paper and Bregmant is coming. Uh,
maybe those conversations change, you know. My sense right now
is that he will start at second base. But they
have some different things they can do with their roster,
(12:46):
like do they do they hold on to Masataka Yoshida
or do they they try to trade him. If they
trade Yoshida, then you can da Traffi Deevers and put
Bregmant at third base, and they have a couple middle
infield prospects that they're excited about can come up and
play second. I think, personally, I'm not gonna tell him
how to run their team, but I think if you
(13:06):
have the best third baseman defensive third basement in baseball
on your roster, I think he's playing.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
At third base.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
But right, but Devers is, Devers is the face of
the franchise. Right, three hundred and thirty million dollars he's
that's gonna take.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
It's gonna take a lot of tacked from alex Cor.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
That's gonna be a tough managerial job for alex Cor
to kind of figure out how to do this. And
I'm sure that they have. I'm sure that they talked
to Devers. I'm sure Devers did not find out about
this last night. I'm sure he knew that this was
There was an inkling that this was coming. So I'll
be interesting to see how that plays out. But if
I were them, I playing at third.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Base, Yeah, when you when you can rake like he can,
I guess you get a little say in it, and
you want that bat happy in the Red Sox lineup.
But they've become a much more elite defensive team with
Bregman at third, no doubt. I'll let you go on
this are the how big a blow? At least going
into this you've seen this pitching gets healthy. Are the
Astros better? They Nobody can tell me they're better without
(14:05):
Tucker and Bregman going into spring training? Can they than
they were last year?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
No?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
No, this is a This is a team that has
weakened significantly and then and I don't think I think
two things can be true. I think they are significantly
weaker than they have been, But I still think this
team has the pieces.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
To contend and win the American League West.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I think I still think the projections show that you've
seen a lot of the projections lately that they've all
been without Bregmant And this is like a team that's
eighty five eighty seven wins, and I mean they won
eighty eight games last year and won the division. So
you can't count on Seattle collapsing. You can't count on
the Rangers falling on their face like they did last year.
So it's going to be a tight race and it's
(14:50):
going to be a more stressful season. But that's just
kind of how baseball works. I mean, the Astros have
spoiled a lot of people by making the sport look
really easy throughout this Golden era, and it's just not
that way. That's not usually how this works. So welcome
to kind of this is normal. You have a normal
baseball This is gonna be normal. You gonna have a
(15:11):
normal baseball season. But yeah, you you've lost your two
you lost your two best players, and Tucker and Bregman
two of your best players. And Tucker and Bregman this
this offseason, there's no there's no way you can say
that this team is not weaker.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Absolutely, it's a little organized chaos in the twenty twenty
five season. Channel great stuff, man and enjoy spring training,
and we loved having you on and you did a
hell of a job and always do covering this in
this Bregmann story, and good job on breaking it, and
we'll see how the uh how the Astros respond without
their corner outfielder and corner infielder. Appreciate your time, Chandler,
Thanks Buddy, all right, Thanks Sean, thank you. That's Chandler
(15:43):
Roam of the Athletic. He's a beat writer for the
Astros and covers it well. And one of my favorite
things about him, he's a deep he'll he'll he'll deep
dive and dig into it, and I love that about him.
But the Sewn Salisbury Show continued.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Astro's beat writer at The Athletic and also co host
of the Crush City podcast, Chandler Rome.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Chandler, Welcome in man, Good to have you on and
great job with this story. And I know it was
a long grind. Let me start here. What took so
long with the Alex Bregman gig?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I think a couple of things.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I think obviously the market didn't manifest like we or
Bregman thought it would. You know, in November, I think
everyone you know, we looked at two deals as kind
of baseline deals for him. It was the Matt Chapman
deal with with San Francisco, and then when Willie Adamas
got his deal from also from San Francisco. You know,
(00:48):
Domas isn't a isn't a third baseman, but still he
was the second best infielder on the market, just longevity
and career wise.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
So you looked at those two.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Deals and you knew that Bregman wanted to try to
eclipse both of those, and it became kind of clear
that that wasn't going to happen. And you know, when
when you have Scott Boris as your agent, you know
Scott tries a lot of times to shatter or match records.
He tries to enhance, you know, one thing with his clients,
(01:19):
whether it's AAV, whether it's total money, whether it's years.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I mean it.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I think it came down to, honestly, like, what did
Bregman value? Did he value the opt out after the
first year to get back on the free agent market
next year? Did he value you know, long term sustainability?
Because if he stays with the Red Sox for all
three years, they're probably positioned as well as anyone to
really compete for these next three years, albeit in a brutal,
(01:47):
really difficult division. Was he focused on the AAV solely
because clearly the tip of the Red Sox blew everyone
out of the water abb wise. So I think it
was a combination of a lot of things. But why
did it take so long? I think because his market
just didn't play out like he presumed it would in November.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
All right, just for fun, if the Astros would have
offered him forty million dollars a year for three years
and give it him the same deal, would he still
be in Boston? Did he want out?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I can't. I can't say I can't speak to that authoritatively.
I'm I think everyone looks at jose Altuve and how
Jose al Tuvey has handled his astro's career, and like
that's kind of the As a fan, that's who you want, right,
you want the guy that tells his agent, you know,
make it work here. I don't want to play anywhere else.
(02:42):
I don't want to go anywhere else. I don't want
to ever put another uniform on. That's not how Alex
Bregman or quite frankly, George Springer, Carlos Korea, any of
these guys. That's not how they operate. But that doesn't
mean that they didn't want to come back. Like Alex
Bregman was very interesting come back to Houston. It he
was also going to get what he believed was his
(03:04):
market value, what he believed was his worth. And I
find it funny now everyone's telling me what Bregman's worth
and what he's not worth. You're worth what someone will pay, right,
so he's what.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
You can negotiate.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yes, absolutely, he's worth forty million dollars. I mean the
Red Sox are gonna pay him forty million dollars a year.
He's worked that because someone's gonna pay him that. So
it's not a situation where he had sworn off Houston
and didn't want to come back, But he wasn't going
to come back on a on a hometown discount on
something that he felt was below his market value.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Astro's beat writer for the Athletic Chandeler Room does a
great job and it's covered this story through and through
joint this here on Sports Talk seven ninety Seawan Salisbury show.
Is his base baseball behind him or in front of him?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
You know, I this is a great ballpark for him,
with the monster and left field. He hits extremely well there.
I'm sure you've seen the stats. Oh yes, you know
through the night how well he hits at Fenway. You know,
I don't think and look, I would never doubt Alex
bregmant or anything, but I think his days of hitting
forty homers are probably behind him. I don't think you're
(04:08):
going to see that power kind of surge back. But
you know, you look at last year and I wonder
whether some of his struggles last year, and struggles as
a relative term, he was fine last year. He wasn't elite,
but he was fine. I wonder if some of that
was pressing in a platform year. He did a lot
of things last year played discipline wise that he just
(04:30):
doesn't do. He swung a lot more than he usually swings.
Maybe part of that was that the team started so
poorly and they kind of all got a little antsy
and kind of thought they had to do a lot.
But I've described bregnant this way to a lot of
people during this whole thing. His war, his wins above replacement,
it's all dirty war. It's all like he posts every day.
(04:54):
His defense is elite. He's gonna swing it strikes and
not swing at balls. He's gonna put the ball in play,
He's going to get on base. That's not the stuff
that is like the sexiest, and it's not the stuff
that's going to like jump out on like when you're
talking analytics, when you're talking about evaluating a player.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
A lot of it's kind of dirty war that you
don't see a lot. So he's a mutter. He's a mutter.
He showed like you said, he shows up no matter what.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
His mother was a mutter. There there you go.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Chandler Rome, a beat writer for the Astros and the
Athletic joins us here on the Sean Salisbury Show. Let's
go back to the beginning of this Chandler and you know,
we're all like, well he coming back, Is he gonna leave?
What kind of money? And you know the two hundred
plus million dollars that he wanted up front? Did they
was there a time during this negotiation with Boris and
Bregman and the other teams that they thought, this is
(05:48):
this is not happening. Hell in the world are we
not getting we want? Did they really believe that that's
where the market was going to be for him?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
I mean, I think they did.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I think I think once Matt Chapman got that deal
from the Giants, I think it was duringy toward the
end of last season.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
It was like an end season extension, right.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Everyone looked at that, and you know, Chapman is obviously
the better defender, just he's a generational defender at third base.
But Bregman is a year younger than him and better
in every available metric. He is a better player than
Matt Chapman by every metric other than defense.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
And you're younger.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
So you kind of looked at that deal and like, well,
if he's getting that, you kind of had to figure
that just inherent market value wise, Bregman was going to
get something more than that. So you know, guys Hire
Scott Boris to get them deals like this. Now, look,
I I'm not going to sit here and say this
is the deal that Bregman envisioned when he when he
(06:44):
went into free agency, right I think I think he
wanted the two hundred million. You know, he wanted the
big long deal, the seven eight years and the longer.
But that just that never manifested. And now he's going
to be He's tied with Aaron Judge or the AVU
for the six highest av in baseball.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
That's a that's a nice fallback prize.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Chandler, what the Astros point of view? Was it a
foregone conclusion today legitimately think their offer was was gonna
keep him? Was there a time during this when it
was when it was kind of felt stalled to us
that the Astros thought, you know, if we heighten it,
we're gonna get him. Or when the season ended in
free agency began, was it just well if he comes back, great,
but we're prepared. And then by making the trade with
(07:28):
the Chicago it felt like they were prepared to move on.
But did they Was there a point that they thought
that Bregman was truly gonna be an Astro again?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Even when they re engaged about three weeks ago, like
I know, there was some reporting out there that made
it feel like, oh, it was Fade accompany, he was
gonna come back to the Astros and that I never
got that feeling from anyone now they were in. Don't
get me wrong. They did re engage, the offer never left.
I don't know if they increase the offer. I don't
(08:02):
know that, but that would go against how Jim Crane
has handled a lot of these free agents in the past.
In the past, it's been here's our offer, we love
you for what you did. Here, here's our best offer.
If you can't get that on the open market, come
back to us and we'll welcome you back. There's never
been much room for flexibility with those offers.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
There wasn't with Correa.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I don't believe there was with Springer either, So I
don't know that they up their offer. But as you
look at what the Tigers offered him, obviously the Tigers
offered him more total money in the same years, and
then the Ashes were never going to approach a forty
million dollar AAV so, I mean, in reality, they had
a third best offer to Bregman, And you know, I
(08:44):
don't I never got the sense from anyone in the
organization that they felt it was like tangible and real
that he could come back.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I think they were.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I think they were hopeful that this drug into like
the middle of spring training and them like maybe end
of February early March, and he just kind of had
to make a decision. I think that was that was
maybe what they were a more realistic view.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Did the Boris Bragmant camp ever panic during this.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
They're They're used to this. I mean, stop Borris clients,
Scott Borris clients are used to this. And you know,
I don't know what Scott told Alex privately and vice versa,
you know, but he's got to have a scripts kind
of rehearsed as to how to tell these guys to
wait and to kind of, you know, let the market
bear out, and you know, all things considered, I think
(09:35):
it was a pretty good a pretty good deal. Again,
not what he wanted when free agency started, but when
you get down to it, I mean He's gonna make
forty million dollars this year for a team, for a
playoff contending team, and he is going to a bigger market.
He's got the opt out after year one. He can
parlay this into exactly what Matt Chapman did last year.
(09:56):
Matt Chapman got the Pillow deal from the Giants, had
a really nice and they extended him at the end
of the season. I'm not saying the Red Sox are
going to do that, but he can parlay this into
getting the sort of deal he.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Thought he was going to get this offseason.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
He can parlay this into getting that this coming, this
this next winner.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Channel.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
At the beginning of the show, I said, you know,
through all this and the boris and the patients and stuff,
and people always ask us, well, what's taken so long
and why hasn't he signed here? This is why. At
forty million a year, this is why. And he wins.
He gets opt outs back to back years. He still
wins in all this. Maybe not like you said that,
he didn't get the six year and long term deal,
but he can still parlay it into six or seven
(10:36):
years somewhere else. If it doesn't work in Boston, or
even if it does, which is amazing forty million a year,
all right, if not the Red Sox, where who is closer?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, I mean, I think it came down to there
in Detroit. I mean cause I think Detroit had the
next best offer. And I look, I know from I
talked two people around Bregnant, around the Tigers, and the
Tigers were really confident. The Tigers thought that they that
they had put together a really good offer for him,
and you look, I mean it was that's a tough
offer to turn down. And you wonder, if the Tigers
(11:07):
do give him the opt out after the first year,
does he go there? Because all the reporting that I
saw my colleague Cody Stavenhagen, who covers the Tigers for US,
you know, he said that they only gave him the
opt out after year two. They wouldn't give him after
year one. So maybe if they give him the opt
out after year one, maybe he's in Detroit. But that's
(11:27):
a tough ballpark to hit in. That's a tough ballpark
for anyone to hit in. Much less Bregman. He would
have gone to Detroit and been their third baseman. But
it would have been you know, I think it was
between the the I think it was a two horse
race between the Red Sox and the Tigers.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Will there ever be you know, I'll let you go
here in the next minute or so, I know you've
got a busy schedule. Was there ever a point in
time where the Red Sox or will they? Devers does
not want to move from third? But Devers is an't
isn't an average third basement defensive He's okay, but Bregman's
elite will there well? Will he ever make the decision
to allow that to happen and go rake in another position,
(12:04):
to let Bregman be where he rightfully belongs at third base?
Is that the plan or what is the plan for Boston?
Speaker 1 (12:10):
You're being really nice, Sean Colin Rafael Devis is he
is nice.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I've average because his bat makes up for a lot
of woes at third brace. He's not a good defensive player.
Let's put it that.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Way, right right. Everything's been hypothetical to this point.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
When when Alex Coral was talking about Bregmant at the
Winter meetings, he talked about him as a potential goal
glove second baseman. That was all in theory. Now that
they are like pens to paper and Bregmant is coming. Uh,
maybe those conversations change, you know. My sense right now
is that he will start at second base. But they
have some different things they can do with their roster,
(12:46):
like do they do they hold on to Masataka Yoshida
or do they they try to trade him. If they
trade Yoshida, then you can da Traffi Deevers and put
Bregmant at third base, and they have a couple middle
infield prospects that they're excited about can come up and
play second. I think, personally, I'm not gonna tell him
how to run their team, but I think if you
(13:06):
have the best third baseman defensive third basement in baseball
on your roster, I think he's playing.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
At third base.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
But right, but Devers is, Devers is the face of
the franchise. Right, three hundred and thirty million dollars he's
that's gonna take.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
It's gonna take a lot of tacked from alex Cor.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
That's gonna be a tough managerial job for alex Cor
to kind of figure out how to do this. And
I'm sure that they have. I'm sure that they talked
to Devers. I'm sure Devers did not find out about
this last night. I'm sure he knew that this was
There was an inkling that this was coming. So I'll
be interesting to see how that plays out. But if
I were them, I playing at third.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Base, Yeah, when you when you can rake like he can,
I guess you get a little say in it, and
you want that bat happy in the Red Sox lineup.
But they've become a much more elite defensive team with
Bregman at third, no doubt. I'll let you go on
this are the how big a blow? At least going
into this you've seen this pitching gets healthy. Are the
Astros better? They Nobody can tell me they're better without
(14:05):
Tucker and Bregman going into spring training? Can they than
they were last year?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
No?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
No, this is a This is a team that has
weakened significantly and then and I don't think I think
two things can be true. I think they are significantly
weaker than they have been, But I still think this
team has the pieces.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
To contend and win the American League West.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I think I still think the projections show that you've
seen a lot of the projections lately that they've all
been without Bregmant And this is like a team that's
eighty five eighty seven wins, and I mean they won
eighty eight games last year and won the division. So
you can't count on Seattle collapsing. You can't count on
the Rangers falling on their face like they did last year.
So it's going to be a tight race and it's
(14:50):
going to be a more stressful season. But that's just
kind of how baseball works. I mean, the Astros have
spoiled a lot of people by making the sport look
really easy throughout this Golden era, and it's just not
that way. That's not usually how this works. So welcome
to kind of this is normal. You have a normal
baseball This is gonna be normal. You gonna have a
(15:11):
normal baseball season. But yeah, you you've lost your two
you lost your two best players, and Tucker and Bregman
two of your best players. And Tucker and Bregman this
this offseason, there's no there's no way you can say
that this team is not weaker.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Absolutely, it's a little organized chaos in the twenty twenty
five season. Channel great stuff, man and enjoy spring training,
and we loved having you on and you did a
hell of a job and always do covering this in
this Bregmann story, and good job on breaking it, and
we'll see how the uh how the Astros respond without
their corner outfielder and corner infielder. Appreciate your time, Chandler,
Thanks Buddy, all right, Thanks Sean, thank you. That's Chandler
(15:43):
Roam of the Athletic. He's a beat writer for the
Astros and covers it well. And one of my favorite
things about him, he's a deep he'll he'll he'll deep
dive and dig into it, and I love that about him.
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