Red Sox remain linked to one of free agency’s top unsigned talents
Whether or not the Red Sox are done building their 2025 club is truly anybody’s guess.
And that answer may utlimately come down to how a ‘staredown’ between the club and the still-unsigned Alex Bregman fares for Craig Breslow’s club.
A rumor that’s lingered about pretty much all offseason to this point — and with Red Sox manager Alex Cora throwing some additional gasoline on that fire whenever possible — the latest word on the Bregman-Red Sox talks came on Monday and courtesy of MLB insider Ken Rosenthal.
“I believe what’s happening is that the Red Sox are simply saying, ‘We don’t think he’s going to Toronto, we don’t think Detroit is going to sign him, so we’re gonna take our chances that no one else will [sign him], and we are going to leverage this and negotiate as hard as possible,'” Rosenthal said on the latest episode of Foul Territory. “The problem is, they still might not get Bregman and we’re not exactly sure whether or not the front office wants to commit to Bregman.”
This negotiating tactic is not exactly foreign to the Red Sox, of course, as this was a similar path that led the club to both J.D. Martinez (2018) and Trevor Story (2022). In both instances, rumors linking the Sox to each player hovered over the club throughout the offseason but it wasn’t until things got scarily close to spring training that the sides ultimately crossed the finish line with each player.
And in the case of Bregman, this latest scoopage from Rosenthal comes on the heels of more Bregman-centered yammering from — you guessed it — Cora this past weekend. And though Cora could not get into the specifics of Bregman given his status as a free agent, he did not shy away from what would be a position change for Bregman in a potential Bregman-to-Boston ending this offseason.
“Rafael Devers is our third baseman,” Cora confirmed. “Alex was a Gold Glover at third base, and we all know that. But in 2017, I had a conversation with him. He needed to play third because of [Carlos] Correa and [Jose] Altuve, [but] I always envisioned Alex as a Gold Glover second baseman.”
In addition to the stability he could bring to the Red Sox at second base, Bregman would bring an absolutely fantastic bat to Boston’s lineup as a right-swinging power threat at Fenway. And Bregman has also thrived as a visitor to Fenway Park in his career, with a .375 average and seven home runs and nine doubles in 21 career games in Boston.
Of course, the downside comes with the kind of contract that Bregman could command.
Though he’s been unable to land his ideal contract to this point, the 31-year-old is reportedly looking for a long-term deal that could cost almost $200 million in total, though many contract projection-centric websites have somewhere closer to $160-180 million on a six or seven-year deal. And while Bregman could move to third if the Red Sox transitioned Devers over to first base (depending on what they do with Triston Casas) or designated hitter, Bregman’s mere presence in the Boston infield could provide a substantial roadblocks to top prospects like Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell.
But before the Red Sox can worry about that, they’ll have to see who wins their apparent game of ‘who blinks first’ with Bregman and his other potential suitors.
