Alex Bregman’s free agency situation at a standstill: How does it affect Red Sox pursuit?
Alex Bregman remains on the open market as one of the last available ‘big fish’ of the off-season. However, as spring training looms closer, it seems Bregman and his pursuers have reached an impasse in negotiations — the Red Sox chief among them.
Bregman’s agent, Scott Boras, gave his opinion on how the teams involved have handled the situation.
“You’re seeing so many teams that are actually not spending… They’re making more, but they’re not spending. They’re spending far less than they did two, three years ago. There’s a quadrant as many as 10 to 12 teams that are in that position,” said Boras, via Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
Bregman, a two-time All-Star, has played all nine years of his career with the Houston Astros. During his time in Houston, he accumulated quite the impressive resume: two World Series championships, the Silver Slugger award in 2019, career batting statistics of .272/.366/.483 with 191 home runs (21 per year), and 663 RBI (74 per year), and the Gold Glove in 2024.
Furthermore, the career third baseman has an abundance of playoff experience — playing in October with the ‘Stros for eight straight seasons (2017-2024) for a total of 99-games. His playoff numbers are .238/.346/.443, with 19 home runs, and 54 RBI. He’s also competed in four total World Series in his career (2017, 2019, 2021, and 2022) winning in the two in 2017 and 2022.
His playoff experience makes the 30-year-old especially desirable to many teams, particularly to the Red Sox, who lack playoff experience in their roster. Only three non-pitching Red Sox — who played at least half of the season in 2024 — have playoff experience (Rafael Devers, Tyler O’Neill, and Rob Refsnyder).
It is fair to assume that Bregman would be a leader in the Boston clubhouse and a knowledgeable mentor for the young lineup. He also brings a right-handed bat to the order — which the Sox desperately need.
So, what’s the holdup?

As everything with the Red Sox does, it comes down to money. Despite currently being $70 million under the $241 million luxury tax, per FanGraphs, plenty of room for Bregman, the Red Sox are staying put. According to reports, the reason Bregman has still gone unsigned is due to his unwillingness to accept a short-term deal.
Tim Britton of The Athletic predicted the contract that Bregman would eventually sign would be a seven-year deal worth $189 million. He turned down the Astros’ offer, which was reported to be a six years deal worth $156 Million, according to the Athletic’s Chandler Rome.
“It’s really a matter of his decision-making and theirs, about how you can close up that gap. There’s substantial interest [in long-term] deals,’’ says Boras. If that is the case, it seems curious that a deal still has not gotten done. In my opinion, if Bregman has received “substantial” long-term interest, there would be more reports about an impending deal rather consistent reports about a negotiation “gap” that we are currently hearing.
However, in the case of the Red Sox, there are a few possible explanations to why they have not moved on Bregman.
For one, Alex is 30 years old and headed towards the back-end of his career, so there is plausible room for concern around signing him to a long-term deal. Though not a precipitous drop-off, his numbers have suffered slightly over the last few seasons. Over the last three years, his batting average has remained right around .260 and his home run numbers are down in the mid-20s. His RBIs are also down, being in the 90s in 2022 and 2023, and down to 75 RBI in 2024. Certainly, a noticeable decline, especially compared to his numbers in his all-star seasons (2018 and 2019) where his batting average was near .300, home run numbers in the 30s and 40s, and RBI in the low-100s.
It has also been noted, in recent weeks, that the waiting game is consistent with a few of the Red Sox’ recent signings of older, ‘big ticket’ free agents.
The first name that has been discussed ad nauseam is JD Martinez, another Boras client. In 2018, Martinez was 31 years old, he eventually signed with the Red Sox, but it was not until after a long, drawn-out free agency period that resulted in the price for Martinez being whittled down from his seven year $200 million asking price to $110 million over five years — the number he signed for on Feb. 26 of that year.
The team also had a similar tactic with Trevor Story in 2022 when he was a 29-year-old free agent, not signing the sought after shortstop to his six-year, $140 million deal until just a few weeks prior to the start of the season on March 20. It should be noted, during his free agency, there were some concerns around the league relating to Story’s injury history that also played a role in his signing being delayed.
So, it is likely that the Red Sox are implementing the same negotiation tactic with Bregman, in hopes of talking him down from seven-for-$200 million to something more similar to Martinez or Story, meaning the Red Sox are content to wait.

There is also one more potential explanation for the delay.
Sean McAdam of MassLive.com, reported on Dec. 10 from the MLB Winter Meetings that, “Boston’s pursuit, according to an industry source, is somewhat complicated by some internal disagreement over Bregman. While manager Alex Cora and team president Sam Kennedy are known to be big proponents of Bregman, the source said some members of the baseball operations staff, including chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, are more circumspect when it comes to the player.”
This alleged dispute between members of the Red Sox’ staff could also play a role into why a deal has not been reached. If Breslow and his staff are truly hesitant about Bregman, it would make sense to why they are yet to pull the trigger. Especially considering that, at the end of the day, Breslow is presumed to be the final decision maker in cases such as this.
All in all, it seems Boston is still in the Alex Bregman sweepstakes. Although, with two bullish sides doing the negotiations (Red Sox front office and Scott Boras), if Fenway winds up being Bregman’s ultimate destination a signing may still be far from imminent.