Alex Bregman has made it through his first experience as a free agent. He might be planning another foray after this season.
The third baseman agreed on Wednesday to a three-year, $120 million contract with the Boston Red Sox, according to Chandler Rome of the The Athletic. The deal reportedly contains opt-outs after both the first and second season, making this a pillow deal for a player who free agency did not go as hoped.
Bregman, ranked No. 4 on Yahoo Sports’ list of this winter’s top 50 free agents, was the last major free agent left on the board, a reflection of how no MLB team was willing to meet the asking price of his agent Scott Boras. Bregman reportedly had offers of six years and more than $170 million.
The situation was an echo of what some of Boras’ clients went through last year, with the same result of a shorter, high-average annual value deal with opt outs. The strategy worked out for Matt Chapman and Blake Snell, less so for Cody Bellinger and Jordan Montgomery.
At the heart of teams’ hesitance to sign Bregman are age and a down year in 2024, with even more concerning peripherals. Due to a six-year, $100 million extension he signed in 2019, Bregman was an old free agent at 30 years old, set to turn 31 at the end of March.
There were some concerning trends in his 2024 numbers, most notably in his plate discipline. His 23.6% chase rate was his highest since 2017 and his 44.9% swing rate was his highest since 2016, leading to a 13.6% strikeout rate, his highest over a full season since 2017. Meanwhile, a decrease in walk rate from 12.7% in 2023 to 6.9% in 2024 led to a .315 on-base percentage, easily his worst number since his rookie year.
With Bregman turning 31 just a few days into the 2025 season, those types of drop-offs aren’t unheard of. And now his hope is apparently to re-enter the mark one year older, which means this year has to go well with the Red Sox.
It’s unclear where Bregman will play in Boston, though. The team already has Rafael Devers, a younger player on a larger contract who was better in 2024. That could mean a position change for Bregman, who has also appeared at shortstop, second base and left field in his career, but none since 2019.
