With just over three weeks to go before the first MLB teams take the field for the start of actual spring training games, former Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman remains a free agent without a home. His inability to sign with a new team, or even with his original team, has been one of the bigger surprises of this offseason, given that Bregman is a two-time All-Star, two time World Series winner and, in 2024, a Gold Glover.
Bregman has been linked in rumors and media reports to the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays were reported on Wednesday to have offered Bregman a six-year deal. The Astros also reportedly offered Bregman a six-year pact worth $156 million. No dollar value had been reported for the Toronto offer as of late Wednesday.
One team that surprisingly has not been involved in the Bregman pursuit is the New York Yankees. After losing second baseman Gleyber Torres to a $15 million, one-year free agent deal with the Detroit Tigers, the Yankees have yet to fill the position.
The defending American League champions are also still trying to figure out who should play third base. DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera, and Oswald Peraza are the three candidates who have been named by manager Aaron Boone, but none are natural third basemen.
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ESPN's MLB insider Jeff Passan on Wednesday spoke out to express his disbelief that the Yankees have not bothered to chase Bregman.
"It's wild to me that Alex Bregman is sitting out there right now and the Yankees aren't in on him," Passan said on the "Talkin' Baseball" podcast. "But Alex Bregman, you want to talk about a guy who's won. He has been a guy who has been awesome in the playoffs. He is somebody who is rock solid defensively, a phenomenal base runner, makes a ton of contact, and I understand the offensive numbers are going in the wrong direction right now, but I think you put him at the stadium."
However, Passan added that the Yankees were not going to change their mind on pursuing Bregman — but that he was just trying "to make an argument for it."
As for another team that has reportedly made an offer to Bregman, the Boston Red Sox, Passan, appearing on "The Michael Kay Show," said the former Astros third baseman ending up in Boston seemed unlikely to him at this point.
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