According to Buster Olney of ESPN, the reported interest between Bregman and his representation in Seattle is not legitimate.
Earlier this week, we heard that super agent Scott Boras had reached out to the Seattle Mariners, expressing Alex Bregman's willingness to play in Seattle.
Bregman, 31, is a free agent who just opted-out of his contract with the Boston Red Sox. All reports indicate that the Red Sox want him back, but nothing has materialized yet.
Almost as soon as the reports came out, Mariners fans dismissed them, saying that Boras was using the Mariners for leverage on other teams around the league.
ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney agrees, as he told the Refuse to Lose podcast earlier this week:
100% Brady. It's a leverage play. And that's Scott doing his job. That's what he needs to do to put pressure on the different bidders. When he had Juan Soto as a free agent, he was going to let both the Yankees and the Mets know that the other team was involved because that only is going to lead to more money. And as those negotiations are playing out, there was doubt on both sides, which again feeds into the hand of the agent and the player.
In this case, I'm with you. There's no sense that the Mariners have an appetite for a player wants $30 million a year at this point. We don't have a sense that that actually would fit into their budget. Personally, when you think about a guy like ColT Emerson, who I think is going to be in the big league sometime in the in the first six weeks of the the 2026 season, I think that the Mariners are much more likely tojust figure out short-term solutions for a while until they feel like he's ready to get called up versus investing that kind of money. And if they have money to invest, • it's going to be in the pitching, right? • It's going to be in a Brian Woo long term. That is a massive contract. And I think at the moment Scott is having a hard time getting a volume of teams interested to put pressure on the Red Sox.
Would Bregman fit on the Mariners?
Sure, in the sense that the M's have a theoretical opening at third base, but as Olney points out, Emerson is likely to be on the big-league roster in relative short order, if not on Opening Day.
The Mariners seem much more interested in adding at second base and designated hitter, which is why they are so hellbent on bringing Jorge Polanco back as a free agent.
More Mariners stories
Why the Jose Ferrer acquisition is a big deal for the M's
Should Mariners fans be worried that Polanco hasn't signed yet?
Mariners didn't make moves, but winter meetings still went their way
Join the Conversation
Remember to join our MARINERS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Mariners fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!