The Red Sox have gone ‘aggressive,’ but a Boras-led stalemate may still stand in the way.
It’s a day that ends in “y.” Therefore, we are back to give you an update on the Alex Bregman free agent saga as it relates to the Boston Red Sox.
Luckily for Red Sox Nation, it was yet another positive update from one of the market’s most trusted reporters.
Well, partly positive - I’ll let you be the judge.
On Wednesday morning, The Athletic’s Jen McCaffery had this to say about the latest with the two-time World Series champion:
“With pitchers and catchers reporting in just over a month, the Boston Red Sox have made what they feel is a competitive offer to free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman, a league source confirmed. Now they’ll wait to see if Bregman agrees.
“The source, who’s familiar with the Bregman negotiations, confirmed an ESPN report that the Red Sox’s offer was ‘aggressive.’
“The details of the offer are still unknown, but Bregman is thought to be seeking a six-year deal. At the start of the offseason, The Athletic projected Bregman to sign for six years, $171 million, but a six-year deal would be the longest free-agent contract signed under chief baseball officer Craig Breslow in his two-plus years on the job in Boston. Bregman’s three-year, $120 million deal, which he opted out of in the fall, is the current longest free-agent deal signed under Breslow.”
McCaffery went on to say that a league source tells her that the team was insistent on not surpassing a four-year deal when talks began about a new contract in the middle of last season. She posits that their tune may have changed after watching his production last season, on top of seeing the impact he has had in the clubhouse on young players like Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer.
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With that said, McCaffery calls the current situation between Boston and Bregman a “stalemate,” saying the Red Sox are comfortable with the offer they’ve made, while the 31-year-old continues to hold out for more money.
McCaffery writes that Bregman “has control here,” and says other teams are still in the mix for his services. She lists the Cubs, Tigers, Diamondbacks and Blue Jays as still being a part of negotiations, even though we’ve seen multiple reports in recent days that would presumably knock both Toronto and Arizona out of the discussions.
But with how the Blue Jays have operated this offseason, who the heck knows?
My read on the situation?
With multiple reputable reporters confirming an aggressive offer has been made, I feel like a deal is eventually going to get done. No team in the mix will value Bregman more than the Red Sox do, making the probability, in my opinion, of a better offer coming from Chicago or Detroit unlikely. I think the “stalemate” of it all is Scott Boras being Scott Boras, and eventually Bregman will force the issue to get this thing signed and be off to spring training.
That’s just my gut feeling given everything I’ve read and followed with this story.
I’m sure I’ll be back tomorrow with the latest installment of BregmanGate.
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Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.