Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman is nearing free agency and his agent, Scott Boras, has already gone to work on his client's behalf.
Part of that means not limiting the top third base free agent on the market to his position. Boras reminded teams that Bregman “can also play second base,” per Chandler Rome of The Athletic.
He added that as an agent, he doesn't need to “sell” Bregman to other teams.
“When you represent people like Bregman, you don’t sell them,” Boras said. “People come to you and ask, ‘I want him to do that, I want him to do that.’ They’ve been asking me about that for him for two years.”
Bregman has played almost 90% of his games as a Major Leaguer at third base. He was a shortstop in college and has started 129 games there for the Astros as well. He has started at second base twice in his career.
There is still a chance Bregman returns to the Astros, and if that happens, it'll be at third base with Jose Altuve taking up room at second. Houston flirted with the idea of extending Bregman before the season, but ultimately could not settle on a deal.
“There’s really not a timeline on this right now and at some point, we will make an offer,” Astros GM Dana Brown told MLB.com in February. “I think we both respect that and that’s pretty much the conversation. Look, we love Alex, we’d love to have him here. As far as a timeline, we just don’t have it, but we will at some point make him an offer. We know how good he is and how good he’s been for this franchise. It would be tough to look out at third base and not see that elite defense. And so at some point we’ll circle back and have those conversations.”
Astros 3B Alex Bregman could be the highest-paid infield free agent
No matter where Bregman is playing defensively, he brings more than his glove to free agency. Trying to assess his value, Rome brings up Matt Chapman, another Boras client. The Giants third baseman signed a six-year $151 million extension with San Francisco earlier this month and Rome speculates that could be the starting point in negotiations for Bregman, who is a year younger.
As of September 16, Bregman is also hitting for a higher average and has half as many strikeouts as Chapman, more than making up for his one fewer home run and a slightly lower OPS.
Bregman is making $30.5 million this season and Spotrac estimates his market value at $30 million per year. Chapman's AAV comes out to $25.2 million. All together, it indicates Bregman is in for a new deal roughly on par with what he's making now — maybe a little more if you throw in the reality that he may be the best infielder on the free agent market.
Adding to his potential value, it appears Bregman has the respect of his peers as a positive clubhouse presence. Jeff Passan of ESPN published a way-too-early look at free agency at the end of August, and quoted a rival general manager as saying about Bregman, “He would completely change our clubhouse for the better.”
That's a line that holds whether Bregman is playing second, third, or anywhere else.
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