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Alex Bregman of the Boston Red Sox

Last year when two-time World Series winner Alex Bregman declared free agency after his five-year, $100 million contract extension with the Houston Astros expired, he probably did not expect to be waiting until spring training to sign a contract with a new team.

The Detroit Tigers made a generous offer to the second overall pick in the 2015 MLB draft, out of LSU, but apparently six years and $171.5 million — an average annual value of about $28.6 million — was not enough for Bregman.

In the end, however, he did actually settle for less — less in terms of the longevity of the contract, anyway.

Bregman Opted for More Years IN M

Three days after the start of spring training, Bregman accepted an offer from the Boston Red Sox of only three years, but at a total paycheck of $120 million.

He also spurned an offer from the Chicago Cubs for the same dollar amount but the contract would cover four years rather than three.

The higher average annual value, along with the option to back out of the contract after one year, or two years if he chose to do so, attracted Bregman to the offer from the Red Sox’s offer.

Bregman Now Forced to Take Possible Pay Cut

The 31-year-old third baseman did, in fact, exercise his opt-out clause with the Red Sox after a single season, forgoing a guaranteed $40 million average annual salary for something even bigger.

But the market for Bregman’s services at least so far, with two weeks to go before Christmas and about two months until , appears even softer than last offseason. The Tigers were thought to be Bregman’s main suitors outside of Boston, but at least so far they have not taken steps to be seen as serious contenders for the 5-foot-11 third baseman.

No other serious contenders to sign Bregman have reared their heads, leaving a return to the Red Sox — the team that in his sole season got to the playoffs for the first time since 2021 — as his most likely option.

That, anyway, is what Bleacher Report MLB analyst Tim Kelly predicted in a report published on Friday.

And it will be a favorable turn of events for Boston, according to Kelly, because Bregman will be backed into a corner where he must accept a significant pay cut, according to Kelly’s prediction.

Red Sox Need Bregman’s Bat

According to Kelly, the Red Sox will sign Bregman for six years, locking him up through age 38. That’s an average annual paycheck of $22.5 million, barely more than half of the $40 million he would have received in each of 2026 and 2027 had he simply chosen to fulfill his Red Sox contract.

“Just as it felt like Bregman could be destined to have a one-year reset in Boston like Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre did in 2010,” Kelly wrote. “The market has played out in a way where him returning to the Red Sox might be more likely than it appeared at the outset of the offseason.”

After Boston failed to land either former New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso — who signed with the Baltimore Orioles for five years and $155 million — or Kyle Schwarber — who re-upped with Philadelphia for five years and $150 million — this offseason, Bregman became the best opportunity to add punch to the middle of the Red Sox order.

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin

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