The Boston Red Sox have made some major moves to shore up their pitching staff this offseason, adding former Chicago White Sox lefty ace Garrett Crochet and signing Los Angeles Dodgers World Series hero Walker Buehler. But what they have not done is bolster their offense.

The Red Sox remain in the market for a right-handed bat to to “balance out the lineup,” according to Boston chief of baseball operations Craig Breslow. But they have not found one yet, even though the longtime Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman is still available and unsigned.

The Red Sox were reported, by longtime Boston baseball writer Sean McAdam, to have a “strong interest” in Bregman in early December but their efforts were hampered not by Bregman’s demands but by the team’s own “internal division” over whether the 30-year-old Astros 2015 first round draft pick (second overall) was the right fit for the Red Sox.

“Boston’s pursuit, according to an industry source, is somewhat complicated by some internal disagreement over Bregman,” McAdam wrote at the time. “While manager Alex Cora and team president Sam Kennedy are known to be big proponents of Bregman, the source said some members of the baseball operations staff, including chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, are more circumspect when it comes to the player.”

Astros Interest in Keeping Bregman Has Fizzled

Bregman had also been negotiating with the team that drafted him, and for whom he played a key role in bringing two World Series championships, in 2017 and 2022, the Astros. But according to Houston sports anchor and reporter Ari Alexander of KPRC TV, those talks have stalled out.

When the Astros inked former Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker to a three-year, $60 million contract shortly before Christmas, after earlier acquiring third baseman Isaac Paredes from the Chicago Cubs, that “signaled the end of the Alex Bregman era” in Houston, Alexander wrote.

Biut when one era ends, another begins — at least potentially. According to a “league source” who spoke to Alexander, with the Astros seemingly out of the picture, there is now “a very, very real possibility” that Bregman signs with the Red Sox.

The source also listed two other teams as having “a very, very real possibility” of landing Bregman. Those are the Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays. But there are snags with both of those organizations.

Red Sox Now Appear Most Likely Landing For Former Astro

“Sources within the industry question if the Tigers are willing to give out a long-term contract like the one Bregman would want, given the team’s current low payroll and the result of the last long-term contract they gave out: a six-year, $140 million deal with Javier Baez, that has so far been a massive bust,” wrote Alexander.

As for the Blue Jays, “Toronto would be able to financially handle the kind of contract Bregman is said to desire but have yet to land a big free agent this offseason, despite interest in players like Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes,” according to the KPRC anchor’s report.

That leaves the Red Sox, who would have to deal with the issue of Rafael Devers, who is currently playing third base for the Red Sox under an 11-year, $331 million contract, the largest ever given out by the Red Sox.

But according to McAdam, “though Bregman has played third base almost exclusively in the big leagues and won a Gold Glove at the position in 2024, the Red Sox envision him at second base. …Bregman has publicly said he would be fine with a position change.”

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. Vankin is also the author of five nonfiction books on a variety of topics, as well as nine graphic novels including most recently “Last of the Gladiators” published by Dynamite Entertainment. More about Jonathan Vankin