The Boston Red Sox haven’t had the season they hoped to have so far, but it’s pretty safe to say that they made three of the best overall moves of the offseason ahead of the campaign.
Boston was active and signed Alex Bregman to a three-year, $120 million pact with opt-outs. The Red Sox acquired Garrett Crochet in a blockbuster trade with the Chicago White Sox. And Boston also signed Aroldis Chapman to a one-year, $10.75 million deal.
Bregman is currently injured, but before he went down, he was slashing .299/.385/.553 with 11 home runs, 35 RBIs, 17 doubles, and 32 runs scored in 51 games. Crochet is up there as one of the best overall pitchers in baseball and has a shot at the American League Cy Young Award. He has a 2.06 ERA and a 135-to-31 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 109 1/3 innings pitched. He’s leading the league in WAR as a pitcher (3.8), starts (17), strikeouts (135) and innings pitched (109 1/3 innings). Chapman has been no slouch himself and has a scorching 1.36 ERA in 36 appearances to go along with 14 saves.
Of the three, Crochet is the only one guaranteed to be in Boston next year. Chapman is on a one-year deal and Bregman is sure to opt out after a great start to the season in hopes of landing a long-term deal.
Recently, there has been a lot of buzz about the possibility of Boston inking Bregman to a new deal before he even has the chance to opt out.
The question was brought to chief baseball officer Craig Breslow’s attention on Thursday while appearing on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.”
“The specifics of the conversations and the timing of the conversations will remain internal,” Breslow said. “But what I’m very comfortable saying is Alex has been everything we could have asked for both on the field — unfortunately, he’s obviously been hurt and hasn’t been able to impact games on the field — but also in the clubhouse from a leadership standpoint.
“Not just in the way he’s helped younger players and our staff but in the ways that he’s helped me and many of us in the front office. And so right now while we’re focused on doing everything we can to get him back on the field as quickly as possible, when the right time comes to have those conversations, very, very confident that we will.”
This is a guy the Red Sox were linked to for months and quickly developed into a fan-favorite and superstar for the franchise. Especially after trading Rafael Devers away, it may be wise to figure out Bregman’s situation quickly so the Red Sox don’t have to start from square one next offseason.
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