The Houston Astros’ will-they-or-won’t-they dance with Alex Bregman now looks to be leaning in the latter direction.
Speaking on Tuesday at the team’s annual media luncheon, Astros general manager Dana Brown dropped a major hint about the free agent infielder Bregman. Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reports that Brown twice spoke of Bregman in the past tense and once even stated that the Astros “lost Bregman.”
Rome did note that Brown, when asked to clarify, said of Bregman that “we’re continuing to have internal conversations because he’s still available.” But it seems as though Brown may have already let the cat out of the bag.
The multi-time All-Star Bregman, who has been with the Astros since his MLB career began in 2016, has been a free agent for over three months now. Few, including Brown himself, expected him to return to Houston, and the Astros had since gone out and landed Christian Walker and Isaac Paredes this offseason as likely offensive and defensive replacements for Bregman.
But there appeared to be a faint glimmer of hope in recent weeks with the Astros circling back to Bregman’s camp given that he still was (and remains) unsigned. Astros star Jose Altuve even said that he was willing to make a massive positional change to accommodate a Bregman return.
In more recent days though, we heard that there was still a large roadblock for Bregman and the Astros to overcome in negotiations. Now it sounds like Brown is signaling an intent to move on (again), which would leave the 30-year-old Bregman most likely to sign with one of two outside teams instead.
