With pitchers and catchers about one month away from reporting to spring training, dozens of free agents are still without new teams, and new contracts. But none of the homeless, in baseball terms, players are as high-profile as Alex Bregman, the former Astros third baseman who played a key role in both of Houston’s World Series titles.
The Boston Red Sox have been linked to Bregman more closely than perhaps any other team. The 30-year-old, who was actually drafted by the Red Sox in 2012 — though he elected to attend LSU rather than turn pro out of high school — has been a torrid hitter at Fenway Park. He has put up an OPS of 1.240 there in 21 games, his best of any ballpark in which he has played more than seven games.
Why have the Red Sox so far failed to sign Bregman, as time appears to be running out? The answers are not clear, but as a report by Adam London of the Red Sox cable TV network NESN noted on Thursday, Red Sox fans should not yet give up hope. One example from recent Red Sox history that bears close parallels to the Bregman situation gives a clear picture of why a Bregman signing remains very much in play for Boston.
In 2018, power-hitting righty J.D. Martinez was coming off a season in which he hit a total of 45 home runs between two teams, the Detroit Tigers and Arizona Diamondbacks. For Arizona, he blasted 29 in just 62 games, putting up a 1.107 OPS over that span.
Martinez went into the offseason as one of the most sought-after free agents on that year’s market, and the Red Sox were focused on signing him. After losing David “Big Papi” Ortiz and his 541 career home runs to retirement after the 2016 season, the 2017 Red Sox hit only 168 homers the following year, last in the American League.
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They needed a jolt of power and, as London notes, they knew Martinez could provide it. But the slugger remained unsigned by Boston or anyone else until Feb. 26, 2018, when spring training games were already well underway. Martinez ultimately signed a five-year contract with the Red Sox for $110 million. He hit 43 home runs in 2018 with a league-leading 130 RBIs, as the Red Sox won 108 regular season games and cruised to a World Series victory.
The NESN report notes several parallels between Bregman today and the Martinez of 2018, primarily that both were represented by super-agent Scott Boras, “who tends to drag out the free agencies of his clients with hopes of landing top dollar,” London wrote. Martinez was also 30 years old in the spring of 2018, as Bregman is now.
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“None of this is to say that Bregman is certainly bound for the Red Sox,” the NESN report said. “It’s just to say a potential signing seemingly still is a possibility because we saw a pretty similar one not too long ago.”
For that matter, Martinez himself is now also a free agent at age 37. He made $12 million on a one-year contract with the New York Mets last year, when he hit just 16 home runs after 33 the previous year with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The sports business site Spotrac projects that Martinez will receive a one-year contract worth $9.5 million from whichever club signs him this season.
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