Alex Bregman rumors: Blue Jays urgency, Tigers still in, Biggio's take on Altuve

Knowing that he was entering this offseason as an unrestricted free agent, third baseman Alex Bregman walked off the field to a standing ovation in the Houston Astros final home game of the regular season. To anyone with common sense, this would indicate that his tenure with the team had come to an end.

Here we are just weeks away from Spring Training and Bregman remains a free agent. He is one of the top names left on the market alongside Pete Alonso and the baseball world is anxiously anticipating where he will sign. Let's catch you up on all of the rumors currently swirling around Bregman.

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Blue Jays urgency

After a slow start to the offseason, Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins has stepped up his game. Toronto has added slugger Anthony Santander to an already powerful lineup with George Springer, Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Atkins also addressed pitching needs by acquiring future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer on a one-year deal.

By making these moves, Atkins has proved that he is not going to submit to the Orioles, Red Sox and Yankees who have all made moves of their own to improve this winter. While Santander's deal was a little pricey, keeping Scherzer's contract to one year and having only a season left on Guerrero's current deal, the Jays have a legitimate shot to land Alex Bregman before Spring Training.

Tigers are still in on Alex Bregman

Much like the Blue Jays, the Detroit Tigers have had a relatively quiet offseason up until this week. The Tigers have retained the majority of their team from the magical 2024 postseason run they made but hadn't made any significant additions until Sunday when they reunited with starting pitcher Jack Flaherty.

Flaherty was with the Tigers for the first half of the 2024 season and perfomed well before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline. In this stint with the Tigers, Flaherty is on a two-year deal worth $35 million which is comparatively cheap to other starting pitchers of his caliber around the league.

Scott Harris, the president of baseball operations for the Tigers, likely knows that if they want to compete in October the time is now and he needs to build off of the 2024 season. The Tigers and ace Tarik Skubal avoided arbitration, making his salary just north of $10 million in 2025. Skubal is set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2026 and it is not likely Detroit will be able to afford his asking price at that point.

Bregman could provide the Tigers with some much needed winning experience and could be the piece to build around for the near future if he and Detroit could agree on a deal.

Craig Biggio's take on Jose Altuve

It is still a possibility that Alex Bregman returns to the Houston Astros. At the beginning of this offseason, he rejected a hefty offer from the only team he has never known but if he was truly set on signing elsewhere, he would have already done so.

Regardless if Bregman is an Astro or not, it sounds like superstar Jose Altuve is switching positions from second base to left field. There is one former Astro who knows a lot about that transition and that is Craig Biggio.

When asked about the potential position change for Altuve, Biggio had nothing but praise for the nine-time All-Star and former MVP.

"He's a special athlete. He'll be just fine if that's the direction they go," Biggio stated.

If Bregman returns to Houston and Altuve does move to the outfield then the question becomes who plays second base. There has been rumors floating around that Bregman could potentially play second if he signed with the Boston Red Sox with their manager Alex Cora stating he always thought Bregman would make a great second baseman.

Houston's current third baseman is Isaac Paredes who also has experience at second base. Should Bregman stay with the Astros, it would be hard to imagine him moving to any other position being that he has held down the hot corner in Houston for the past nine seasons.