Astros fans want Scott Boras’s head after Alex Bregman settles for short-term deal

They are popping champagne in Beantown tonight.

The Boston Red Sox have officially signed All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman to a three-year, $120 million contract, per Chandler Rome of The Athletic. It includes opt-outs after each season, which will allow him to secure a more substantial long-term contract down the line, if all goes his way.

The contract also includes significant deferred money, per ESPN's Jeff Passan, which means the Red Sox are taking a page out of the Dodgers' imminently successful playbook.

Bregman to Boston was a long time coming. Alex Cora, Bregman's former bench coach, has discussed the potential benefits of signing the two-time All-Star on multiple occasions. With Rafael Devers locked in at the hot corner for now, Cora has said he views Bregman as a potential Gold Glove second baseman. So, the 30-year-old's Rex Sox tenure could very well begin at a new position.

For fans of the Houston Astros, this is exceedingly difficult news to take. Bregman was a two-time World Series champ and a cornerstone of this Astros dynasty. He has spent his entire nine-year career to date in a Houston uniform. As spring training gets underway, he will don new colors for the very first time.

There will be vitriol aimed at Bregman for leaving, of course, but Houston fans really have a bone to pick with Scott Boras, the infamous MLB superagent who continues fumbling the bag for anyone not named Juan Soto.

For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop between now and the MLB offseason.

Astros fans are irate after Alex Bregman accepts short-term deal with Red Sox

Bregman famously turned down a six-year, $156 million offer from Houston early in the offseason, which the Astros subsequently improved upon. Houston did want to bring Bregman back and were willing to punt Isaac Paredes to second base (and Jose Altuve to left field!) to make it happen.

This was a philosophical disagreement, no doubt spurred by Boras, who always favors short-term optionality when his client's most exorbitant long-term demands are not met. Bregman probably wanted $200 million-plus, but that was never going to happen. He turned down six years and $170 million from a mystery team, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. If we are to use context clues, that was either Detroit, Chicago, or Houston that was rejected in favor of Boston's more flexible framework.

Boras' logic behind these short-term deals is understandable, but it did not work out in favor of Cody Bellinger or Jordan Montgomery, and it's bound to blow up in more than a few faces this season, too. Bregman is going to a perfect landing spot for his offensive skill set — he will be hitting plenty of doubles into the left-field gap at Fenway, and the Red Sox desperately needed right-handed slugging. Even so, as he crests over the age of 30, Bregman's window of opportunity to get a proper payday for the remainder of his prime is closing fast. If he does not perform well enough to opt out and cash in next winter, he could end up missing out on significant money five or six years down the line.

If anything, Bregman taking a slightly lower annual salary to re-sign in Houston, where there's a competitive roster in place and a clubhouse he knows well, would've felt right. Boras steering him away from Houston, his home of nine years, is something Astros fans won't soon forget.