After an offseason full of waiting, Alex Bregman wound up signing a three-year, $120 million deal with the Boston Red Sox, departing the Houston Astros for the first time. Instead of inking the long-term deal he hoped for, Bregman signed a bit of a prove-it deal, as the contract with the Red Sox includes opt-outs after each of the first two seasons. Well, it's safe to say Bregman is proving it so far, and his stock is reaching levels it hasn't in quite some time.
There were reasons for fans to be both optimistic and pessimistic about this deal. On one hand, Bregman has always been a great player, particularly at Fenway Park. Getting to play there half the time was undoubtedly going to be a good thing for him, and it has. On the other hand, he was set to turn 31 years old in March and had seen his OPS dip in each of the past two seasons from the .820 mark he had back in 2022. Maybe he was just a declining player.
Based on how he's played thus far, though, perhaps all Bregman needed was a change of scenery.
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Alex Bregman might be playing his way back onto the open market this offseason
Given how rich the contract was over this three-year period, Bregman will only opt out if he has a huge year. His start to the 2025 campaign would absolutely qualify as such.
Bregman is slashing .314/.392/.589 with 11 home runs and 33 RBI in 44 games played. His 2.4 bWAR has him tied for sixth in the Majors (with Shohei Ohtani) among qualified position players, and is fewer than two wins shy of his 4.2 mark from all of last season. His 170 WRC+ is over 50 points higher than his 118 mark from last season and has him ranked sixth among qualified position players.
The Red Sox might be underperforming expectations thus far, but Bregman is one of the few reasons why they are still within reach of the .500 mark. Again, the fit seemed perfect on paper, but he still had to prove it. He has done that and then some with how he's played, and even with his presence in the locker room. He's playing as well as he has since he was the MVP runner-up in 2019, which not even the most optimistic Red Sox fan could've predicted.
The Astros have gotten fine production out of his replacement, Isaac Paredes, but had they known that Bregman still had this in him, they might've been willing to meet his lofty demands in free agency.