Alex Bregman's potential position change hints his Astros days are numbered

Over the past few days, it seemed like momentum was building to a reunion between Alex Bregman and the Houston Astros. A perilously thin third-base market didn't present the team with a ton of alternatives, and Houston GM Dana Brown seemed to understand how important re-signing Bregman would be to keep his team competitive in 2025 and beyond.

"The biggest priority is third base, without a doubt," Brown told reporters at this week's GM Meetings. "We would love to have Alex Bregman back."

"Ultimately, you want to get guys done as soon as [free agency begins]. It lowers my blood pressure to get [Bregman] done as soon as we can get him done. I don’t want this thing to drag on. He knows that we want him back. Scott [Boras] knows that we want him back. He loved playing here. So, hopefully, we can get it done sooner rather than later."

That sure sounds like an executive who knows where his bread is buttered, and knows what it'll take to get a deal done. Unfortunately, Bregman is represented by super agent Scott Boras, and Boras never met a free agency that he couldn't turn into an all-out bidding war. Based on his recent comments, it seems like he's set to do the same with Bregman — in a way that could cost the Astros their shot.

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Scott Boras opens the door to Alex Bregman playing second base

In a roundup of rumors from San Antonio, USA Today's Bob Nightengale included an eyebrow-raising nugget about Bregman.

"Bregman, who has spent his entire career with the Houston Astros, has received interest from several teams asking whether he’d be willing to move to second base," Nightengale wrote, "which he’s amenable to doing, Boras said."

From a coldly calculating perspective, you can understand why Boras would take this tack. Bregman has been one of the game's elite defensive third basemen for his entire career, so he certainly should be able to slide over to the keystone if needed. And more importantly, doing so expands not only the pool of interested teams but also the value of a potential contract. The New York Yankees, for instance, might be fine leaving Jazz Chisholm Jr. at third base, but now they can still envision signing Bregman and putting him at second to replace the almost certainly departing Gleyber Torres.

Good news for Bregman's market value, however, is bad news for the Astros. Houston already has a pretty big name at second base, and there's no way that the team would ask a franchise icon like Jose Altuve to move off his typical position. This development certainly doesn't rule out a reunion — it's possible that Bregman just wants to remain an Astro, the only organization he's ever known — but the competition just got a lot stiffer.