Yoan Moncada signing proves Alex Bregman decision is still far away

With Jack Flaherty and Pete Alonso coming off the board within the last week, Alex Bregman is the only star free agent left on the open market. Unsurprisingly, Bregman is a Scott Boras-represented client who is 30 years old and coming off his worst season. Boras is looking for more money and/or years than Bregman is worth at this stage of his career.

While Bregman might not be the MVP-caliber player he once was, he certainly is a useful contributor that any team would love to have. Even in his down year, he slashed .260/.315/.453 with 26 home runs and 75 RBI in 145 games played. He won a Gold Glove and was worth 4.1 bWAR, making him one of the most valuable third basemen in the game.

Once Flaherty and especially Alonso signed, it felt as if it was only a matter of time before Bregman would pick where he was going to play in 2025 and (likely) beyond, but that has not happened. In fact, the second-best third baseman on the open market, Yoan Moncada, went off the board on Thursday, inking a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Angels according to Jon Heyman of the NY Post.

Is this the most noteworthy news? Of course not. Moncada, a former top prospect who has struggled for the most part to produce and stay healthy at the MLB level, signed a cheap one-year deal with an Angels team that will almost certainly miss the postseason once again in 2025. This is far from a needle-moving transaction. It does, however, confirm that Bregman is probably still a ways away from making his decision.

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MLB fans continue to wait for Alex Bregman's decision as Yoan Moncada signs with Angels

What's interesting about this signing is that Moncada joined the Angels, a team that showed little, if any, public interest in Bregman. The money is very different, obviously, but you'd think that the second-best third baseman available would sign with a team that showed interest in the best third baseman available.

Instead, teams like the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, and Toronto Blue Jays, who have been linked to Bregman all winter long, passed on Moncada, suggesting Bregman is still very much in play.

Teams like the Red Sox (Rafael Devers), Astros (Isaac Paredes), and even Cubs (Matt Shaw) with viable fallback options passing on a journeyman like Moncada makes sense even if they were unable to land Bregman, but it's not as if the Blue Jays (Ernie Clement) or Tigers (Jace Jung) have exciting alternatives to Bregman. Those teams likely would've expressed interest in Moncada as a fall-back after Bregman made up his mind, especially at the cheap price Moncada signed for.

The fact that none of the teams Bregman is linked to have made any sort of pivot and allowed Moncada to go to the Angels on such cheap terms suggests a Bregman decision is still a little bit away. Hopefully, that is not the case, but with Boras representing him, this could go on for quite a while.