At long last, the best free agent remaining is finally off the market.
After it appeared that they were out of the running, the Boston Red Sox stepped up their offer and landed Alex Bregman on a huge three-year, $120 million deal that includes opt-outs after each season.
Alex Bregman’s three-year, $120 million deal with Boston includes deferred money, sources told ESPN. The $40 million salary is $10 million-plus more per year than others were offering. The Red Sox land the best free agent left on the market. First on the news was @ChandlerRome.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 13, 2025
As has become commonplace with deals of this magnitude, the Red Sox are utilizing deferred money to make Bregman's contract more digestible in the short-term. They'll also lose out on a draft pick because the third baseman was attached to the qualifying offer, but that's effectively a wash since they gained a pick when starting pitcher Nick Pivetta signed with the San Diego Padres earlier in the day.
The third baseman immediately makes the Red Sox a better team heading into the 2025 season, especially with fellow offseason additions Garrett Crochet and Aroldis Chapman already in tow.
However, the team now has a big infield logjam to sort out, with plenty of different avenues to pursue in order to maximize playing time for their best players.
The ideal Boston Red Sox infield outcome isn't the most likely
For this writer's money, the ideal outcome from the fallout of this deal is as follows:
Bregman (the reigning Gold Glove winner in the AL) stays on third base; Rafael Devers and Triston Casas split duties between first base and designated hitter; Trevor Story stays healthy and plays shortstop; top prospect Kristian Campbell wins the second base job in spring training. Masataka Yoshida (and his contract) would then be traded to free up the DH spot.
Now, I'll repeat that situation is the ideal outcome. It's far from the most likely. It will be very difficult to trade Yoshida given that he's recovering from shoulder surgery, is coming off a down year, and has a doozy of a contract ($54 million remaining over the next three seasons).
Over his first two seasons with the Red Sox, the former outfielder has played in 248 of a possible 324 games, accrued 2.8 WAR, posted an OPS of .775 and OPS+ of 111, and produced 82 extra-base hits. That’s hardly a porous performance, but for a guy making $18 million per year — tied for the third-highest figure on the team last year, behind only Devers and Story — it pales in comparison to what the team needs.
Assuming Yoshida is effectively unmovable at this point, the most likely scenario is that Bregman is asked to play second base, Devers is kept on third, and Campbell is stashed in the minor leagues, potentially waiting out a Casas-for-pitcher trade.
The expectation is Alex Bregman will play second base for Boston, sources tell ESPN. Even though the Red Sox have top prospect Kristian Campbell coming, they saw Bregman having enough of an impact that they offered $40 million a year — with deferrals — to make the deal happen.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 13, 2025
Of course, a lot of this also hinges on Story staying healthy enough to play shortstop full-time. That is, uh, not very likely.
Moving Bregman off third after his brilliant 2024 campaign on defense is silly on the surface, especially given his significantly better defensive profile than Devers. But second base is the only "open" job on the infield right now, and giving Campbell more time to develop in Triple-A after getting just 85 plate appearances there in 2024 — after starting the season in High-A no less — is probably good long-term decision making.
Luckily for Boston, they have the entirety of spring training to sort out this logjam. And regardless of the decisions the team ultimately makes, they can rest easy knowing Bregman will make them demonstrably better in 2025 regardless of where he plays.