That contract came in just $10MM ahead of Boston's own offer in terms of sticker price, but deferred money and the lack of a no-trade clause further depreciated the Red Sox' offer relative to that of the Cubs. The loss of Bregman left chief baseball officer Craig Breslow to search for a pivot, and he found just that yesterday when he signed southpaw Ranger Suarez to a five-year deal.
Oh yeah, we learned that Jon Lester will be the next inductee into the Cubs Hall of Fame. CI was first to report that Lester was getting a blue jacket, then, in a tweet that has since been deleted, Bob Nightengale had the scoop that Rizzo would be going in as well. That ended up being incorrect because Rizzo hasn't been retired long enough, but Nightengale later tweeted that Jody Davis was expected to join Lester.
There have been some conflicting reports about how Alex Bregman's contract structure impacts his average annual value, but I'm going with what the folks at Roster Resource calculated. As Bruce Levine may have reported, however, the deferrals in the deal will lower its net present value to $28 million for purposes of the team's competitive balance tax payroll. That's $2-3 million lower than initial estimates, and RR's recent update has the deal at nearly $30.9 million AAV.
The Cubs made a major splash over the weekend by landing star third baseman Alex Bregman on a five-year deal. As a multi-time All-Star who reliably offers Gold Glove defense at third base and posts offense in the 125 wRC+ range, Bregman is sure to provide a major lift to the club headed into 2026. Strong as the signing is for the team, however, it also creates questions about the future of some of their other players.
MLB's offseason weather is changing at a similar pace, with deals coming in fits and starts between periods of inactivity. Josh Naylor was the first big chip off the board, then came Dylan Cease about two weeks later. Kyle Schwarber and Edwin Diaz inked deals in quick succession about a week after Cease, after which Pete Alonso got paid. There have been other signings, to be sure, but the dam is far from breaking.
Were you by any chance looking for something to endlessly talk about until the last week of February? Jon Heyman, full-time New York Post baseball writer and part-time Scott Boras ventriloquist dummy, reported tonight that Alex Bregman is opting out of the two remaining years on his Red Sox contract, which was set to pay him an additional $80 million. A mere eight months after Red Sox CBO Craig Breslow finally put an end to last offseason's most protracted free agency saga by offering Bregman a short-term/high-AAV deal - and a tremendous amount of bargaining power in the form of those opt-outs - we now get to do it all over again.
