Boras has negotiated with the Astros in the past - he went through this with the Astros with Correa with the same results. The Astros stuck to 6 years and nothing more - and Correa was even younger. An agent's whole job is to understand a player's market and their leverage - outside of those skills, and agent provides no real value over generic lawyer. Boras negotiated the Altuve deal and knows that signing was not just about numbers and WAR and market value - it was a unique case because the Astros made Altuve the face of their franchise and wanted him to retire here for non-performance reasons. Bregman isn't the face of the franchise, the finances are the different, and Bregman signing to age 37 doesn't even guarantee he'd be an Astro for life. The two contracts and situations are not similar at all. Crane was never going to go to 7 years - we all knew it here on this board. If that was Boras' holdout - and we don't know if it was - then he misread the Astros. How many of those FAs were signed by the Astros? How many of those players were signed by the same team they already were playing for? Nothing is preventing 29 other teams from signing Bregman to the kind of deal you suggest if that's his fair value. Shitty because he isn't willling to make the same financial choices as other far-less-successful franchises? Why are you so insistent that the Astros should be run like a bunch of teams that don't win nearly as much as the Astros?
You're entitled to your opinion and I get that because you're a fan and you're emotional. I'll give you the other side. Reported Bregs wants 7/200 Bregs has declining number for the last 3 years Bregs is coming off of elbow surgery Bregs has a history of hamstring injuries and this is more likely to happen with age. (Trust me on this one) So given this history if you're Crane would you invest 200 mil in Bregs? I wouldn't and I'm a Bregs fan. But from a business standpoint it make no sense.
It is easily much closer to 0% than 30%. I will be so glad when Bregman finally signs so we can all just move on. Somehow the GM publicly acknowledging that they weren’t signing him hasn’t been enough for some of yall to accept it.
Agreed that it was Boras' job to know and prevent this from happening. But just like you laid out how different Altuve's deal is from Bregman's, Correa's was just as different. By all accounts, They were 1 year and $44M apart. There is reason to believe additional, unreported offers were made and the money was significantly less than $44M apart- I have heard rumors it was as little as $20M. The Astros and Correa were never even in the same ballpark and there was never any optimism. It's reasonable that an agent would think this difference not to be insurmountable, especially with both parties saying they are prioritizing making it work.
If Bregman has to move off of 3B he'd he a hell of a 1B. If Altuve has to move off of 2B he'd be a hell of a DH. Neither can play anywhere else. I get what you're saying, and agree.
A 7 year contract would obviously be better for Boras, but not necessarily for Bregman who will likely be unplayable at a premium position in 1 or 2 years and at any position in 4 or 5. His body just just not going to hold up. Every year he plays will make his retirement shorter and more painful. Crane has done what was best for his team and it's investors, that is where his responsibility lies.
Agreed that Correa was also different for a whole host of reasons. But that's my point - every situation is unique. Altuve wasn't a situation where the Astros were having to make other decisions or risk losing other options. Correa kind of was but not really since they had Pena already. Bregman was definitely different there - waiting had a cost to the Astros and Boras knew that. Boras was willing to wait it out - likely in part because as other pieces sign elsewhere, the Astros lose their options and might be more willing to meet his price. So Astros made decisions best for themselves. Paredes and Walker didn't happen overnight. There was Paredes, then down time, then the Arenado failure, then down time, then Walker, who was rumored as an Astros target for a while. So it wasn't like any of this was a shock or surprise to Boras. If Bregman really wanted to be an Astro, Boras had multiple points where he could see the Astros moving forward with Plan B/C/D/etc. Maybe the differences were solvable - but Boras had agency in that too. He could have lowered his price. He could have agreed to fewer years. It's not just incumbent on the Astros to solve the problem.
I will say that even without Bregman I am looking forward to 2025. I love the Walker and Paredes acquisitions. I love that the team finally got something for a pending FA star. With Altuve the only guy from 2017 left (oh yeah, McCullers) and declining into a more complementary producer instead of carrying the team it feels like a new era is beginning. I look forward to a young guy like Dezenzo, Leon, or Whitcomb become a regular starter. Smith looks like he could be a beast and the next Astros superstar - just need to hold myself down until he actually makes it to MLB. The SP looks very deep for several years as long as they can manage to get lucky with injuries. Come on Spring Training !!!!
Regardless of the Bregman situation, I thought Dana Brown came off as a prick in that interview. Definitely not someone that is easlty to like or root for. Also didn't come across as someone any player or agent would want to deal with.
No. Because of the way he answered the simple interview question. He seemed unnecessarily defensive and looked weak as a result imo. "The way I view it right now is Paredes is going to play third base and Walker is going to play first base. And Bregman’s still a free agent.” Thats a really weird thing to say imo. Not how humans speak. Doesn't sound like a guy that can have a reasonable conversation. Just say we offered Alex the best we could and we wish him the best. Bregman is an all-time Astro. No need to beat around the bush. Brown and Bagwell have just always come across that way to me.
They couldn't just wait around, but they could have prioritized Teoscar or Santander over Walker. Granted they may value Walker much more than the other 2. I'm not mad at the team though. They gave Bregman plenty of time to seek offers and he had their offer on the table. And Boras is the agent to drag things out to an unhealthy timing.
