{"id":374080,"date":"2025-12-29T00:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T00:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/374080\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T00:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T00:14:08","slug":"latest-on-tigers-alex-bregman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/374080\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest On Tigers, Alex Bregman"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tigers made a strong push to sign Alex Bregman<\/a> last offseason, offering the third baseman a six-year, $171.5MM deal (with some deferred money) that included an opt-out clause for Bregman following the 2026 season.\u00a0 With Bregman back on the market this winter, the Tigers are again in the mix, but in more of a \u201clukewarm\u201d fashion, according to Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This more or less echoes Petzold\u2019s last report on Bregman from earlier this month<\/a>, and \u201cthe Tigers haven\u2019t shown any new movement\u201d in subsequent weeks, a source tells Petzold in his latest piece.\u00a0 Since Detroit was apparently the only team to offer Bregman a contract longer than four years last year, Petzold suggests the Tigers may be trying to leverage this interest into seeing if they could possibly wait out the rest of Bregman\u2019s market.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays, Cubs, Diamondbacks, and Red Sox are Bregman\u2019s other known public suitors, and Petzold adds the detail that Chicago and Boston \u201chaven\u2019t shown a willingness to offer a long-term contract.\u201d\u00a0 This was the case last winter as well, as the Cubs reportedly offered Bregman a four-year deal (with multiple opt-outs) in the $115MM-$120MM range, and the third baseman ended up signing a three-year, $120MM deal with the Sox that allowed him to opt out after each of the first two seasons.<\/p>\n

Bregman is entering his age-32 campaign, and he hit .273\/.360\/.462 with 18 home runs over 495 plate appearances for Boston in 2025.\u00a0 His season was marred by a quad strain that sidelined him for just under seven weeks, as well as a deep slump over the last five weeks of the season.\u00a0 These flaws notwithstanding, Bregman\u2019s hot start earned him his third career All-Star nod, and his veteran influence within the young Red Sox clubhouse was heavily praised.<\/p>\n

It was an altogether solid year for Bregman, and an across-the-board improvement over his 2024 slash line.\u00a0 However, it may not have been the type of standout campaign that inspires a team to make the type of five- or six-year offer it wasn\u2019t willing to make last offseason, though Bregman isn\u2019t tied to a qualifying offer this time around.<\/p>\n

A few other factors complicate Bregman\u2019s market.\u00a0 Bo Bichette<\/a> and Kazuma Okamoto<\/a> are still free agents, and Okamoto\u2019s posting window is up on January 4.\u00a0 It could be that the teams in on Okamoto (including both the Red Sox and Blue Jays, as per reports) could be first waiting to see where he lands before moving on other infield targets.\u00a0 Boston and Toronto have also each shown interest in free agent Bo Bichette and trade candidate Ketel Marte<\/a>, and moving Marte\u2019s contract might be Arizona\u2019s first step towards freeing up enough payroll space to go after Bregman.<\/p>\n

While Bichette is thought to be the Blue Jays\u2019 priority and Bregman perhaps Boston\u2019s preferred target, the two teams have been connected to so many infielders that the Tigers, Diamondbacks, and Cubs could stand out since it seems like Bregman is the only big-name infielder on their radar.\u00a0 Chicago\u2019s offseason has been dominated by multiple bullpen additions and reports linking the Cubs to multiple free agent starters, but there hasn\u2019t been a ton of buzz about any major position-player adds to replace Kyle Tucker<\/a>.\u00a0 That said, the Cubs also met with Pete Alonso<\/a> during the Winter Meetings, so it isn\u2019t as if the team is closing itself off from a pursuit of a premium bat.<\/p>\n

As Petzold notes, there is certainly a scenario where Bregman\u2019s other suitors all either stand pat or make other acquisitions, leaving the Tigers as perhaps the only club still open to giving Bregman a longer-term deal.\u00a0 Depending on how things play out, Bregman and agent Scott Boras could conceivably pivot to another shorter-term, higher average annual value type of contract with an opt-out or two.\u00a0 Bregman didn\u2019t sign with the Red Sox last winter until mid-February, which could be a sign that Bregman is happy waiting until he gets an acceptable offer, or he might prefer more stability this time rather than another protracted stay in free agency.<\/p>\n

Since the Tigers have yet to sign a free agent to a deal longer than two years in the Scott Harris era, Motown fans would prefer that the club is a little more proactive or aggressive in finally landing a big target.\u00a0 Being patient with Bregman naturally creates the risk that he\u2019ll just sign elsewhere, leaving Detroit now having to play catchup if the team wants to make a significant lineup upgrade.\u00a0 The Tigers are one of the teams<\/a> to explore the idea of trading for Marte, so that might present some type of alternative if Marte is also still in Arizona when Bregman comes off the board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tigers made a strong push to sign Alex Bregman last offseason, offering the third baseman a six-year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[7679,49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-374080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-alex-bregman","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}