The favorite to land Alex Bregman in free agency is a team that other former Astros have gone already this offseason.
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00:00Alex Bregman, rumors swirling right now
00:04that the Chicago Cubs are the leader
00:07in the clubhouse to sign Bregman.
00:09Several of the big insiders for baseball
00:12are saying they're the front runner.
00:14I've not seen what terms of the deal are gonna be,
00:16but let's just say that it's,
00:19let's just play pretend for a second, Seth.
00:22Let's play make-believe and pretend
00:24that it's a four-year, $110 million deal.
00:29So 20, what would that be, 27 million,
00:31thereabouts, something like that?
00:33Yeah.
00:34But for less time,
00:35so about the same amount of money for fewer years.
00:38They're basically not as good a contract as the Astros.
00:40Right, same average per year,
00:41but for less year, less total money.
00:44So it's, and it's where, again,
00:48I just remain skeptical that the exact same offer
00:51from the Astros is still on the table.
00:53If Bregman accepts a deal that's less total money
00:57and it's with a different team,
01:00I gotta think that he either,
01:02either the deal wasn't on the table
01:03or he flat-out just doesn't wanna be back in Houston.
01:05Yeah, well, we know, at least outwardly,
01:08the deal was still on the table at some point
01:10after the Paredes and Christian Walker deals.
01:13Do we know that?
01:14Dana Brown said the door's still cracked.
01:16You're right, but that's not the same
01:18as the deal still being on the table.
01:19Well, you're right.
01:20Specifically, we don't know that that deal
01:22was what they were offering Bregman.
01:23That's fair.
01:24And it'll all come out in the end.
01:27But if we're gonna talk about the react,
01:31the belief by fans is that the deal
01:32was still on the table, right?
01:34We're just, whether rational or irrational,
01:37I think there's a lot of fans out there
01:38that think the team is still offering six years, 156.
01:41There were some people that would be in the know
01:43that were reporting that.
01:47How are Astro fans gonna react
01:48if he takes fewer years to go to the Chicago Cubs?
01:52Then the divorce, the emotional divorce will be complete.
01:55Then they'll actually, they'll turn to,
01:57at the very least, not being,
02:00at one end of the spectrum,
02:01not being as sentimental about Alex Bregman
02:04because he specifically didn't even have
02:05the motivation of money to leave Houston.
02:09And then some will just use it
02:11as a reason to absolutely hate him.
02:12I think the only scenario where he leaves
02:16to go to the Cubs or any other team,
02:18the Cubs may hit a little differently too now
02:20because Tucker's a Cub, Presley's a Cub.
02:22These guys are all going to the Cubs.
02:24I think the one thing, the one mulligan
02:26that Astro fans would give him,
02:28if it's on paper a lesser deal,
02:31is if they've got those opt-outs in there.
02:34If he's allowed, like Correa did with Minnesota,
02:37if he's allowed to opt out after one year,
02:38because I couldn't, I think he's,
02:40I think it would be, I don't think it's a smart move
02:42for him versus signing a six-year deal, 156.
02:45But if he thinks I can go have a big year
02:49and go get 30 million a year or whatever,
02:51I can't really fault him for that.
02:53It does tear away a little bit at his,
02:56like his Astro-yness, you know what I mean?
03:00I think, man, at the age of 31,
03:02the smart business decision is take as much
03:04guaranteed money as you can get
03:06because the likelihood of you all of a sudden,
03:11next year, the year after that,
03:12you're going to be one year older
03:13and teams are still going to be reluctant
03:14to give you a long-term deal at that point.
03:17If he performs up to his averages since 2019,
03:21which, you know, haven't been as good as the-
03:25He hasn't been close.
03:25Previously, right.
03:26In 2019.
03:27So there's a lot of it that we just don't know
03:30until he signs a deal.
03:31I think that if it has the opt-outs,
03:33that's the part where at least Astros fans
03:35can then say, okay, well, that makes sense.
03:37You know, he still feels like there's more money
03:40out there for him and the Astros
03:41weren't going to give him those opt-outs,
03:42so at least it makes sense.
03:43Yeah, if he's just signing a basic four-year deal
03:46for about the same amount of money per year
03:48somewhere else, I'd be like,
03:49that tells me that he doesn't believe in the Astros.
03:52Yeah.
03:53You know what I mean?
03:54That tells me he thinks he has a better chance
03:55to win with the Cubs or whatever team it is
03:58he's signing with.
03:59Like, you know what I mean?
04:00Like if it's, the Astros are giving you more years
04:02at this dollar amount average per year.
04:06This team is giving you fewer years
04:07at about the same average dollar amount.
04:09I'm going with it because he's not going to be
04:11four years, at 35, he's not getting the big bag.
04:14Yeah.
04:15If he's 32 next year, if he opts out of a deal
04:19after one year, that would be like,
04:20okay, well this guy just,
04:22he either really wants to live in Chicago,
04:23he doesn't like living in Houston,
04:25or, you know, he just wants to play in Wrigley Field.
04:27I think the statement would be,
04:28if he were signing a deal that was a conventional deal
04:31without the opt-outs, but it's for fewer years,
04:33he believes in that organization's ability
04:37to win a World Series more than he believes in this current.
04:40That's how I would read it.
04:41It's a vote against the viability of the Astros
04:44as a franchise.
04:46I think that's been a question all along.
04:47It feels like, yeah, it's, we're
04:52running on fuel that being part of,
04:54he can be the veteran guy that is looked at as,
04:57oh, wow, yeah, he helped these younger guys
05:00learn how to be a winner.
05:01They're the teams, he would be going to a team
05:03that's trading for Kyle Tucker,
05:05not trading away Kyle Tucker.
05:07All right, let me ask you this, Sean T. Pendergast.
05:08Yeah, yeah.
05:09At this point, would you be cool if the Astros
05:11gave him a deal that had a bunch of one-year options on it?
05:15Boy, I think, you know what?
05:18I think I would.
05:19They need his, they need a bat.
05:21Yeah.
05:22You know, I think I would.
05:23I don't think the Astros would.
05:24Yeah, but if that came out,
05:26I was just trying to think about
05:27how I would process that emotionally,
05:29and I'd be cool with it, too.
05:30That would more be, because it gives,
05:34I mean, it doesn't give the Astros options.
05:37It handcuffs them to Bregman,
05:38even if he ends up being injured for the next three years,
05:40which is unlikely.
05:41He's very durable.
05:42He's very, he has been very durable.
05:44I can live with the business side
05:48of somebody making decisions
05:49that you can explain as smart business decisions.
05:53Where it would get tough for me is just, like I said,
05:56Astros are offering you this much money for six years.
05:59This team's offering you the same average annual value
06:01for fewer years, and you take that one.
06:03That one, to me, is-
06:04That's a conscious decision
06:06to get away from the Houston Astros.
06:07That's correct, yeah.
06:08Whether, I mean, just literally, he's trying,
06:12now, for what reasons and why,
06:13that's all up to speculation and conjecture,
06:15but he consciously does not want
06:18to be on the Houston Astros.
06:20If that were the case, so we'll see how it plays out.
06:22Maybe he just doesn't like the heat.
06:24Maybe he's been, he grew up in New Mexico,
06:27and then he comes to a hotter,
06:30more humid, and maybe he just wants to get up
06:33and experience baseball played
06:36in a more conventional spring and autumn.
06:39Yeah, maybe so, maybe, yeah.
06:42I mean, it is a cool-
06:43Pretty awful in the summer up there.
06:44It is, it's very humid in the summer.
06:46It is a cool place to play.
06:47I hate the stadium as a fan, Wrigley.
06:49Yeah.
06:50It's because it's built,
06:51at least it was when I lived there.
06:52I split season tickets for the Cubs
06:54when I lived in Chicago with a few buddies.
06:55I lived there for three years.
06:57It was back in the early 2000s, right after Bartman.
06:59I was there for the three post-Bartman seasons,
07:02and it's a miserable place to watch a game,
07:06like, just comfort-wise.
07:07Oh, really?
07:08It's built for people in the 1920s.
07:10Oh, tiny people.
07:10Yeah, it was built for tiny-
07:11Tiny malnourished people.
07:13Yeah, yeah.
07:14They've been working in a factory for 14 hours a day.
07:17I was more than nourished when I was living in Chicago
07:19at that stage in my life.
07:20It's a pretty well-fed city in general.
07:22Very well-fed.
07:23Their signature food is a hot dog.
07:25It's good-eating cities, yeah, yeah, yeah.
07:27Italian beef sandwiches.
07:28Maybe he just wants to go somewhere,
07:30this is the business side of things,
07:31maybe he wants to go somewhere
07:32where people wouldn't know or realize
07:35that his salsa is a fraud,
07:37that people in Chicago would be like,
07:39wow, this is genuine Tex-Mex here,
07:42right from Alex Bregman's kitchen to my,
07:45that's not how, that's a horrible Chicago impression.
07:47Not even close to how they talk.
07:48That's Chicago with an influx of people from Knoxville.
07:52This is, so, oh, so this is genuine, authentic salsa.
07:58This is how it tastes.
07:58This is how gringos do salsa in Texas, okay, all right.
08:02Brutal.
08:03Take your salsa and get out of my city.
08:06Ben saved that.
08:10The Cubs.
08:11In bad ways.
08:12Oh, yeah, oh, jeez.
08:15And your quesadillas.
08:19The Cubs come to Minute Maid Park
08:21June, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,
08:23June 27th, 28th, and 29th,
08:26so if Kyle Tucker, Ryan Presley,
08:28and Alex Bregman are on the Cubs,
08:30what's the reaction for each one?
08:31Bregman's got the biggest capacity to be booed.
08:34Easily out of those three.
08:35100%.
08:36I think Tucker gets the,
08:38would get the biggest ovation.
08:41I think people would fondly remember Presley
08:43and give him an ovation,
08:44even though the last year wasn't great.
08:46Well, and even though a lot of,
08:47I always felt like I wanted to stick up for Presley
08:51because I felt like people were down on him
08:54way more than they needed to be
08:56just because he wasn't a conventional and classic closer.
08:59He wasn't a hammer.
09:00Yeah, so I always felt like I need to stick up for him.
09:03I feel like after he, or now that he's left,
09:06I think people will start to have more of a,
09:08just a general overall appreciation for like,
09:10yeah, he did some really good work.
09:11If you don't, I would just encourage you
09:13to go to baseballreference.com
09:14and pull up the game log of the 2022 postseason
09:17where he was incredible.
09:18I mean, he was one of the biggest reasons
09:20they won a World Series that year.
09:21So yeah, and then Bregman,
09:23I think they all get highlight video.
09:25I think they all get the welcome back video treatment.
09:27Boy, you might have to get to that game early.
09:29That's a lot of tribute videos to play if Bregman signs.
09:33It's already a lot.
09:34You got two former Astros on there.