The Boston Red Sox and the Interior Field Player Alex Bregman agreed with a three -year pact worth $ 120 million Wednesday evening, which removed the last significant name from the market for free agents this winter. (Bregman’s agreement would understand Important responses which reduce the current value of the contract to around $ 90 million.) The Red Sox had been public on their desire to add another straight paste Before opening day, with the rumor mill connecting them to Bregman and the third goal of the cardinals of St. Louis Nolan Arenado. In Bregman, Boston obtained exactly that – and did it without putting the type of agreement in the long term that Bregman would have sought all winter.
Each time a case of this magnitude decreases – and you worry about you, CBS Sports has classified Bregman as the free agent n ° 3 available in the offseason – this inspires a lot of questions on adjustment and the biggest ramifications. Below, I tried to answer four major questions inspired by this signature.
Let’s go.
1. How does Bregman integrate into the Boston range?
The most obvious question to ask on Bregman joining the Red Sox is … well, where is he playing?
It is not the cleanest defensive adjustment on paper. The Red Sox already use a third third goal player from Rafael Devers, as well as a first goal player, Triston Casas, who was a hole in the average for his career. In theory, the Red Soxs could exchange the casas and move the permanent in the cold corner. In practice, it seems that Boston will rather deploy Bregman to the second goal, According to ESPN.
Bregman, it should be noted, has not played a single round in a position other than the third goal since 2019, when it appeared at the stop for the Astros of Houston. It is to see how he takes Keystone, but there is a reason to think that he will manage. After all, it is reliably classified as a field player superior to the warm corner, earning brands more for its range. The weakest defensive attribute of Bregman is undoubtedly the strength of his arm, something that will not matter to the second.
This does not suggest that Bregman will not face a learning curve in his new position. He will need to familiarize himself with the angles – how the ball comes out of the beat, his launch pathways in the bases, and so on – and learn to work the pivot on double games. But there is no apparent reason why he should not be able to make the transition and become a quality defender.
As for the offensive, it goes without saying that the manager of the Red Sox, Alex Cora, will place him near the top of the command. Here is the planned programming of Boston, graceful of Roster Resource:
- LF Jarren Duran
- 3b Rafael Devers
- 2b Alex Bregman
- Triston 1B houses
- DH MASATAKA Yoshida
- History SS Trevor
- RF Wilyer Abreu
- C Connor Wong
- See Cedena Rafaela
Let us analyze in more detail the offensive adequacy of Bregman by paying our attention to the way in which he should go to his new environment of home park.
2. And in Fenway Park?
One of the biggest concerns about Bregman is the way in which his power will play outside the friendly limits of Houston – in particular the large wall and the short porch which offered him in the left field by the Crawford boxes. As I wrote in its classification of free agents: “Statcast calculations suggest that it would have at least 30 career circuits in less career if it had struck the same range of balls struck in one of the 17th others Mlb Fields. You cannot hold this against Bregman – you golf the course on which you are – but it suggests that his power could play elsewhere. “”
If you do not know anything else on Fenway Park, you know it has an even larger wall in the left field so that Bregman can take advantage in a myriad of doubles. The catch is that he can always see his total dive at home with the move of Houston. Statcast calculations, which adjust for different heights of walls, distances and environmental effects, indicate that Bregman would have 70 less career runners if he had been a member of the Red Sox and had generated the same shot shot expenses.
Obviously, it is not so cut and dry. Bregman can modify his approach to the plate as part of his transition to Boston, where he can atone for the lost circuits with the abovementioned doubles. (I would note that the metrics of the Bregman launch angle and the release of Bregman on his balls struck in the left field last season were similar to Mookie Betts’, and Betts behaved very well during his career To the Red Sox.) All the same, it illustrates what a perfect perfect dynamic Bregman had continued with the crawford boxes.
3. What does that mean for Boston’s best hopes?
Long -term thinkers could wonder: that the Red Sox now intends to do with some of their best prospects. Boston has Three of the best young people in the game: The Roman voltiseur Anthony (n ° 1 in total), the Kristian Campbell interior field (n ° 3) and the interior field Marcelo Mayer (n ° 10). Everyone should make their debut in the big league at a given moment during the coming season, still complicating things while the Red Sox try to pile up everyone on the same depth painting.
Having more talented players than spots is undeniably a good thing. The reality is that these things tend to take care of themselves anyway. This can be by injury, by trades or position switches or by underperformance.
Regarding this trio of prospects, Anthony seems to me to be the least touched by the addition of Bregman because he is a stateigent by trade. Campbell, the star in small groups of the minor league season of last year, recorded amply time in other positions (stop and central field included), suggesting that he should be ready to place in a Opening every time and wherever it presents itself. Mayer, on the other hand, has not yet appeared in 100 games as a professional.
On this note, Boston’s beginner stop-neck is Trevor Story, not stranger to his own physical ills. It is not a blow on the story to assume that, at one point this season, the Red Sox will have an opportunity at the Copbell or Mayer stop. And in the long term? Who knows. The Bregman contract includes deactivation opportunities after the first and second seasons, making it a separate possibility that he is a short -term player in Boston’s global history.
4. Will the Red Sox do the playoffs?
I will conclude by approaching another notable question: can the Red Sox do the playoffs?
No one can say with certainty – there is a reason why they play games – but they have undeniably improved their position since the beginning of winter. Namely, The coolest fabraphs qualifying series dimensionsWho include Bregman’s signature, give the Red Sox a chance to win the American League East (the second best rating of the division) and 53.8% chance of making the playoffs.
Remember, this is a club whose previous efforts of the offseason have seen them focus on their pitching staff, the starters of Garrett Rochet nets, Walker Buehler and Patrick Sandoval, as well as the Child Children Laver AROLDIS CHAPMAN to play a high level role. Now, with Bregman in a trailer and an improved and deeper programming in the cards, everything points to the right direction for the Red Sox.
