The Athletic Confirms Boston's "Aggressive" Offer for Alex Bregman

[Alex Mayes]

The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey has verified that the Boston Red Sox have a contract offer on the table for Alex Bregman.

She has reached out to the source that spoke to ESPN’s Buster Olney last week and confirmed that the offer is indeed “aggressive”. The full details of the offer are unknown at this point, and aggressive likely means different things to all parties involved. What this does show is that the Red Sox are still actively trying to improve the team and have at least some amount of comfort with handing out multi-year offers to free agents.

The ball is in Bregman’s court, though, as the Red Sox are far from the only team currently vying for his services. Speculation all offseason has had him returning to Boston, but it’s far from a sure thing, even with this offer in hand. Bregman is represented by mega-agent Scott Boras, so this offer is likely being used to leverage other teams while attempting to gauge if this is actually the best offer Boston will make.

Until we know more, we’re all playing the waiting game together.

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[Bellhorn04]

They really need to put some sort of time window on MLB free agency.  After a while these drawn-out dramas become very tiresome.  

[moonslav59]

One person's idea of what a competitive offer is does not always mean it's close to what others offered.

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

They really need to put some sort of time window on MLB free agency.  After a while these drawn-out dramas become very tiresome.  

This has been suggested, but I don't know how it'd be implemented. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

I don't like this. A lot of chatter from media, nothing from team or player.

[mvp 78]

14 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

I don't like this. A lot of chatter from media, nothing from team or player.

Boras doesn't let his guys even communicate with former teammates when they are FA. I'm sure Bregman isn't allowed to saying anything.

[Hitch]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

They really need to put some sort of time window on MLB free agency.  After a while these drawn-out dramas become very tiresome.  

100% agree. 

I don't see it happening, but boy does the sport need it.

 

[Hitch]

34 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Boras doesn't let his guys even communicate with former teammates when they are FA. I'm sure Bregman isn't allowed to saying anything.

Nobody is allowed to say anything I believe I'm right in saying - can't influence the market or some nonsense. While they all leak like a sieve.  

[Old Red]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

One person's idea of what a competitive offer is does not always mean it's close to what others offered.

You mean what the Red Sox offered Alonso wasn’t competitive? Shocking!🤫

[moonslav59]

40 minutes ago, Old Red said:

You mean what the Red Sox offered Alonso wasn’t competitive? Shocking!🤫

All part of the "sham."

[JoeBrady]

9 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

One person's idea of what a competitive offer is does not always mean it's close to what others offered.

Many teams, including the RS, will make a good offer that they know will fall short.  Not saying this is the case, but these articles are fairly meaningless.

[JoeBrady]

9 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Boras doesn't let his guys even communicate with former teammates when they are FA. I'm sure Bregman isn't allowed to saying anything.

I'm sure the teams do the same thing.  No serious executive is going to say anything to the press unless it's a diversion.

[moonslav59]

15 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Many teams, including the RS, will make a good offer that they know will fall short.  Not saying this is the case, but these articles are fairly meaningless.

Yup, for sure.

[Hitch]

8 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

Many teams, including the RS, will make a good offer that they know will fall short.  Not saying this is the case, but these articles are fairly meaningless.

Never make your final offer first, as they say. 

Also, if we've made an offer, the player and agent will then shop that offer to everyone else to see if they will beat it. 

Sometimes our fans act like it's just our decision who comes here. Short of blowing people out of the water (something we absolutely shouldn't be doing), there's a process involved.

[Old Red]

15 minutes ago, Hitch said:

Never make your final offer first, as they say. 

Also, if we've made an offer, the player and agent will then shop that offer to everyone else to see if they will beat it. 

Sometimes our fans act like it's just our decision who comes here. Short of blowing people out of the water (something we absolutely shouldn't be doing), there's a process involved.

You mean a process like having a zoom meeting with Alonso, and then having a in person  meeting, and then only offering him 3 year?🤭

[Hitch]

1 hour ago, Old Red said:

You mean a process like having a zoom meeting with Alonso, and then having a in person  meeting, and then only offering him 3 year?🤭

What's your problem with this? Seems obvious to me, they checked in with him like most teams did and then made him an offer they were comfortable going to. Which is to say they weren't overly sold on him. Fine by me.

[jad]

19 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

They really need to put some sort of time window on MLB free agency.  After a while these drawn-out dramas become very tiresome.  

How about going with the amateur/NCAA model?  Then there would be no salary or movement restrictions at all.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Hitch said:

Never make your final offer first, as they say. 

Also, if we've made an offer, the player and agent will then shop that offer to everyone else to see if they will beat it. 

Sometimes our fans act like it's just our decision who comes here. Short of blowing people out of the water (something we absolutely shouldn't be doing), there's a process involved.

Some context on the Lester events: Pedey had signed what almost everybody felt was a team discount deal. Lester had stated he was willing to take a hometown discount. While I agree that first offer was borderline offensive, the real issue was there was no timely follow-up offer I heard about. Their final off, IMO, was just meant to placate the fans. I think they knew he'd say no. 

That doesn't mean the offer was not close to being fair, but the whole process was not going to make Lester feel like he was wanted.

[moonslav59]

14 minutes ago, Hitch said:

What's your problem with this? Seems obvious to me, they checked in with him like most teams did and then made him an offer they were comfortable going to. Which is to say they weren't overly sold on him. Fine by me.

Even if they were 99.9% sure he'd never take a 3 year deal, it can't hurt to check-in.

The whole "made a competitive offer" is highly subjective. Most of us would not call an offer we feel has no chance of being accepted "competitive," but that term keeps popping up. Perhaps it is media generated and sometimes not the official team statement, but it sure feels like they view their offers as being competitive.

[moonslav59]

12 minutes ago, jad said:

How about going with the amateur/NCAA model?  Then there would be no salary or movement restrictions at all.

I'm not sure what problem we are trying to solve?

[Hitch]

11 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Some context on the Lester events: Pedey had signed what almost everybody felt was a team discount deal. Lester had stated he was willing to take a hometown discount. While I agree that first offer was borderline offensive, the real issue was there was no timely follow-up offer I heard about. Their final off, IMO, was just meant to placate the fans. I think they knew he'd say no. 

That doesn't mean the offer was not close to being fair, but the whole process was not going to make Lester feel like he was wanted.

We were discussing Bregman. Nothing to do with Lester.

With Lester they just flat out screwed it up.

[Hitch]

6 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Even if they were 99.9% sure he'd never take a 3 year deal, it can't hurt to check-in.

The whole "made a competitive offer" is highly subjective. Most of us would not call an offer we feel has no chance of being accepted "competitive," but that term keeps popping up. Perhaps it is media generated and sometimes not the official team statement, but it sure feels like they view their offers as being competitive.

I think they would have been fairly happy if he'd accepted that 3 year deal. It's not too risky and worth seeing if he wanted to take it. But they clearly did not feel they should go further. 

Which again, fine by me.

[moonslav59]

10 minutes ago, Hitch said:

We were discussing Bregman. Nothing to do with Lester.

With Lester they just flat out screwed it up.

I'm not allowed to talk about other related topics?

[mvp 78]

The Section 10 guys discussed that the idea that an aggressive offer was made was most likely leaked from Sam Kennedy. This makes sense as (a) the details aren't known, (b) Sam isn't a guy that is in Breslow's inner circle to know the details and (c) it's in Sam's best interest to make it look like the Sox are actually trying really hard to get Bregman so that he can point to previous reports if Bregman signs elsewhere. 

[moonslav59]

9 minutes ago, Hitch said:

I think they would have been fairly happy if he'd accepted that 3 year deal. It's not too risky and worth seeing if he wanted to take it. But they clearly did not feel they should go further. 

Which again, fine by me.

I agree that that was their position on a maximum offer.

I don't think it was "competitive," but I think they viewed it as such.

At some point, to get real good talent, you have to bite the bullet and overpay. More importantly, you have to correctly identify who that guy should be. When we signed Price, I could think of no surer bet that he seemed to be. They go burned.

The Story and Yoshida signings were not "the guys" in anybody's view, failed as well. I can see why JH & Co. are gun shy. I get it, and maybe they just haven't seen the right guy come along. they seemed to be willing to go super large and long on Soto, but again fell significantly short of paying what it took to get him. As far as I know, we haven't come close to a similar FA offer, and I can't help but think, they money was "there" for Soto, so where did it go?

(Or was that offer just for show?)

 

[Hitch]

5 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I'm not allowed to talk about other related topics?

Just felt like a weird segue. We were talking about Bregman and then all of a sudden you're replying to me as if we're having a conversation about Lester.

[Hitch]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The Section 10 guys discussed that the idea that an aggressive offer was made was most likely leaked from Sam Kennedy. This makes sense as (a) the details aren't known, (b) Sam isn't a guy that is in Breslow's inner circle to know the details and (c) it's in Sam's best interest to make it look like the Sox are actually trying really hard to get Bregman so that he can point to previous reports if Bregman signs elsewhere. 

They hate Kennedy. They blame a lot on him. And might be right. 

Did they believe it was real, though? The offer?

[Old Red]

56 minutes ago, Hitch said:

What's your problem with this? Seems obvious to me, they checked in with him like most teams did and then made him an offer they were comfortable going to. Which is to say they weren't overly sold on him. Fine by me.

If you just wanted to waste everyone’s time it’s fine, but Alonso was not going to take only 3 years.

[Hitch]

8 minutes ago, Old Red said:

If you just wanted to waste everyone’s time it’s fine, but Alonso was not going to take only 3 years.

Almost certainly not. But what did they waste in trying?

[mvp 78]

28 minutes ago, Hitch said:

They hate Kennedy. They blame a lot on him. And might be right. 

Did they believe it was real, though? The offer?

I don't know if they hate him. They had him on as a guest and I believe Jared is friendly with him. They like that he's a Boston guy.