The Astros are considering clearing some payroll to bring Bregman back without topping the luxury tax threshold.
Most of the month of January has now passed, and things have gone very quiet in regard to Alex Bregman’s free agent market. While the Detroit Tigers and a few other suitors like the Red Sox and the Cubs are reportedly still engaged, there has been no change to indicate that anyone is moving closer to signing the long-time Houston Astros star. Now, a report from Chandler Rome of the Athletic indicates that the Astros are engaged again in trying to find a way to bring back their third baseman.
The issue for the Astros is the luxury tax threshold. They offered a reported six year, $156 million deal to Bregman early this offseason, and that deal was rejected. That amount was just about all the Astros could offer without paying the penalty for 2025. However, over the past week they’ve been exploring ways to trade ace reliever Ryan Pressly, a move which would save them enough money to bump up their offer to Bregman without topping the threshold in 2025.
The sticking point there is that the 35-year-old Pressly has a full no-trade clause. He’d have to be induced to waive that clause for a trade to take place, and with that leverage, Pressly would expect something in return. Currently, Pressly is owed $14 million in the final year of a three-year extension. It would probably take a team willing to offer him a multi-year extension to convince him to accept a trade. To make that happen the Astros would probably have to let him go for next to nothing, or find some other way to incentivize such a trade for Pressly.
A report from Jon Heyman suggests that Pressly doesn’t want to move to the East or West divisions, but I’d take that with a major grain of salt. Presumably, he has more specific interests in terms of where he would be willing to live and play than just which division he’s in. The Cubs appear interested in the idea, but there may well be other teams inquiring. If such a trade happened, the Astros reportedly would then consider moving Jose Altuve to the outfield, allowing Bregman to stay at third base. Isaac Paredes would then move to second base in this scenario.
The Tigers themselves were reported earlier this week to be looking into several veteran relievers. Evan Petzold of the Free Press reported that the Tigers had interest in a few of that group consisting of Kenley Jansen, Craig Kimbrel, Kyle Finnegan, and David Robertson. However, he also mentioned that the Tigers were most interested in RHP Carlos Estevez, who most recently pitched for the LA Angels. Estevez has a good fastball-slider combination and throws hard, but he’s not exactly an elite strikeout pitcher either, perhaps making him a little less expensive than some of the others.
It would be very Tigers to fail in signing Bregman, and pivot to trading for Pressly themselves. However, the right-hander is a bit past his prime, and it’s difficult to imagine Scott Harris offering a multi-year deal to a reliever on the wrong side of 35 years old. The Astros would have a hard time convincing the Tigers’ otherwise.
It was initially worth considering whether or not this might just be a ploy by Scott Boras to juice Bregman’s free agent market. The inclusion of Pressly into the story lends it more credibility, as there are feelers out there from other teams checking on whether the veteran reliever might consider them an option. However, the idea that the Tigers, Cubs, and Red Sox are all in hot pursuit of Bregman and yet unwilling to go significantly beyond the Astros initial offer to him, does continue to feel a bit more suspect. Still, getting the best offer possible and using it as leverage to push the Astros higher was always a possibility.
For now, the drama continues.