There is a new favorite to sign Alex Bregman

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The favorite to land Alex Bregman in free agency is a team that other former Astros have gone already this offseason.

Transcript

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.

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