Houston Astros Need To Move On From Pursuit of Fan Favorite Free Agent

It's time for the Houston Astros to let it go when it comes to their star free agent.

Jul 27, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman (2) throws his helmet after hitting a walk-off home run during the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Minute Maid Park. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Throughout the offseason, the Houston Astros have found themselves at the center of the most dramatic free agency process we've seen in a long time.

Entering the winter, a reunion between star third baseman Alex Bregman and the Astros seemed to be the most likely outcome, but it was never going to be easy. When Bregman turned down a six-year, $156 million offer from Houston early on however, the prospect of bringing him back was seemingly going to be borderline outright unrealistic and potentially not possible.

The Astros seemed to affirm that reality when they went out and traded arguably their best player in Kyle Tucker and in return received not only a third baseman of the present in Isaac Paredes, but potentially one of the future as well in now top prospect Cam Smith.

In the wake of the trade and further signing first baseman Christian Walker to a lucrative deal, Houston seemingly turned the page on signing Bregman.

A month later, reports emerged the Astros were 're-engaged' in talks with the fan favorite and Jose Altuve was willing to move to the outfield in order to make it happen. This week, news broke that Houston had come up from their initial big offer that was turned down.

It's understandable why both the team and fans want to bring him back, but the simple and hard to swallow truth is that it's time for the two sides to go their separate ways.

Paredes has the potential to be a perfect replacement in terms of left field power, not to mention the fact he's nearly a half decade younger. Moving him around from his natural position solely because of a desire to keep their aging and potentially declining franchise cornerstone is not just unwise from a baseball perspective, it's foolish from a business perspective as well.

The reality of the business side of really any sport is that you don't pay a player for what they have done, you pay them for what they will do. And while Bregman has been critical to the unprecedented run of Astros success throughout his nine-year career, his numbers have begun to dip and he's only getting older.

Paying him the kind of six or seven-year deal would probably be worth it for the first couple of years, but has the potential to be an absolute disaster by the time you get to years four, five, six, and even seven.

Houston would and will be better off simply moving on, building around the roster they have currently assembled, and undergoing a re-tooling of the roster in order to get back to contention.

A Bregman megadeal would handicap the team financially both now and down the line, and bad contracts are absolute roster killers.

The Astros can love Bregman and be appreciative of everything he's done for the team and the city - as they should be - but also feel it's in the best interest of the future of the team to move in another direction.

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