Astros GM Admits Team Hasn't Made Contract Offer to Pending Free Agent Superstar

The Houston Astros aren't in any sort of hurry to negotiate a contract extension with their star third baseman.

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

The Houston Astros are just weeks from wrapping up yet another AL West crown and looking to make a deep playoff run, but it could be the last with pending free agent Alex Bregman playing third base for them.

Bregman, 30, is widely considered to be the premiere infield free agent available this winter in Major League Baseball now that fellow third baseman Matt Chapman has inked a contract extension with the San Francisco Giants.

But knowing that Chapman, who like Bregman is represented by super agent Scott Boras, signed an extension prior to reaching free agency hasn't yet spurned the Astros to make a contract offer to their third baseman; he's playing on the final year of his five year, $100M contract signed prior to the 2020 season.

"Right now, we’re not in any discussions about contract offers," said general manager Dana Brown to Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. "We were in Anaheim the other day and I ran into [agent Scott Boras] and we started talking a little bit, and we both said, ‘Look, once we get towards the end of the season and things are over, we’ll definitely engage and talk about it.’ We had a small conversation about it."

Bregman, a two-time All Star with two top-five MVP finishes, is batting .256 with 23 home runs this season. It's his 5th season of more than 20 homers, although his 67 RBI would be his fewest for a season in which he played more than 135 games. He owns a lifetime .272 average for the Astros, who drafted him 2nd overall in 2015 out of LSU.

In the same interview, Brown acknowledged the "heavy backlash" to the team's trade of three prospects, including third baseman Will Wagner, to the Toronto Blue Jays for starter Yusei Kikuchi. "I figured there would be minimal backlash in giving up young prospects. I guess I didn’t anticipate the heavy backlash, and I felt like the players that we gave up were pretty good prospects."

With Wagner no longer in the organization, if Bregman were to leave in free agency there are not any ready-made replacements to step into third base. Prospect Brice Matthews, a 1st round pick in 2023 out of Nebraska, has been playing third base instead of shortstop since this summer but also has less than ten games of Triple-A experience, being promoted to Sugar Land just last week.