Nightmare Yankees Scenario for Astros with Star Free Agent Appears Very Realistic

Could the Houston Astros lose their superstar to this American League franchise?

Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

The Houston Astros are getting set for an offseason in which the decisions that the team makes will be extremely telling as to what their goals are for the future of the franchise.

Obviously everyone wants to contend for a championship, and nobody knows that better than Houston after seven consecutive ALCS appearances along with four World Series appearances and two titles over the last decade before the incredible streak came to an end this year in the Wild Card round.

The run of dominance that the Astros have had over the American League seems to be starting to come to an end, but nothing would signify that fact and the beginning of a rebuild more than letting one of their franchise players go.

The impending free agency of third baseman Alex Bregman looms over everything this winter as how the team handles it will encapsulate their approach.

While Bregman's best baseball could be behind him, he is still at the very least an extremely quality player and perhaps more importantly, one of the main leaders in the clubhouse. The Astros would love to bring him back but may not be willing to pay up.

If the unthinkable does become reality and Bregman plays elsewhere, Zach Pressnell of FanSided named the team that would be the worst-case scenario for him to leave for, and it's not all that unrealistic.

"The Yankees cemented themselves as the top team in the American League after they secured the AL Pennant," Pressnell wrote. "Bregman makes sense for them to pursue and New York would provide the money and the winning upside that Bregman is looking for. Seeing a franchise legend leave to head to an AL rival would be the doomsday scenario that would haunt Houston for the next four or five seasons."

Bregman's numbers have been steadily very solid for the last few seasons, falling short of the perennial MVP candidate he was in the late 2010s, but still placing him well among the best in the game at his position. Bringing him back and allowing Bregman to finish his career - or at the very least the productive years left in his career - as an Astro would be a supremely popular move among the fanbase and signify that Houston is still chasing titles.

Letting him go - and go to the Yankees of all teams - would be almost too much for Astros fans to bear and would be a definitive signaling that there's a new sheriff in town in the American League.