Red Sox make Alex Bregman signing official; press conference announced this weekend
The Red Sox have officially announced the three-year, $120 million deal with free agent infielder Alex Bregman on Saturday. Boston will formally introduce Bregman on Sunday morning at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers at 8:30 am.
Bregman arrived at Red Sox camp on Friday, meeting his new teammates, Craig Breslow, and reuniting with Alex Cora. The former Astros great played for Cora in Houston when he was the bench coach back in 2017.
All offseason, Cora gushed over Bregman and compared him to Dustin Pedroia.
“We went through a lot for a while there. We have a good relationship,” Cora said earlier this week. It’s a kid that you guys will see—and you’ve seen it before—he’s very similar to Dustin (Pedroia) in terms of the baseball rat that he is."
Bregman’s new deal with Boston will give him an annual $40 million AAV, but for CBT purposes, his deal will be worth $31.7 million in each season with the Red Sox. He will see a “significant” amount of his salary deferred. As of now, Boston’s payroll is projected to be around $248 million, which is roughly $7 million over the first luxury tax threshold, which is set at $241 million, per Chris Cotillo and Chris Smith of MassLive.
According to The Boston Globe, Bregman received a $5 million signing bonus.
Bregman’s new deal is now the largest free agent contract handed out by the Red Sox in terms of AAV. David Price’s seven-year, $217 million deal in 2016 paid him an AAV of $31 million.
The Dodgers have made deferrals popular in recent years after they deferred a massive portion of Shohei Ohtani’s deal. Ohtani is making just $2 million in each of the 10 years of the deal but will receive $68 million in each year from 2034 to 2043. For luxury tax purposes, MLB calculated the value of Ohtani’s Dodgers contract to be worth $460.8 million—or roughly $46 million per year.
Bregman will take batting practice on the backfields at JetBlue Park on Saturday at 10:30 am.
Glad to see it! This make the WHOLE organization better. It also lets current & future players know, "This is the place you want to be. We pay what you're worth when you perform here. We love it here. We play with passion, love each other, & love the game." Great stuff💪🏼