Alex Bregman Watch Continues With Questions Around Red Sox

Will Alex Bregman ink a new deal in the near future?

Bregman remains among the top overall free agents still looking for a new home. Bregman — like Kyle Tucker, Bo Bichette, and more — is out there for the taking, and the Boston Red Sox should do everything possible to get a deal over the finish line before another team can make him an offer he can't refuse.

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Beyond Boston, the Toronto Blue Jays, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Chicago Cubs have been linked to him. Things have been slow around the league recently but FanSided’s Robert Murray gave a look at the updated market on Monday.

The Red Sox slugger is still available

"The Red Sox make a ton of sense for Bregman," Murray wrote. "They know exactly what and who he is. An underrated aspect of this is the burden that Bregman can take off the young players, specifically Roman Anthony, to not have to be the savior of the franchise right away. Boston was mindful of that when calling Anthony up, and they should be especially mindful of it going into his first full season. Still, the Red Sox need to be more aggressive in the bidding for Bregman than they were for, say, Kyle Schwarber. They were never close on Schwarber, and if they want to avoid a repeat with Bregman, they need to pony up."

It's intriguing -- and a red flag -- to hear insiders around the league discuss Boston's other pursuits, like Schwarber and Pete Alonso. In both cases, the team clearly showed interest and didn't shy away from the fact. And yet Tim Healey of the Boston Globe reported that Boston's offer to Alonso was for "fewer years and significantly less money" than the $155 million over five years that the Baltimore Orioles gave him.

Now, Murray says Boston was "never close" on Schwarber, who got $150 million over five years from the Philadelphia Phillies. So, have the Red Sox actually been interested in these guys and have just misjudged the market, or could this be some sort of negotiation ploy where Boston is connected to the top guys to help in other negotiations?

Regardless, the team should get moving and stop the games. Murray called the Diamondbacks the "long shot" for Bregman, the Cubs the "sleeping giant," and the Blue Jays the "dark horse." All three of these teams pose threats to Boston.

It would be awesome to save a few million dollars, but is a bit of savings worth a drawn-out negotiation process and risk of losing Bregman?

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