Red Sox Fan Favorite Gets Updated $170M Contract Projection

Is this dollar amount bad news for Boston?

Mar 7, 2015; Sarasota, FL, USA; A general view of Boston Red Sox hat and glove laying in the dugout at a spring training baseball game at Ed Smith Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-Imagn Images | Kim Klement-Imagn Images

Boston Red Sox fans are understandably starting to get nervous about Alex Bregman's free agency.

After not being in the ballpark of the offers Kyle Schwarber and Pete Alonso signed for last week, the Red Sox have raised doubts about their willingness to offer Bregman a true megadeal. If another team out there is willing to offer him upwards of $150 million, there's cause for concern.

Last offseason, Bregman took a three-year, $120 million from the Red Sox that included deferred money and opt-outs. What's it going to take this time around?

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Bregman's market value rising?

On Tuesday, ESPN's Kiley McDaniel released updated contract projections for several big-name free agents still on the board, and he upped his market value for Bregman to five years, $170 million, which would be the largest free-agent deal for a Red Sox player since David Price in 2016.

"The seven-year, $175 million deal Marcus Semien signed entering his age-31 season is a good starting point when looking for comps," wrote McDaniel. "Bregman might not get the same length that Semien received, but Bregman's annual salary should easily beat the $25 million per year Semien is getting."

Bregman, of course, is entering his age-32 season, and he's coming off a second-half slump that may have been spurred on in part by his quad injury, which he returned from after seven weeks despite likely needing closer to 12 to fully heal.

Paying Bregman through his age-36 season seems like a reasonable proposition to many, especially when factoring in how much he meant to the Red Sox's clubhouse this year. His defense is still superb and likely will be for a few more years, so if anything, injury concerns and diminishing athleticism are the detractors working against him.

But the real rub is whether Craig Breslow and the front office are willing to commit. If McDaniel believes $170 million is still out there for Bregman at this point in the offseason, it's far from a guarantee that Boston is the team to hand that out.

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