The Boston Red Sox entered this offseason with the clear priority of re-signing third baseman Alex Bregman, but they now must adjust elsewhere after the three-time All-Star accepted a more lucrative offer – with a no-trade clause — from the Chicago Cubs on Saturday.
Bregman took a five-year, $175 million offer from the Cubs that includes a full no-trade clause and no opt-outs, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan. That’s just a little more than the Red Sox were willing to go, as their offer topped out at $165 million, with major deferrals, sources told ESPN’s Buster Olney, and didn’t include a no-trade clause, according to multiple reports.
«Any time you are active in trying to bring a player in, it’s disappointing to lose out,» Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told MassLive.com in an email interview on Sunday. «We do this job because we are competitive and we want to deliver a championship to our fans, and falling short in a pursuit is an obstacle to that.»
New York Yankees in the American League Wild Card Series.
«I am not going to gloss over the impact that Alex had on our season,» Breslow told MassLive. «He is a great player with a strong leadership presence in our clubhouse. But this job requires balancing long and short term interests and making the best decisions for the organization, difficult as they be.
«It means losing out on good players sometimes. However, while we will enter the ’26 season with different personnel, there will be no less resolve to compete for the division and make a deep post season run. I believe in the group we have while we keep working to find ways to add to it. Our goal is to deliver to our fans, the season that they deserve.»
