WEST PALM BEACH, Fla — A new era started in silence, save for the slapping of hands and some tired ballplayers bolting to breakfast. Unopened boxes towered over troves of empty lockers inside a cluttered clubhouse still preparing for most position players to report.
Signs of one who won’t remain littered throughout the Houston Astros’ spring training facility. Enter the sprawling complex, climb 13 steps and on the right sits a picture of Alex Bregman leading his three other infielders into delirium after downing the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series.
Six inches away, there’s Bregman beside himself as Jose Altuve crosses home plate to clinch the 2019 American League pennant. Take two more steps, glance up and Bregman is pictured four feet off the ground, midair to celebrate the first World Series championship ever clinched in the state of Texas.
“He’s kind of the young guy that helped kick off everything,” Brice Matthews said. “Him and Altuve, they embodied everything Houston has. Hard workers, they don’t quit and they just want to be the best. He’s just so consistent and that’s how he’s always been. Just a role model to a lot of kids that look up to.”
Matthews is one of them. His parents are New Orleanians who took their son to a slew of LSU football games as a boy. As he matured, Matthews became more enamored with the school’s baseball team that Bregman buoyed. LSU became Matthews’ “dream school” as a result.
Matthews never realized that ambition, but still found influence from the infielder who spurred it. So did many inside Houston’s sparsely populated spring training clubhouse.
The club won’t hold its first full-squad workout for another five days, which tempered much of Wednesday morning’s reaction to Bregman’s agreement with the Boston Red Sox. So did a set of semantics that couldn’t even be set aside for a franchise icon. General manager Dana Brown said he would be happy for Bregman’s deal in Boston “if it’s true.”
“He had a great run here,” Brown said. “That’s all, pretty much I can say.”
Brown and manager Joe Espada avoided addressing Bregman’s departure outright because Boston has not officially announced the transaction. “I’ve heard about it,” Brown said of the three-year, $120 million contract he and his boss could not match.
Brown declined to say much about his team’s pursuit of Bregman, which the general manager all but stopped in late December after signing first baseman Christian Walker. After Brown said negotiations “stalled,” agent Scott Boras told The Athletic, “Over time, teams learn if you’re running from leadership and talent, you’re running from the ultimate goal.”
“I thought Breggy was our leader last year,” outfielder Chas McCormick said. “We’re just going to need to find another one. We’re still a really good team. Obviously we lost some guys, but we’re still going to be good this year. We know what we got and I think we’re going to be great.”
Re-engaging with Boras last month arrived with tepid enthusiasm from Brown, who labeled most of the team’s discussions as “internal” and called any potential reunion with Bregman a “long shot.”
Fallout has shown why. Houston’s six-year, $156 million offer to Bregman would’ve been the largest contract in franchise history, but still trailed the Detroit Tigers’ proposal in terms of total money and fell far short of the massive average annual value Bregman will earn in Boston.
At best, the Astros had the third-best overture for a face of their franchise. Its other face, Altuve, all but demanded Houston’s front office find a way to retain Bregman. Altuve will be in West Palm Beach “in the next couple of days,” according to Espada.
“I think Altuve is a professional. He understands the business,” Brown said. “Bregman was a free agent. Sometimes these things don’t get done. I think he totally understands it. I think he understands we put forth a pretty good offer and we have to understand that part of it.”
Brown did not answer whether Houston improved or modified its offer late in the sweepstakes. Asked how engaged the club got with Boras or Bregman, Brown again repeated: “We’ve had a lot of internal discussions.” Asked whether Crane engaged with Boras, Brown paused and did not answer the question.
“I know the news is not official yet, but I’m happy for him,” Espada said. “He made his decision, so now it’s time for all of us to move forward and turn the page.”
And so they tried. Espada politely requested to “talk about the guys in camp.” Conversations about second-year catcher Yainer Diaz revealed the team’s desire for Diaz to hone in on “small stuff, like when to do a mound visit” — a tactic Bregman became accustomed to handling from his spot at third base. Before him, Carlos Correa did the same from shortstop.
“Those guys were leaders here and they led and we won because they were exceptional leaders,” Espada said. “Leaders also develop other leaders, so I expect that some of those guys will step up and take over that leadership role.”
An hour later, Hunter Brown began the day’s most well-attended bullpen session. It featured the menacing sinker Bregman urged him to throw last May. On the mound adjacent to Brown, Spencer Arrighetti started his warmup tosses. Last July, Arrighetti said Bregman “thinks it’s kind of his responsibility” to mentor young pitchers or players like him.
“What an endless source of baseball knowledge,” said rookie infielder Shay Whitcomb, whom Bregman counseled after his calamitous four-error game in late September against the Mariners.
After the workout finished, ace left-hander Framber Valdez stood before a small group of reporters. This season, he figures to follow a similar path as Bregman — another homegrown standout who will perform in his platform year before leaving for a place more interested in meeting his high-priced demands.
Framber Valdez says Astros haven’t approached him about an extension
Valdez bounced between questions about the future and his focus on the present with hair extensions draped over his shoulders. The hairstyle is more of Bregman’s handiwork. During one of Valdez’s rough stretches last season, Bregman begged for him to bring back his long hair.
After he did, Bregman asked ballpark officials to play “Wild Thing” before each of Valdez’s home starts.
“He’s going to be missed,” Valdez said through an interpreter. “His time with the team here, he’s always been the leader.”
Who reprises that role is a mystery. Espada has pushed for it to be shortstop Jeremy Peña, who now has Bregman’s locker in the spring training clubhouse, but a manager choosing a leader is no way for a cohesive club to operate.
“That needs to come from the person,” Espada said. “You just don’t pick someone in the room. It comes with time and being comfortable.”
Perhaps the next six weeks in South Florida will start the process. Wednesday only represented the beginning of Houston’s post-Bregman world. Reminders will remain throughout the complex, be it in photographs, on the pitcher’s mound or peppered throughout a clubhouse conditioned for change.
“Obviously (I) wish he was here with us,” McCormick said, “but he’s one of the best teammates ever.”
(Top photo of Alex Bregman celebrating at the Astros’ championship parade following the 2022 World Series: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)
