FORT MYERS, Fla. — Alex Bregman possesses right-handed clout, solid defensive skills and veteran clubhouse leadership. It’s no surprise, then, that Red Sox manager Alex Cora is thrilled that Bregman will be joining the club for 2025, and possibly ’26 and ’27.
Cora did some dancing around the topic when speaking with the media Thursday afternoon, given that Bregman’s three-year, $120 million deal (with opt-outs) hadn’t been finalized yet, but he felt sufficiently comfortable to talk about him “as a person, as a kid that I really respect.” The manager then hauled out the heavy artillery when he said, “… he’s very similar to Dustin (Pedroia), as far as like the baseball brat that he is.”
But this is so much more than a big-time player acquisition that signals the Red Sox are building a team designed to play into deep October. It’s also an example — and a big one — that baseball has moved on from the cheating scandal that would tarnish the 2017 Houston Astros’ World Series championship. Cora was the bench coach of that team, and his participation in the trash-barrel-bangin’, signal-stealing hi-jinx would later cause him to be suspended from his job as manager of the Red Sox for a season. Bregman was a key player on that 2017 team — which, by the way, knocked out the Red Sox in a four-game Division Series matchup. Bregman and other Astros players were never punished other than in the court of public opinion. Now he’ll be playing for the Red Sox.
GO DEEPER
Red Sox, Alex Bregman agree to three-year, $120 million deal: Source
I asked Cora about this during Thursday’s media session. He could easily have brushed it off as something that happened a long, long time ago. He could have provided a Bill Belichick-like we’re-on-to-Cincinnati response. He could have pointed out that he was suspended for a year, that former Astros manager A.J. Hinch was suspended for a year, and then extended an invitation to go pound sand.
Instead, as he has done whenever the topic comes up, Cora accepted responsibility for what happened in 2017. And then he went way, way beyond that by using this media session to point out that former Houston Astro Carlos Beltrán continues to be punished for what happened in 2017.
Some background: Beltrán was a member of the 2017 World Series champion Astros but then retired after the season. Two years later, he was hired by the New York Mets to be their manager. And then all hell broke loose. The sign-stealing scandal unfolded, and Beltrán and the Mets parted ways before Beltrán even managed a spring training squad game.
Here we are in 2025. Beltrán not only hasn’t landed a big-league managing job, but he also hasn’t been elected to the Hall of Fame, even though many people (myself included) believe he belongs there.
With this background in place, let’s return to Cora.
“With all those guys, we went through a lot, we’re still going through a lot,” Cora said. “We made a mistake in ’17, and some of us paid the price, right? And we’re back in baseball. We got a second chance. A.J. got a second chance. I did, too. You know, Carlos is getting penalized because he did that. He should be a Hall of Famer already. He should be managing, too.
“It is a group that we accept what we did and we move on,” Cora said. “And some of those guys are having great careers.”
LIVE: AC with the media. https://t.co/K58PzDDCVa
— Red Sox (@RedSox) February 13, 2025
For those who’d prefer the discussion be limited to what Alex Bregman brings to the 2025 Red Sox, The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey has more on that here. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal also has weighed in. As for what current Red Sox players are saying, here’s outfielder Jarren Duran: “I’m excited. He’s a great player, and I know he’s a winner. And I love to have that kind of mentality on the team.”
Want to hear from a back-in-the-day Red Sox star? Here’s 1975 Rookie of the Year and MVP Fred Lynn on X: “Alex reminds me of my teammate Rico Petrocelli. Same stance and short compact swing that should work well in Fenway. Looking forward to the season.”
So there. We have you covered.
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But as big as this story is from a Red Sox perspective — and make no mistake, it’s huge — there’s a beyond-the-Green Monster subplot that was put on full display Thursday afternoon.
Yes, most of baseball — fans and players, media and management — has made its peace with what the Astros did in 2017. Cora is back managing the Red Sox, having signed a contact extension last season. Hinch is beginning his fifth season as manager of the Detroit Tigers. And Bregman has agreed to a deal with the Red Sox that will earn him $120 million over the next three years assuming he doesn’t opt out. And if he does opt out after 2025 or ’26, it’ll be because he found an even better deal somewhere else.
And then there’s Beltrán, currently working in the Mets front office but not managing. He should be. And he remains unelected to the Hall of Fame, though he missed by just 19 votes in the most recent BBWAA election.
With their deal in place with Bregman, the Red Sox are back. That’s what Cora’s media availability on Thursday was all about. But good on Cora for also making it about Carlos Beltrán, a subject he could easily have avoided.
(Photo: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)
