10 a.m. ET: The Boston Purple Sox kicked off spring coaching with a bang Wednesday evening, reportedly agreeing to a three-year, $120 million contract with star infielder Alex Bregman.
Bregman, who spent the primary 9 years of his MLB profession with the Houston Astros, will infuse some right-handed oomph into Boston’s lineup. Plus, the two-time All-Star has a championship pedigree, having received two World Sequence titles in Houston. So, he’ll be a welcomed addition to the Purple Sox clubhouse.
First, some programming notes…
NESN could have wall-to-wall protection of the Bregman information, which breathes much more life into the Purple Sox’s effort to achieve the postseason for the primary time since 2021.
Be sure you observe NESN on Fb, X (previously referred to as Twitter) and Instagram. And why not subscribe to NESN’s YouTube channel when you’re at it?
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NESN’s “310 to Left” podcast, that includes Tom Caron and Lou Merloni, will air on NESN all through the day, starting with a reside episode at 10 a.m. ET.
NESN additionally will air a brand new episode of “Purple Sox from Fort Myers” at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Tune in (proper right here!) and examine again with NESN.com for steady protection. There’s palpable buzz down at Purple Sox spring coaching in Fort Myers, Fla., and we’ll have all the most recent Bregman information and updates from JetBlue Park — and past.
10:30 a.m.: Now, let’s get right down to the nuts and bolts…
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Bregman’s take care of Boston reportedly contains two opt-opts (after the 2025 and 2026 seasons). He reportedly selected the Purple Sox over the Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs and his former staff, all of whom provided contracts longer than three years.
What did the Tigers supply Bregman?
What did the Cubs supply Bregman?
The place will Bregman play in Boston?
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What’s going to the Purple Sox lineup appear to be with Bregman?
What’s going to the Purple Sox roster appear to be with Bregman?
Snack on all that for now. We’ll be again shortly.
11:45 a.m.: OK, hopefully, you’ve had sufficient time to digest every thing.
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The ramifications of Bregman’s take care of Boston (clearly) are huge. The Purple Sox already regarded like potential contenders after a productive offseason that noticed them purchase Garrett Crochet and signal Walker Buehler to bolster their rotation. Now, their lineup is stacked, with Bregman giving supervisor Alex Cora a ton of flexibility.
The stat geeks are taking discover, too, with the Purple Sox’s postseason provides shifting — fairly dramatically — in wake of the Bregman information.
FanDuel Sportsbook had the Purple Sox at +2500 to win the World Sequence and +1000 to win the American League as of Thursday morning.
The New York Yankees (+100) and Baltimore Orioles (+250) remained forward of the Purple Sox (+440) within the AL East futures market, however one may argue Boston is effectively positioned to contend for a divisional crown in 2025.
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Put merely: Expectations have modified for the Purple Sox.
Protected to say, the Purple Sox have a variety of momentum after going 81-81 in 2024.
12:15 p.m.: You realize that palpable buzz we talked about?
Yeah, it’s infiltrated the Purple Sox clubhouse down at Fenway South.
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Walker Buehler, who co-owns a racehorse with Bregman, spoke about his new teammate’s spectacular résumé Thursday morning in Fort Myers.
And Crochet (Boston’s new ace) believes signing Bregman sends a transparent message.
Cora is scheduled to deal with the media at 12:45 p.m. Speak quickly.
2:30 p.m.: Alex Cora spoke with reporters exterior JetBlue Park.
Clearly, he was requested about Bregman. However the Purple Sox supervisor wouldn’t touch upon Bregman, particularly, because the deal was not but official as of Thursday afternoon.
“Clearly, I can not get into specifics,” Cora stated. “However the entrance workplace is working laborious, like I stated just a few days in the past, and the offseason will not be over. So, they’ll maintain working laborious, and we’ll see what the longer term brings.”
Watch Cora’s full media availability under.
Cora, after all, is acquainted with Bregman from their time collectively in Houston, the place the previous was the bench coach for the Astros’ 2017 championship season.
“As an individual, that’s a child that I actually respect, I actually like,” Cora stated. “We went by means of rather a lot for some time there. We’ve got a very good relationship. … You guys have talked to him, and he’s similar to Dustin (Pedroia) so far as the baseball ‘rat’ that he’s.”
3:05 p.m.: Abraham Toro, a non-roster invitee at Purple Sox spring coaching, got here up by means of the Astros system after being drafted by Houston in 2016.
As such, NESN’s Tom Caron requested Toro about Bregman on Thursday.
“To start with, he’s only a nice chief and I don’t assume anyone likes baseball like that man,” Toro informed TC within the Purple Sox clubhouse at JetBlue Park. “He’s all the time enthusiastic about baseball and all the time speaking about hitting, and he’s a very good man to have round.”
Toro appeared in 93 video games with the Astros between 2019 and 2021.
3:25 p.m.: Let’s take a step again for a second.
The Dodgers did Dodgers issues. And the Mets signed Juan Soto. However the Purple Sox additionally appear to be clear MLB offseason winners after touchdown Bregman.
ESPN, for one, thinks very extremely of the “needle-moving” deal.
Boston was linked to Bregman in rumors for many of the offseason, however Wednesday’s information nonetheless got here as a “shock” to Lou Merloni, largely as a result of it appeared just like the Purple Sox may shift their focus towards a commerce for St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado.
Talking of Arenado, right here’s a fast replace on the place issues stand with him after the Bregman-Purple Sox information:
May the Tigers and/or Cubs pivot towards Arenado after dropping out on Bregman?
