Astros: Alex Bregman stands up for team, drops agent

Houston Astros star Alex Bregman has left his agency due to its ties to LeBron James.

If there was any doubt that the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal wasn’t going away anytime soon, that doubt has been removed. Alex Bregman has fired agent Brodie Scoffield and is seeking new representation, and it seems the final straw had to do with LeBron James, of all people.

Scoffield, who negotiated Bregman’s contract extension that kicks in this year, was previously with Tidal Sports Group. Tidal was acquired by Klutch Sports Group in April, which is notable because Klutch was founded by James’ agent.

Bregman’s decision to break it off with Scoffield had something to do with the fact that James’ media company, Uninterrupted, is co-producing a new docuseries with a working title of “Sign Language,” which will attempt to delve into the Astros sign stealing scandal and its fallout.

The series supposedly will “transcend the baseball diamond to explore larger themes of greed, cheating, corruption, sportsmanship, and social media activism.” One would hope the series will discuss the Astros and sign stealing as a whole in a fair manner, though I rather doubt it, and it seems like Bregman agrees.

Another Hatchet Job

Sadly we as Astros fans have come to expect our team to receive unfair treatment from the rest of the sports community. Despite the fact that the Yankees and Red Sox were both caught using technology to steal signs, the Astros have taken the brunt of the criticism and backlash. The Red Sox were even caught twice and yet received a disproportionately small punishment.

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James sounded off on the issue back in February and was positively irate about it. He’s also known to be a Yankees fan, so it’s pretty clear where his feelings are going to be. His position is that the Astros cheated the Yankees and Dodgers out of a title, and with his company producing the series, it’s safe to say the series will probably take that same view. I’d be highly surprised if the Yankees’ transgressions are even mentioned.

To be fair, the Astros seemingly took it farther than other teams with their use of the trash can banging. But when Carlos Beltran, who played for the Yankees the previous three years, comes in and tells you you’re “behind the times” with regard to sign stealing, you have to wonder from where he got his information.

In the end, the Astros were just the ones who got caught in great detail, largely thanks to disgruntled snitch Mike Fiers. Teams have been finding ways to steal signs for years, long before anything nefarious was taking place at Minute Maid Park. These guys weren’t the first ones to break the rules and they certainly won’t be the last.

Bregman Takes a Stand

This new docuseries was evidently the final straw for Bregman with his agent. It seems like there were some other underlying issues at play here as well, but this one broke the camel’s back. He didn’t want to be affiliated with an agency whose prime client is having this series produced, and I don’t blame him one bit.

The sad truth of the matter is the players are going to have to get used to this sort of thing. Plenty of people are more than happy to throw the Astros under the bus and make them seem like the villains who cheated 29 perfectly angelic teams out of a fair shake in 2017. Anyone with half a brain knows that isn’t true, but truth matters very little to people who don’t want to hear it.

Kudos to Bregman for not putting up with it. It won’t stop the haters, of course, but nothing will. Trolls will continue to be trolls. The Astros players simply have to drown out the noise and push forward, and Bregman’s refusal to support an agency that’s pushing additional noise is commendable.