Astros should be laughing after Alex Bregman deal wrecked Red Sox and Rafael Devers

Eric Cole

Championship Series - Boston Red Sox v Houston Astros - Game Six / Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/GettyImages

When the Houston Astros lost Alex Bregman to the Boston Red Sox in free agency, it felt as though the primary motivation was money. Bregman wanted to surpass the average annual value of his previous contract, and Houston refused to budge.

One has to believe, however, that at the very least, Bregman wanted to go to an organization that would be competing for a playoff spot. Little did he know that him signing in Boston would actually be the domino that made the Red Sox worse this season thanks to the blockbuster Rafael Devers trade that saw their DH shipped to the San Francisco Giants.

The structure of Bregman's deal with the Red Sox allows him to opt out after this season, but he probably assumed he'd be on the same team as Devers in 2025. Bregman's arrival, however, caused a schism to open between Devers and the Red Sox front office and Houston just has to be loving the results right now.

Astros should be laughing after Alex Bregman deal wrecked Red Sox and Rafael Devers

While it was painful to see Bregman leave in free agency, most Astros fans wished him well given everything he had done for the franchise during his tenure. However, the same sentiment did not extend to the Red Sox, who stole Bregman away and also represented a potential threat to Houston in the American League.

Fast forward a few month later and the Astros have to be feeling good about how things have turned out. Isaac Paredes has been a great addition, Bregman was playing quite well in Boston this season before he got hurt, and the Red Sox pissed off a franchise icon so much by signing that they had to trade him to the Giants. Absolutely delightful.

While a lot of the benefits for the Astros revolve around karma and mental well-being, there are baseball benefits as well. Houston's path to the postseason seems relatively safe at the moment given that the rest of the AL West apparently has no interest in winning the division.

However, that path is even more safe now that Boston is seemingly bowing out of the 2025 postseason picture altogether. Even if the Astros get overtaken, the AL Wild Card race seems like a safe fallback option.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.