Alex Bregman’s prolonged mediocrity could cost the Astros and himself dearly

Eric Cole

Houston Astros v Texas Rangers / Ron Jenkins/GettyImages

After coming out of the All-Star break with tons of momentum, the Houston Astros have seemingly lost all of it. Since July 19, the Astros have been relentlessly dedicated to .500 baseball, and the team has been frustratingly inconsistent on both sides of the ball.

Instead of taking advantage of the Mariners and Rangers' struggles to take control of the AL West race, Houston has been on the struggle bus right along with them.

Part of the problem has been that the offense has looked very, very questionable since the start of the second half. While there are a number of players who have underperformed, one that stands out is Alex Bregman.

Bregman came into the 2024 season with something to prove. He is going to be looking for a big contract this coming offseason and had posted back-to-back .800+ OPS seasons entering the year. Unfortunately, his 2024 season not only has hurt his chances of securing the mega-deal he covets, but it has also really been a drag on Houston’s playoff aspirations.

Alex Bregman hasn’t been “bad”, but he isn’t a lineup anchor anymore

Overall, Bregman’s line in 2024 currently sits (as of August 7) at .250/.307/.413 with 15 homers. While certainly not a disaster, his OBP has fallen off a cliff this season and his .720 OPS would be the lowest of his career by a wide margin. Given that so much of his value in recent years has stemmed from his ability to get on base, that is a real problem.

Making matters worse, Bregman has really struggled to start the second half. In his first 73 plate appearances since the All-Star break, he slashed just .217/.260/.406 over that span. Given Bregman’s prominent place in the Astros’ lineup, it isn’t all that shocking that the team has struggled during the same stretch.

The Astros are looking for offensive answers, including the recent call-up of Zach Dezenzo, but the implications of Bregman’s slump could even be more significant for the man himself. There were already questions about his decline in recent years BEFORE he forgot how to hit this season. How many teams do you think are going to line up to give him a heavy nine-figure contract if he is coming off a walk year lowlighted by one of his worst seasons at the plate? Our guess is not many.

For the Astros, Bregman’s departure has felt inevitable for a while now. While the team is going to have to find some more offense somewhere and probably will, relying on Bregman to figure things out probably isn’t going to work out well.

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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.