Alex Bregman shoos away free agency concerns at Astros FanFest with point-blank quote

Before the Houston Astros surprised everyone and signed Josh Hader late last week, most of this offseason had been speculation about which members of the Astros' core could be heading out of town soon. Both Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman are free agents after this season, and while it's widely expected Altuve will stick around, Bregman's future has been decidedly less clear.

For a portion of this offseason, it was even floated that Bregman could be on the trade market given how unlikely it appears that Houston will be able to keep him past 2024, although general manager Dana Brown shot that down pretty quickly. All of this serves to underscore the simple fact that Bregman is going to be looking for a big contract and the Astros sure don't look like the team that's going to give it to him.

Recently, the Astros had their Fan Fest where fans could meet players and kick off the 2024 festivities. Bregman was in attendance and the media quickly surrounded him when he was made available.

Aside from asking for his reaction to the Hader signing (he is a fan), he was also asked about his impending free agency, and he just kept saying that he was focused on getting ready for the season.

Alex Bregman clearly doesn't want to talk about his future with the Astros

In the above clip, this was a pretty obvious PR-coached answer to this line of questioning. He said he isn't focused on any extension or thoughts about his free agency and his lone concern is the 2024 season. We've all heard the spiel before: Player in the middle of drama and negotiations over future, player doesn't want to talk about it so he's letting his agent(s) handle it. Saying that he's disengaged from the whole process is done in hopes that media members won't ask him about it anymore.

What is clear, however, is that Bregman's future with the Astros beyond this year looks very suspect. It was already reported earlier this offseason that Houston is expecting to lose Bregman with some thinking that he's going to be looking for upwards of $300 million for his next deal. That's a lot of money for a guy whose production has been declining, and the Astros' payroll is already looking pretty packed especially with Hader's new deal and Altuve's expected extension.

For now, Bregman isn't looking to litigate things in public. He clearly doesn't want to talk about his future and just wants to focus on playing baseball, and the chips can fall where they may after that.

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