Red Sox of the Week: Alex Bregman

I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about Alex Bregman joining the Red Sox. For starters, he cheated in 2017, which will forever rub the wrong way. I've pretty much gotten over it as the years have gone on, but my grandmother used to always tell me, "If you do the crime, you have to do the time," and absolutely none of the players involved did the time. Alex Cora did, for example, and I believe he's able to move on from it. But folks like Bregman and Altuve will forever have this black cloud above their heads.*

*I wrote this in 2022: One day I’ll have to get over the Astros cheating scandal. You will too. But I don’t know if that’ll happen until they start to suck again. Pay your dues. Repent. Make the 2011 Astros look like the ’27 Yankees. It’ll happen one day, right?

Then, he comes in and upsets Raffy. Now, a lot of things upset Raffy. I think he's upset when the clubhouse vending machine runs out of Wild Cherry Pepsi. But Raffy is the best player we have on this team, year over year, in addition to being the face of the franchise whether he likes it or not. He's also the $313.5 million man, so he's either a great deal or an expensive mistake, and I know which one I would like to see. I thought, as did others, that Bregman would play second so Raffy could continue to play third. Although I understand the baseball decision to put Bregman at the hot corner considering he's the much better defender, Bregman's an Astro we are renting for a year or two. And offensively, it was a tough, tough week for Raffy.

But I can appreciate that the team has had right-handed bat problem, a veteran problem, a leader problem, and a hitter to protect Raffy problem, and Bregman solves all of those issues with $120 million. He's had a strong first week (.314/.351/.486), and if he can have a strong season, we are on the road to being contenders again.