No one in the Greater Boston Area is happy about losing Alex Bregman. The ostensible long-term replacement for Rafael Devers (and also the man who started the whole Devers saga in the first place), Bregman played 114 games for the Red Sox and made $40 million, then went on his merry way in free agency and got the Chicago Cubs to sign him a $175 million check.
None of this is to blame Bregman — who will make $215 million over a six-year span — for leaving. The Red Sox weren't willing to include a no-trade clause in their offer to him, which, after the Devers and Mookie Betts debacles, was a fair ask from a superstar player. The Cubs were willing, and so Bregman took their money and their no-trade clause and ran.
It's a painful ending to a horrendously managed saga, but stuff like this happens in sports. There's no need to continue dwelling on it when replacement options like Eugenio Suárez and Isaac Paredes are still out there.
Apparently, Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy didn't get that memo.
Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy champions ridiculous signing deadline idea after losing Alex Bregman
As The Athletic's Jen McCaffrey lays out, Kennedy wholeheartedly supports the idea of a dedicated signing period for free agents, which MLB Commissioner has vouched for ahead of the next round of CBA negotiations in December (2026). Such an idea would "increase fan interest" in the sport, according to Kennedy, though it would also significantly hurt players who look to play out the market to maximize their contract earnings.
As the lone team this offseason yet to sign a major-league free agent (and thus, spend a single guaranteed dollar in free agency), it's a pretty bad look for the Red Sox to be pounding the table for a system that would hurt players' earning potential in free agency.
It's true that they've technically added salary to the books by way of adding Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Johan Oviedo in trades, but the former two players come from St. Louis with a lot of money attached, and none of that triumvirate is under contract beyond 2027. Plus, they also shed more than a quarter of a billion dollars when they dumped Devers on the San Francisco Giants back in June.
Much like a salary cap, it's highly unlikely that the player's union will be willing to accept a signing deadline under any circumstance. They may have to play ball with the owners to avoid (or limit the length of) a lockout, but there are some ideas that are so anti-player that it's difficult to imagine them getting passed or ratified.
After getting burned by Bregman in January, though, the Red Sox's ruling class sounds ready to try and make it happen anyway.