Alex Bregman

Alexander David Bregman

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 0", Weight 190 lb.
School Louisiana State University
High School Albuquerque Academy
Debut July 25, 2016

Born March 30, 1994 in Albuquerque, NM USA

Biographical Information[edit]

Infielder Alex Bregman was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the 29th round of the 2012 amateur draft but did not sign, opting to attend LSU instead. He was considered one of the top prospects of the 2015 amateur draft and went second overall to the Houston Astros, with the pick obtained as compensation for failing to sign first overall pick Brady Aiken the previous year. He was one of three shortstops selected with the first three picks, following Dansby Swanson who went first overall, and ahead of Brendan Rodgers. In 2015, he hit .316 with 16 doubles, 6 homers, 47 RBI and 12 stolen bases as a junior. He was one of four finalists for the coveted Golden Spikes Award. On June 25th, he signed with the Astros for a bonus of $5.9 million and was assigned to the Quad Cities River Bandits of the Midwest League. The deal was under slot value, giving the Astros room to sign some of the other top picks they selected during a particularly rich draft for them. He hit .259 in 29 games for Quad Cities, then was promoted to the Lancaster JetHawks of the California League. There, he hit .319 in 37 games to finish his first season with a line of .294/.366/.415 in 66 games.

Alex began 2016 with the Double A Corpus Christi Hooks of the Texas League. In 62 games, he hit .297 with 16 doubles and 14 homers to earn a promotion to Triple A and the Fresno Grizzlies by the end of June. He was named to play for the United States team at the 2016 Futures Game played in San Diego's Petco Park on July 10th. He was one of the stars of the contest as he tripled in the 1st, doubled in the 3rd and singled in the 4th before making outs in his last two at-bats. It was clear that he would not be long in the minors after that and, on July 24th, the Astros announced that he was being called up to the bigs. Bregman made his debut as the Astros' starting third baseman against the New York Yankees on July 25th. Batting 6th, he went 0 for 4 with a pair of strikeouts as Houston was muzzled by Michael Pineda and lost, 2-1. Alex was the first position player form the 2015 draft to make his debut, following pitcher Carson Fulmer (8th overall), by only a week. He began his major league career going 0 for 18 before collecting his first hit on July 31st with a 3rd-inning single off Mike Pelfrey of the Detroit Tigers. The slump continued for a while, eventually reaching 2 for 38, before he found his hitting stroke again. His first big league homer came August 16th, a two-run shot off Jaime Garcia of the St. Louis Cardinals. In 49 games, he hit .264 with 8 homers and 34 RBI. He was named the recipient of the USA Today Minor League Player of the Year Award and also to the 2016 Topps All-Star Rookie Team.

Bregman played his first full major league season in 2017 with 155 games as the Astros' starting third baseman. He hit .284 with 18 homers and 71 RBI, also scoring 88 runs and collecting 39 doubles. The Astros won the World Series for the first time in franchise history, and Bregman was in the middle of things in the postseason, starting all 18 games. While he hit just .208, he had 3 doubles and 4 homers, scored 11 runs and drove in 10. His lead-off homer off Chris Sale in the 8th inning of Game 4 of the Division Series broke a 2-2 tie and Houston never looked back as it beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4, to move to the ALCS. Bregman was the American League Player of the Month in June 2018 as he hit 11 homers and collected 30 RBI with an OPS of 1.085. He was named to the All-Star team for the first time and was the sole representative of the AL in the Home Run Derby, then won the Ted Williams Award as the game's MVP when his 10th-inning homer off Ross Stripling broke a 6-6 tie and sent the junior circuit on its way to an 8-6 win. He made further history that year, becoming the first third baseman to ever record 50 doubles and 30 home runs in the same season. He finished the year at .286 with 31 homers and 103 RBI in 157 games and finished 5th in the MVP vote. In the postseason, he went 5 for 9 with a double and two homers as a one-man wrecking crew as the Astros swept the Cleveland Indians in the Division Series. He cooled down in the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox, going just 2 for 15; the Red Sox consistently pitched around him, as he drew 7 walks in the 5 games, and was hit by pitch twice, so he was still constantly on base.

The Astros rewarded Alex for his excellent season by signing him on March 19, 2019 to a six-year contract extension worth $100 million, taking him through his years of arbitration eligibility. He set a club record for most homers in May with 12. He returned to the All-Star Game then, in August, he was the American League Player of the Month after hitting .404 with 6 homers and 31 RBI. In a truly superb season split between third base (99 games) and shortstop (65 games in the absence of Carlos Correa), Alex crafted a .296/.423/.592 slash line with 41 homers and 112 RBI while leading the American League in walks (119), times on base (292) and bWAR (8.4). He also finished in the Top 5 in home runs, runs scored, RBI, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS. Alex destroyed Tampa Bay Rays pitching in the ALDS before cooling off in the ALCS and the first half of the World Series. He broke out in Game 4 of the Fall Classic with a 3-for-5 night including a grand slam and 5 RBI against the Washington Nationals. The Astros ultimately fell in 7 games. Bregman was rewarded with a Silver Slugger Award (his first) and was named to the second team of the inaugural All-MLB team. Had he played on a planet (or at the very least a league) without Mike Trout, he may very well have taken home the Most Valuable Player Award as well, but he fell 20 points behind the Halos legend in the voting (355 to 335) to earn a second-place finish.

In 2020, he was one of a number of Astros players who saw their numbers fall in the pandemic-shortened season, played after the sign-stealing scandal that tainted their win in the 2017 World Series was made public. The Astros barely snuck into the expanded postseason, and Bregman saw his average fall to .242 in 42 games, with 6 homers and 22 RBIs. His OPS+ was still good at 117, but it represented a major drop from the 162 figure he had put up the previous season. The Astros hit much better as a team during the postseason, although in Bregman's case that only started in the Division Series: in the Wild Card Series against the Minnesota Twins, he was just 1 for 7, but against the Oakland Athletics in the next round, he hit .400 with 5 runs scored, before falling to .143 as the Rays got their revenge over the Astros in the ALCS. His 2021 season was marred by injuries, limiting him to 91 games, and while he improved on his raw numbers from the year before, batting .270 with 12 homers and 55 RBIs, his OPS+ fell again, to 113, as he was never truly healthy. Once again, Houston made a deep run in the postseason, returning to the World Series for the third time of Alex's career. He was outstanding in the Division Series win over the Chicago White Sox, batting .375 with 4 runs and 4 RBIs in as many games, but his bat got progressively colder as the Astros advanced further, and he hit just .095 in their loss to the Atlanta Braves in the Fall Classic.

Bregman was back in good health in 2022 and again playing every day and displaying his best power numbers since his two outstanding seasons in 2018-2019. On August 18th, he was at the center of a 21-5 demolition of the White Sox in which the Astros matched their team record for hits in one game with 25. He went 4 for 6 with 2 doubles, 2 homers, 4 runs and 6 RBIs that day, setting a personal best for RBIs in a game. He was named the American League Player of the Month for August when he hit .362 and slugged .681 with 7 homers, 9 doubles, 22 RBIs and 27 runs scored in 27 games. It was his third time winning the award, and first since his great 2019 season.

Bregman was the celebrity guest picker on ESPN's College GameDay on November 3, 2018, representing LSU at the annual playing of "The Game" between the Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Picking many of the college football games contrary to the picks of panel members Lee Corso, Desmond Howard and Kirk Herbstreit, he finished with a respectable 7-6 record. In October 2023, he drew a Star of David on his Astros hat to show his Jewish solidarity after the largest murder of Jews on a single day since the Holocaust, during a Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

Notable Achievements[edit]

2016 Topps All-Star Rookie Team
2-time AL All-Star (2018 & 2019)
2018 All-Star Game MVP
AL Silver Slugger Award Winner (2019)
AL Doubles Leader (2018)
AL Bases on Balls Leader (2019)
20-Home Run Seasons: 4 (2018, 2019, 2022 & 2023)
30-Home Run Seasons: 2 (2018 & 2019)
40-Home Run Seasons: 1 (2019)
100 RBI Seasons: 2 (2018 & 2019)
100 Runs Scored Seasons: 3 (2018, 2019 & 2023)
Won two World Series with the Houston Astros (2017 & 2022)

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Alex Bregman

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