HOUSTON — One of the biggest questions during the offseason is the status of free agent third baseman Alex Bregman. Will he be back in an Astros uniform or won’t he?
The process of trying to keep him here has started. On Monday, general manager Dana Brown announced the team made a qualifying offer to Bregman.
The offer comes a day after Bregman, 30, was honored with the first Golden Glove Award of his career. He was also named a Silver Slugger Award finalist after hitting .260 with 30 doubles, 26 home runs and 75 RBI in 145 games.
Monday at 4 p.m. was the deadline for teams to extend qualifying offers to players The deadline for a player to either accept or reject it is Nov. 19 at 3 p.m. Central.
Bregman has been in the Majors for nine seasons, all with the Astros. He’s played in 1,111 regular season games in his career and 99 in the postseason, which ranks second in team history.
Bregman is the only player the Astros extended the qualifying offer to this season, meaning Justin Verlander, Yusei Kikuchi, Hector Neris, Omar Narvaez, Jason Heyward, Kendall Graveman, Ben Gamel and Caleb Ferguson are all now free to sign with another club.
What is a qualifying offer?
A qualifying offer is a one-year deal worth the mean salary of Major League Baseball's 125 highest-paid players. A player can either accept or reject it. During this time, that player can also negotiate with other teams. If the payer accepts the offer, he is signed for the next year at the predetermined rate. If the player rejects it, they can further explore the free agent market and the team that player left gets compensatory draft picks.
Players are eligible for qualifying offers only if they've ever in their career received a qualifying offer and that player spent the entire season with the team making the offer.
You can read more about qualifying offers on the MLB.com website.
