The Houston Astros season came to a close this week after a 2-0 sweep in the best-of-three Wild Card round against the Detroit Tigers. It was the earliest an Astros season has ended since they missed the playoffs in 2016 and brings to an end a run of seven consecutive ALCS appearances.

As the team gets set to turn the focus to the offseason and making improvements to the roster in order to go after another deep run in 2025, one massive question looms over the decisions the team will have to make this winter. 2x All-Star and franchise cornerstone 3rd baseman Alex Bregman will be a free agent, and general manager Dana Brown faces his first organization-altering decision since taking over the job prior to the 2023 season.

Brown was naturally asked about the status of Bregman as the season came to a close, and he kept things pretty close to the vest in terms of the likelihood that the fan-favorite will return to Houston.

“That weighs heavily,” Brown said of Bregman’s impact on the offseason for the team via MLB.com. “But ultimately, we will have some discussions with [Bregman’s agent Scott] Boras and also Bregman. We’ve had some small talk. But ultimately, we’ll have some discussions. We know what he means to this organization.”

This was the final season of the 5-year, $100 million deal that Bregman signed in 2019 which looked like more of a bargain every year that players across the league were signing huge money deals.

Traditionally, the Astros have not hesitated in recent years to let their big name free agents go to other teams. From Gerrit Cole to George Springer to Carlos Correa, the team has been extremely reluctant to hand out big money deals to their own free agents. Granted, Cole and Correa both signed deals that were likely larger than Bregman is going to command on the open market.

Cole of course signed the largest contract in MLB history for a pitcher when he put pen to paper on a 9-year, $324 million deal with the New York Yankees, while Correa was offered and turned down a 5-year $160 million deal from Houston and ended up in Minnesota. The Bregman contract would likely be in a similar range to what the team was willing to pay Correa, so it would not be a massive shock to see him return.

Through nine years with the team, Bregman is a career .272 hitter with an OPS of .849, 191 home runs, 663 RBIs, and over 1,100 career games played. Arriving to the big leagues in 2016, Bregman has been with the team through one of the most successful runs that the league has seen in a long time. With Bregman at third, the Astros have won seven of the last eight AL West titles, played in four World Series, and won two championships.

Seeing him in another uniform would be a tough pill for Astros fans to swallow, but sometimes that’s the reality on the business side of sports. Nonetheless, if the number is right, surely both sides would love to keep Bregman in Houston for the remainder of his career.