His passion, discipline, and leadership can never be replaced
Although it is not official, we all know that Alex Bregman is an Astro no more.
How unfortunate.
Alex Bregman is irreplaceable. In a hundred years, when they remake the movie Field of Dreams, Alex Bregman will be one of the returning legendary ghosts from baseball’s past who represent everything good and great about baseball.
He may not make the Hall of Fame, although it is possible. But his career 135 wRC+ ranks 10th all-time (since 1900) among third basemen with over 4000 PAs, ahead of such past and present greats as George Brett, Wade Boggs, Josh Donaldson, Ron Santo, Rafael Devers, Jim Ray Hart, Kris Bryant, Justin Turner, Scot Rolen, Tony Perez, Brooks Robinson, etc. His 19 postseason home runs and 54 RBI rank first all-time among three-baggers.
But his greatness goes above and beyond his performance on the field. Bregman is irreplaceable because his work ethic and professionalism are perhaps unsurpassed in baseball history. Here are a few examples of his fanatical desire to achieve baseball perfection.
- As a four-year-old T-baller, he already had the baseball IQ to complete an unassisted triple play
- As a child, he wore out the brick wall he practiced throwing on.
- As a teenager at the Albuquerque Baseball Academy, he practiced so much that his instructors would force him to go home. He would go home for twenty minutes and return, saying, “I went home.”
- After college night games, he would practice taking grounders in the empty LSU stadium.
- During college, groundskeepers got so tired of opening the batting cage for Alex after midnight that they gave him his own keyed entry system.
As Bregman himself said, “Baseball is the only thing I think about all day long since I was five years old.”
Since Bregman’s first full season with the Astros in 2017, his team has won two World Championships, four American League Pennants, and made seven trips to the ALCS. I’m not suggesting that Bregman did that all by himself, but I will submit that his Cobb-like will to win is the cornerstone of a team culture that has kept his team competitive year after year when most other champions have fallen almost as quickly as they rose.
No one else can do that.
Time will tell, but who among Astros fandom doesn’t harbor foreboding that the departure of Alex Bregman signals the end of the Championship Era of Astros baseball?
Below are the Top Ten video highlights of the greatest third baseman in Astros history and one of her foremost legends.
10. The five-foot, walk-off single
It was one of the most bizarre plays in baseball history. In the larger scheme of things, it merely decided an otherwise meaningless game. (Although for Bregs there are no meaningless games). But it gives us a meaningful window into the baseball character of Alex Bregman. Most players would have quit on this seemingly easy out. But Bregman’s hustle turned it into another game in the W column.
It reminds me of George Brett’s famous quote. (I paraphrase) “In my last at-bat, I’d like to be remembered for running out an easy-out grounder to second.” That’s what this was more or less, except by refusing to let this be an easy out, Bregman opened up the gates of “luck” and won the game.
9. Breggy’s first and last walk-off home runs
June 26, 2018, Alex Bregman had three extra-base hits before his solo homer in the bottom of the ninth broke a 6-6 tie with the Blue Jays. Closer Ryan Tepera threw Breggie three straight high heaters. Big mistake. With his old-timey, level swing, high heat is Bregman’s sweet spot.
On July 26th, 2024, the surging Astros, who opened the season 7-19, had taken over possession of first place in the AL West but were facing the eventual World Champions, the LA Dodgers. The Astros had overtaken a 5-0 deficit, and with the score tied 6-6 at Minute Maid Park, Bregman completed the comeback with this walk-off homer.
8. 2017 postseason home runs
After a notoriously slow start in his brief 2016 big-league debut and a slow start in 2017 (causing some fans to call for his trade and Bregman’s notorious Twitter reply telling those doubters to “eat the fleas on my nut!&*#),” in the second half of this glorious season Bregman showed why he was a second-overall draft pick in 2014. He hit four homers in the playoffs against the finest pitchers of the era, Chris Sale, Clayton Kershaw, and Kenley Jansen.
In the decisive Game 4 of the ALDS Bregman tied the score with his shot off Sale.
So much for Boston’s “momentum.”
This one tied Game 1 of the World Series against Clayton Kershaw, showing the rest of the team for future reference that Kershaw was gettable, duly noted in Game 5 by Yuli Gurriel.
7. 2018 NLDS homers against the Cleveland Indians’ TOR.
In his first playoff appearance since tearing up the Dodgers in 2017, Bregman enhanced his reputation as a killer of pitching greats by homering off two of 2018’s MLB best, Corey Kluber and the infamous Trevor (Tyler) Bauer. (Tyler was Bregman’s spiteful nickname for one of baseball history’s most unlikeable characters)
Bregman crushed it the whole three-game series with a 2.048 OPS and a 3.82% cWPA.
Below is Breggy’s homer off “Tyler” in Game 2.
6. 2019 Season
The 2019 Astros were arguably one of history’s most intimidating yet balanced baseball teams. They missed their second WS trophy in two years thanks to a lucky, just barely, late-inning homer in Game Seven by a clearly inferior Wild Card entry. In that 106-victory season, the star that shone the brightest that year, more brilliantly than superstars like Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, or Michael Brantley, was Alex Bregman.
Bregman was robbed of MVP, finishing second to Mike Trout. Sure Trout is a greater player overall, when healthy, but Trout’s award in 2019 was more a lifetime achievement award than a 2019 MVP award. Bregman beat Trout in fWAR, 8.3 to 7.9. Trout may have had a slight advantage in hitting averages, a 177 wRC+ to Bregman’s 167, also barely beating out Bregman in home runs, 45 -41, but Bregs outscored Trout, 112-104 in RBI and runs scored, 122-110.
What’s most important is Bregman’s role in leading one of the best teams in history to another World Series. But another fact is too often overlooked: his versatility in switching positions mid-season to replace the injured Carlos Correa at the all-important shortstop position. WAR stats don’t count that but it’s definitely “valuable” and it’s what winners and baseball fanatics do; whatever is needed to help the team win. If you say that Trout and Bregman were otherwise tied for MVP, this versatility and team spirit was more than a tie-breaker.
Here are the highlights from Breggy’s amazing 2019 season including many defensive gems from shortstop.
5. 2019 World Series Grand Slam
The super-slugging 2019 Astros went into the World Series in a relative hitting slump. Despite home-field advantage, they quickly found themselves down to the Nationals 2-0 and facing elimination in Washington. Hopes revived slightly with the Astros’ win in Game 3, but the Astros would still need to win three of the remaining four games to emerge champions.
Game 4 was crucial. Although the Astros jumped out to a 4-1 lead, Breggie iced it with a decisive grand slam, tying the series. The Astros went on to win Game 5 but lost the last two games in Minute Maid.
What could have been?
Bregman’s slam was only the sixth in World Series history. As of 2024, that number is eight.
4. 2022 Post-Season
Although on paper a team not nearly as strong as the 2019 version of the Astros, the 2022 iteration went all the way. Rookie Jeremy Pena deserves a lot of credit, winning ALCS and World Series MVP with timely dingers, largely overshadowing Bregman’s ample contributions.
In the three series, Bregman hit OPS .975, .975, and .908 against the Mariners, Yankees, and Phillies respectively. In thirteen games Bregman had fifteen hits, six walks, 11 RBI, and three homers.
His work in the ALDS against Seattle was particularly decisive. It’s easy to consider the Astros’ path to a trophy as inevitable in hindsight, as they lost only two playoff games en route to the championship. But in the ALDS the Stros scored only four more runs than the Mariners, a team with a ferocious pitching staff built for a short series.
A loss in Game 1 looked unavoidable and could have tipped the entire series. The Astros went into the bottom of the eighth inning down 7-3, seemingly without hope. But Breggy’s two-run bomb that inning put the Astros within long-range striking distance going into the ninth, when Yordan Alvarez would win it with a dramatic two-out, walk-off homer.
Bregman’s late-inning RBI single in Game 2 iced the game at 4-2.
His third-inning home run in Game 1 of the ALCS against the Yankees set the tone for the series, giving the Astros a 3-0 lead that they would never relinquish. His RBI single in the decisive Game 4 provided the winning run in a 6-5 victory.
The 2022 World Series started out shades of 2019, with the Astros losing Game 1 at home. Bregman’s three-run homer in Game 2 got the Astros back on track. In Game 4, the Astros down in the series 2-1, Breggy’s two-run double was the most decisive play in the eventual Astros 5-0 win. Bregman’s series cWPA of 9.35% was third on the team behind Pena and just behind Alvarez.
3. 2017 ALCS assist at home
The only thing more dramatic than a Game 7 WS is a Game 7 ALCS. The aggressive play pictured below in the Game 7 ALCS shouts Bregman “arrogance.” This high-risk, low-probability maneuver could have decided the game in favor of either team and required absolutely perfect execution to maintain the Astros’ one-run lead and keep the Yankees off the board. It may have decided both the American League and thus the World Championships.
2. 2017 World Series Game 5 walk-off hit
I believe this dink single to short left field is the most important hit in the entire history of the Astros. Sure, critical home runs in Game 2 won that one in extra innings, and five homers in Game 5 put this one into extra innings in what I still believe is the most exciting game in World Series history. But Bregman’s just enough, super-clutch walk-off single decided not only Game 5, 13-12, but ultimately, the 2017 World Series, Houston’s first championship.
- Bregman celebrates his first playoff victory
More than his play on the field, Bregman’s leadership, his passion, his relentless will to achieve championships, and perfection in his own baseball skills, made every one of his physical accomplishments possible. This passion was the driving spirit in the Astros’ Championship Era which is why Alex Bregman is irreplaceable.
This clip shows the volcano of passion that powered his entire career. In the image below: remember Bregman was celebrating his teammates’ success and team’s victory.
Goodbye, Alex. You’ll remain always a beloved Astro in our hearts.