Tigers, AJ Hinch lose top free agent target Alex Bregman to former staffer

The Tigers' interest in Alex Bregman was, from the beginning, a miraculous change of pace for the front office. Detroit hadn't signed or even showed interest in a major free agent since they signed Javy Báez, and no one had ever thought to include them in those kinds of conversations anyway. No one ever thought the Tigers, seemingly stuck in an endless rebuild and allergic to spending money, would touch the top-tier guys.

But the Tigers proved in 2024 that they were capable of exceeding expectations, and suddenly they were being mentioned as potential fits for players of that caliber — Pete Alonso, Christian Walker, Bregman, etc.

Bregman's free agency lingered more than anyone expected it to, but the Tigers stayed steadfast the entire time. It was never clear how many years and how much money they were offering, and there was plenty of reason to believe that the Tigers' usual penny-pinching was keeping everything from getting across the finish line, but that — infuriatingly — might not be the case.

On Wednesday night, Bregman agreed to a three-year, $120 million deal with the Red Sox, to join former Astros bench coach (under current Tigers manager AJ Hinch) Alex Cora instead of his old skipper. The Tigers were indeed in the top three, and they offered him six years and over $170 million.

Alex Bregman spurns Tigers for Red Sox after exhausting, drawn-out free agency

Blame seemed to shift from the Tigers' front office — to be fair, a very easy target — to Bregman when Jim Bowden suggested that the Tigers did have the biggest offer on the table by the end of January, but that Bregman might just not want to play in Detroit.

That might be exactly what happened. The Tigers offered a significantly lower AAV than the Red Sox, but Detroit also offered the closest thing to the seven-year, $200 million contract that he seemed to be making such a fuss over throughout the offseason. Maybe Bowden's suggestion was correct and that Bregman was hoping to play elsewhere.

This is a blow to Tigers fans, especially when news of Detroit's offer to him came so quickly after the terms of the Red Sox deal were announced. No doubt it'll turn into anger, if it hasn't already, and the Tigers deserve a lot better than a guy who would only half-heartedly put on the uniform just so he could cash out.