Perhaps he was thanking fans for supporting the team throughout the season and in their home playoff series.
Or perhaps this is his way of saying goodbye.
Impending free agent Alex Bregman’s future is uncertain after the Astros were eliminated from the 2024 MLB playoffs on Wednesday, losing to the Tigers, 2-0, in the best-of-three wild-card series in Houston.
And the 30-year-old third baseman, part of the team’s 2017 and 2022 World Series-winning rosters, posted a simple message on his X account that could signal he’s bracing for a move elsewhere.
“Thank you Houston,” Bregman wrote Wednesday night.
There should be a solid market for Bregman despite the fact he’s coming off of a relatively down season by his standards, and the Astros have a tendency to not re-sign some of their big stars.
But Jose Altuve, an exception to the rule who just finished the first year of a five-year, $125 million contract, wants the organization to do whatever it takes to keep Bregman.
“We’re not going to be the same organization without him,” Altuve told reporters after the Astros were eliminated. “In my mind, there’s not a chance this is the last one.”
Bregman finished the 2024 season with a career-low .768 OPS while hitting .260 with 26 home runs and 75 RBIs.
Before the All-Star break, Bregman hit 12 home runs with 47 RBIs, a .256 average and .730 OPS in 92 games. In 53 games after the break, he hit 14 home runs with 28 RBIs, a .266 average and an .833 OPS.
“I haven’t really had a chance to process this,” Bregman said. “I was planning on being here [Thursday for Game 3.]”
He hasn’t shown the MVP potential in recent years that he did in 2018 and ’19, when he earned his two All-Star nods and combined for 72 home runs and 215 RBIs, but there is still thunder in his bat, having hit 74 home runs and 96 doubles with 266 RBIs over the last three seasons.
Bregman went 3-for-8 in the two games against the Tigers, and in 99 playoff games he’s hit .238 with a .789 OPS, 19 home runs and 54 RBIs.
Astros GM Dana Brown told ESPN he thinks “it’ll work out,” between the team and Bregman.