Around the time he turned 13, Alex Bregman began obsessing over his process. Baseball seemed simple to the boy who turned an unassisted triple play during his first T-ball game, but natural aptitude alone wouldn’t take him where he wanted to go. Love of the game isn’t enough to be great and Bregman accepts nothing less.
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A motivational speaker named Eric Thomas once asked, “How bad do you want it?” Bregman only believed he knew. His ascension from prep catcher to one of amateur baseball’s best prospects contained one constant: listening to Thomas’ speech while watching an accompanying YouTube video “literally every day.”
“When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful,” Thomas said.
Bound to his process, Bregman became the brash, baseball-addicted answer to the Houston Astros’ hope. He is a fixture of this franchise’s greatest era, a constant in an otherwise chaotic eight years, and he epitomized a culture that’s kept the club afloat.
That 22-year-old kid who broke into the big leagues is now nearing 30 — a father and husband, a burgeoning businessman with a more cerebral public persona. Bregman ponders answers instead of providing bulletin board material and is the closest thing Houston has to a clubhouse spokesman. Supreme confidence still exists, even if Bregman doesn’t display it like he once did.
“It has been cool to watch him grow up and mature,” hitting coach Troy Snitker said. “He’s still the kid to us. Still the kid. But we’ve definitely seen him grow up and change.”
Bregman is guaranteed one more season in Houston. Each of the past seven have featured a trip to the American League Championship Series. Imagining an Astros team without him is impossible. Still, this franchise finds a way to make it feel feasible — Carlos Correa is a Minnesota Twin and George Springer is a Toronto Blue Jay.
Two years ago, Correa narrated his ill-fated negotiations with the Astros in public. Jose Altuve didn’t allow the saga to advance that far, signing a long-term deal in February after months of maintaining he never wanted to play anywhere else.
Bregman will take neither tactic. Houston’s expected extension offer still hasn’t arrived and, with Scott Boras as his agent, testing free agency feels like a formality. Bregman is heading into his platform year at peace: with his preparation this winter, the club around him and whatever comes next.
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“I just really enjoyed this offseason — the training, the hitting. I enjoyed it so much that I’m as obsessed as I was when I was 13 years old working toward getting to the big leagues,” Bregman said. “There’s still something inside me that’s just burning — wanting to improve, wanting to get better.
“I felt like I got re-super-obsessed with everything.”
Bregman speaks like someone entering a contract year should, but scoffed at any notion that it spurred this rejuvenation. Asked if it did, Bregman replied: “I’ve always put everything I had into the game — everything I have, every ounce of energy into the game every single year.”
It’s difficult to disagree. This is the same player who took so much batting practice at LSU — at any hour of the night — that the school installed a card-reading system that gave him 24-hour access to their facility. His longtime personal hitting coach, Jason Columbus, is still a fixture on the field during pregame batting practice. Few players in Houston’s clubhouse are more meticulous about their adjustments or possess the same ability to work themselves out of a funk.
“When he goes in on something, he goes all in,” Snitker said. “There’s no putting half a foot in. Everything we see here: If he’s going to play, he’s going to go all in and do everything he can. That’s kind of how he is. If he’s interested in something and he wants to do it, he’s going to do it 100 percent.”
Since Bregman debuted in 2016, only José Ramírez and Nolan Arenado have been worth more wins above replacement at third base, according to FanGraphs. Bregman’s power and durability have fluctuated, but plate discipline, premier defense and work ethic are endless, enduring an eight-year evolution that extends far beyond the field.
“I’ve learned a lot from the people around me about how to go about things,” Bregman said. “I’ve grown up a whole heck of a lot since I first got into the big leagues at 21. I’m proud of that, but I also know it’s not something that’s (finished). You continually try to get better. You never get satisfied. You strive to be a better human being, person, baseball player.”
As he turned himself into a superstar, Bregman made sure the world knew it, be it by staring into a dugout camera or sauntering down the first-base line after a World Series home run with his bat still in hand.
Bregman spoke with braggadocio and brought swag so few in the sport showed. He annoyed opponents but became adored in his adopted hometown. The Kid from Albuquerque, N.M., became one of baseball’s best third basemen, guiding the Astros into a golden era he’s still trying to extend.
“It’s being secure and knowing what kind of person and player you are and how strongly you feel about what you’re capable of and what you can accomplish,” said Omar López, one of Bregman’s first professional managers and Houston’s current bench coach.
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“There’s a lot of players that talk like that, but they’re not there in terms of security. They’re trying to create something that’s not real yet, but with Bregman it was true. It was real.”
Bregman does not speak unless he can back it up, which makes his winter reinvigoration so fascinating. He relocated to Arizona and trained at EXOS alongside Matt Chapman, a fellow Boras client who — as it turns out — can join Bregman on the third-base market this winter.
At Snitker’s behest, Bregman worked with weighted bats in hopes of improving his exit velocities, bat speed, and, perhaps, generating more power. In the four seasons since his 41-homer campaign in 2019, Bregman has hit just 66 home runs and slugged .442 — nearly 50 points below his career average.
Other new ideas and training methods in Arizona opened Bregman’s eyes. That he could discuss them with other players only fueled his passion. The entire experience invigorated an enterprising third baseman who wants to replicate it.
Bregman already has a line of barbecue sauces and salsas, owns a thoroughbred racing company, a charitable organization called Bregman Cares and a content creation channel on YouTube. Astros senior vice president of marketing and communications called him “the most entrepreneurial out of all our players,” a moniker not even Bregman himself could have envisioned eight years ago.
“I just love competing, love working to accomplish things and I think the business side of things is fun to kind of take the same mentality into it,” Bregman said.
Nemesis on social media is the next venture for one of baseball’s most avid entrepreneurs, a man trying to spread his obsessive nature to other parts of his life. The plan is to create a community of people who can study Bregman’s daily routines and communicate with experts in baseball or strength and conditioning.
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Opponents in spring training took notice of the new venture, asking Bregman about videos he posted or explanations of his swing adjustments. Consultants and coaches in both baseball and strength and conditioning are contributing to its growth. As of now, Nemesis is all virtual and based on social media.
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“Down the road,” Bregman said, “(we want to) create a place where people can go and get better at the game of baseball, learn about the game of baseball, learn from the best strength and conditioning coaches, the best hitting coaches, players that are on the field. Create an interactive environment that can help people grow and get better in the game of baseball.”
Bregman described his nirvana. His boastfulness and other business ventures can sometimes belie what he truly is: a baseball player passionate about nothing more than the work it takes to be the best. Somewhere inside him is the spirit of that 13-year-old boy who discovered how difficult the road here is.
“It’s kind of come back full circle now,” Bregman said. “It’s kind of like ‘Hey, I’m in love with that — that process — and I’m at peace.”
(Illustration by Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos of Alex Bregman: Carmen Mandato, Logan Riely / Getty Images)
