Picture the Houston Astros without Alex Bregman. Force yourself. I know it’s hard. We’d have no stare-after-homer dugout stare. Bregman’s Youtube channel would celebrate and appreciate the fans of another team.

In short, Astros fans wouldn’t have the unbridled excitement and stellar offense from the self-confident third baseman they’ve come to love. Worse, the Astros would have had to hope JD Davis could come through with the 10th-inning, game-winning hit in Game 5 of the 2017 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

A Tale of Two GMs

According to an August 4 report by Anthony Fenech in the Detroit Free Press, the Astros offered Bregman to the Detroit Tigers in 2017 for the 2016 AL Rookie of the Year, right-handed pitcher Michael Fulmer, currently sitting out 2019 after Tommy John surgery. Added to the deal-that-wasn’t was Justin Wilson. Fulmer was the Tigers’ All-Star rep just a couple of weeks before the trade deadline.

“In what looms as the biggest mistake of their [Detroit’s] rebuilding process,” Frenech asserts, “the team rebuffed an offer for Fulmer involving two young players who are now among the best in baseball: According to multiple persons with knowledge of the talks, the [Chicago] Cubs offered shortstop Javier Baez as part of a three-player package, and the Astros offered third baseman Alex Bregman for Fulmer and lefty reliever Justin Wilson.”

Whether or not the lack of consummating this deal actually constitutes “the biggest mistake” of the Tigers’ rebuilding process is on their doorstep.

But, their rebuilding process also necessitated the Tigers’ need to “dump” the contract and services of one Justin Verlander, another player without whom the 2017 ALCS, much less the World Series, couldn’t have been won.

The Bregman deal, presumably, was brought up and nixed at the traditional July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, while the Verlander swap was engineered, famously, in the final seconds of the then-extant August 31, 2017 waiver deadline, now discontinued.

This, from my TRS article dated September 1, 2017: “After the Cubs reportedly didn’t want to meet Detroit’s demands for prospects in return, any deal with the Astros seemed to collapse under its own weight. Having failed to land the 34-year-old Verlander (or any starting arm, for that matter) at the non-waiver July 31 trade deadline, it looked like another deadline fail for Houston GM Jeff Luhnow. Apparently, it’s not so much that Verlander nixed the initial deal to Houston, he just was waiting as long as possible in case the Cubs could come through.

“With literally seconds to spare before the midnight deadline, Thursday, Detroit GM Al Avila talked Verlander into the Astros deal, cajoling him to relent, as no other team had wanted to step up with a big enough wheelbarrow for his annual salary. With the Cubs cooling due to the high price tag [and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ interest waning], Houston was all that was left. Avila mentioned that the Tigers were in the midst of a rebuild, as well, and that seemed to be the last straw.”

So, credit Luhnow for two historic gets in that fateful summer of ’17: acquiring Verlander, of course, and keeping Bregman. Having the foresight Avila seemed to lack in keeping a yet-to-break-out third baseman takes as much chutzpah as targeting a coveted player and bringing him in.

Frenech: “Last season [2018], Baez, 26, finished second in NL Most Valuable Player Award voting. Bregman, 25, finished fifth in AL MVP voting. Both are considered franchise players.

“Passing on those deals was defensible: Both players had yet to break out, and trading Fulmer — a pitcher who appeared to be a future ace, no matter his injury concerns — would have taken serious gumption, opening Avila up to strong criticism.”

The Land of What Might Have Been

To refresh your memory, Bregman was Houston’s first-round pick, and second overall (one reason he wears uni #2… the other, his fandom of Derek Jeter) in the 2015 draft out of LSU. Bregs was passed over by all 30 teams after his senior year of high school in the 2012 draft, the same year Houston chose Carlos Correa first overall.

Days after being drafted, Bregman showed up at Minute Maid Park to sign his $5.9 million contract and reunited with Correa for some workout tips. The two had met three years before, as teenagers, at a high school showcase leading up to the 2012 draft. Neither dared dream, then, they’d be sharing the same side of the infield on an eventual World Championship team.

Bregman’s Talent Clears 3B Logjam

In January of 2015, the Astros obtained the late Luis Valbuena to man the hot corner. At the same time, Correa was establishing himself as the shortstop of the future in 2015, his first full season.

Bregman, meanwhile, was dutifully trundling through the Astros’ farm system, two levels in each of his two years, not missing an organizational step. But, forcing Houston’s quick hand in promoting him was a .300 minor league career average, .891 OPS, 35 doubles, and 24 homers in 146 games.

Elbowing their way up Houston’s third base depth charts in 2015 and 2016 were 2014 draft pick JD Davis (traded to the New York Mets in January for three prospects) and Miami Marlins’ 2013 1st round pick Colin Moran (obtained with Jake Marisnick in a 2014 trade), mercifully dealt to the Pittsburgh Pirates in January 2018 in the Gerrit Cole trade.

Both players, with Bregman increasing his looming presence over the hot corner in July 2016, were elated to finally have a crack at a full-time shot at regular playing time… elsewhere.

Also in tow was veteran third baseman Matt Duffy, signed by Houston in 2011. He had knocked around Houston’s minor league system for five uneventful years before finally being released nine days before Bregman’s 2016 MLB debut.

With another successful trade deadline now in the rear-view mirror, where the Astros picked up Arizona Diamondbacks’ ace Zack Greinke, as well as Toronto Blue Jays pitchers Aaron Sanchez and Joe Biagini, it’s time to give props to general manager Jeff Luhnow, if you haven’t already.

GMs throughout baseball are now deflecting verbal brickbats from fans and media for wildly underperforming at the deadline (looking at you, New York Yankees), so the difficulty and rarity of scoring big at the trading table is under intense scrutiny.

As Bregman, himself, muttered, with a wink and unbridled pride and giddiness, just minutes after the Astros landed Greinke, and to no one in particular, “Luhnow.”

Jeff Luhnow, for whom he’s been able to wrench from other teams, and perhaps especially for whom he’s refused to relinquish, will be happily excused for picking any nearby camera and staring right into it.

For his Alex Bregman home run alone, he’s earned it.