Astros GM: Team not trading 'pillar' 3B Alex Bregman

Houston Astros general manager Dana Brown wants to quash the rumors that third baseman Alex Bregman is available in a trade.

"I think most teams understand that we're not moving Bregman," Brown told reporters Monday at the winter meetings in Nashville, Tennessee. "I don't know where this whole Bregman rush is coming from, but it's certainly not coming from us because we need Bregman. He's a pillar for this club."

Bregman, 29, is due to make $28.5 million in the 2024 season, the final year of a five-year, $100 million extension he signed in 2019.

Brown said the Astros aren't looking to trade Bregman with free agency looming after the season but conceded the team hasn't yet launched contract negotiations with him. They haven't talked with outfielder Kyle Tucker and second baseman Jose Altuve, who can enter free agency after the 2025 season, either, he said.

After 49 games with the Astros in 2016, Bregman became Houston's full-time third baseman in 2017 and has known nothing but team success since. The Astros have appeared in the American League Championship Series in all seven of those seasons, winning it four times.

A two-time All-Star, Bregman has won two World Series in Houston.

He has a career batting average of .274 average with 165 home runs and 588 RBIs in 966 regular-season games.

In 97 postseason games, he has a .235 average with 19 homers and 54 runs driven in. He's also walked 53 times against 64 strikeouts.