Alex Bregman's ripple effect in Boston

Only one hitter in major-league history with at least 95 career plate appearances at Fenway Park owns a better on-base percentage there than Alex Bregman.

That player: Ted Williams.

There's no better ballpark fit for Bregman's combination of skills, which include elite contact rates and a pull-heavy batted-ball profile but weak underlying power (his bat speed ranked in the 41st percentile last season).

Boston may be even more welcoming than the Crawford Boxes were to Bregman during his nine years in Houston. His swing and approach were made to pepper the 37-foot Green Monster - he owns a career .375/.490/.750 triple slash at Fenway.

Bregman was the last star-level free agent to sign when he agreed to a three-year, $120-million deal with the Red Sox on Wednesday. It includes opt-outs after each season. It also features "significant" deferrals, according to ESPN's Buster Olney, which reduces its luxury tax and real dollar value.

The deal's implications are far reaching.

In addition to Fenway being a great fit, Bregman slots ideally into Boston's lineup, which needed more right-handed balance.

Signing Bregman, who turns 31 at the start of the regular season, also adds a player with plenty of playoff experience to a young, emerging lineup, and keeps him away from other AL contenders like Detroit and Houston, which offered him more years and dollars, which reduced the average annual value.

Bregman could slot in at second base, where initial reports pegged him, or he could play third base, where he's excellent, pushing franchise cornerstone Rafael Devers to DH.

Bregman makes Boston's ascending young lineup deeper, stronger, and more versatile. This could cap a productive offseason for the Red Sox, who look very much like a playoff contender and a threat to capture the AL East.

The Red Sox may have landed their new Chris Sale in Garrett Crochet - another lefty ace acquired from the White Sox via trade - and added Walker Buehler to their rotation, too. They also added Aroldis Chapman to the late-inning mix, although the bullpen could benefit from one more arm.

Of course, Bregman isn't without flaws and there are reasons he lingered on the market into February.

He's always exhibited elite swing-decision skills, but Bregman's walk rate collapsed in 2024 (12.7% in 2023 vs. 6.9% last year).

Pitchers challenged Bregman in the zone more often, throwing 53.6% of their pitches within the strike zone to him last year compared to 49.9% in 2023. The increase was the eighth largest in the sport. He posted a .315 on-base percentage mark last year, his worst since his debut season and well off his career .366 mark. His on-base percentage collapse could be permanent if he continues to chase more often.

For whatever reason, pitchers were less afraid of Bregman doing damage on their in-the-zone pitches even though his average and max exit velocities were stable. He still pulled the ball in the air as much as ever, producing the fifth-most pulled fly balls in the majors (226).

Perhaps pitchers see some weakness against velocity since Bregman's expected wOBA against fastballs fell to a career-worst .336 mark, 21 points below his rookie season.

Bregman also had his most frequent out-of-zone swing rate since his rookie year, and his year-over-year chase-rate increase of 4.3 percentage points was the ninth biggest in MLB.

Despite those hitting declines, he was still a 4.1 fWAR player last year, his sixth season above that mark. He won his first Gold Glove at third base and also ranked as an above-average third baseman with six defensive runs saved (tied for fifth in the majors with Nolan Arenado and José Ramírez).

Although Devers is a weak defensive third baseman (minus-9 DRS last season), initial reports say he'll remain there while Bregman will move to second, where he's only played 32 career innings and none since 2018.

At second base, Bregman blocks a pathway to playing time for consensus top-five overall prospect Kristian Campbell, who some evaluators believe is talented enough to break camp with the club.

Several projections at FanGraphs forecast Campbell, 23, to be on par with Bregman offensively this season.

If the Red Sox don't want to move Devers off third base, despite young players like Campbell, Vaughn Grissom, or David Hamilton ready to contribute at second base, one could argue they'd have been better off using these free-agent dollars elsewhere.

On the other hand, the Red Sox can now more easily trade from their position-player depth, and can allow a prospect like Campbell extra minor-league seasoning. It's also not often you get a chance to add baseball's 18th-best position player by fWAR since 2022 in free agency in February.

Depth chart concerns typically find a way of working themselves out, and creating a super-utility role for, say, Ceddanne Rafaela could be beneficial in freeing up an outfield role for Campbell or fellow super prospect Roman Anthony. Boston can also trade from surplus to improve weaknesses elsewhere.

Bregman's signing simply makes the Red Sox a better team, and it signals they're ready to return to relevance.

Travis Sawchik is theScore's senior baseball writer.