MLB Notebook: Red Sox’ Alex Bregman tables contract talks with club (report), David Sandlin transitions to the bullpen in an effort to help Boston, Lucas Giolito’s rough night in San Diego

After the Red Sox gave rookie Roman Anthony an eight-year contract extension, the attention turned to Alex Bregman’s status with the club.

The All-Star third baseman signed a three-year, $120 million deal with the Red Sox at the start of spring training, which includes opt-outs after each of the first two years.

With Boston thick in the playoff picture, Bregman wants to focus on making the postseason and will table his contract after the season.

“Obviously, we’re open to talking [when the season is over],” Bregman told The Boston Globe’s Tim Healey before the Red Sox’ 5-4 loss to the Padres on Saturday night. “But for the next few months, I’m just really focused on the baseball.”

The two-time World Series champion wants to keep his attention on what’s going on on the field. Bregman is having a strong season offensively, slashing .301/.382/.537 with 14 homers, 22 doubles, 46 RBI, 29 walks, and a .919 OPS in 72 games. He missed 43 games after suffering a right quad strain that was sustained on May 24.

“I’m just focused on trying to do what I can to help this team win and get into the playoffs,” he said. “I feel like that’s where my head and mind need to be.”

Bregman’s agent, Scott Boras, told reporters in June that Bregman was “always open to any conversation” about a longer-term deal with the Red Sox.

“Just want to do everything I can every day to try to help this team win games and keep my mind focused on that, preparing to play baseball,” Bregman said.

Since his return from the injured list, Bregman has belted three home runs, three doubles, and 11 RBI in 20 games.

“He’s going to keep progressing. He missed a lot of time. A lot of time,” Alex Cora said to the Globe. “The fact that he’s posting every day and putting good at-bats and playing good defense and leading the team, that’s why we got him. He’s doing an amazing job.

“This kid only knows about August and September. He’s impacting the guys in that clubhouse. ‘Stay in the moment, don’t get ahead of yourself, don’t look around. Just stay here.’ He’s amazing. He’s really good at what he does.”

Bregman has extensive postseason experience, playing in 99 playoff games for the Astros. During his career in the postseason, Bregman has hit .238 with 19 homers, 17 doubles, one triple, 54 RBI, 53 walks, and three stolen bases with a .789 OPS. He’s played in the postseason in every season he’s been a big leaguer dating back to 2017. His extensive postseason resume will have an impact on the Red Sox' core group of young players.

Boston is tied at the top of the AL wild card standings with the Mariners and sits three games behind the Blue Jays for first place in the AL East.

Craig Breslow has signed three of the Red Sox’ key core players to contract extensions this season: Anthony, Kristian Campbell, and Garrett Crochet.

First, the Sox extended Crochet to a six-year, $170 million extension at the end of March. The deal will cover the 2026-2031 seasons and will also include an opt-out after 2030. It gives the Red Sox control over one of the game’s best young left-handed starters for at least five years, beginning after this season. Crochet’s new deal will pay him an average annual value of $28.33 million.

The ink was barely dry on Crochet’s deal before the Sox announced an extension with Campbell. The rookie signed an eight-year, $60 million extension, which will also include a $19 million option with a $4 million buyout for 2033 and a $21 million option for ’34.

Anthony’s deal can reach $230 million over the course of the eight years due to numerous performance escalators built in. Over the last two seasons, Breslow also locked up Brayan Bello and Ceddanne Rafaela to long-term deals.

The young core is in place in Boston, and Bregman has been a crucial veteran around them, and following the Rafael Devers trade, the Red Sox have the cash to extend the veteran and build around him and their young players.

ENTER SANDMAN

The Red Sox are moving hard-throwing pitching prospect David Sandlin into the bullpen. 

By moving him into the WooSox’ bullpen, it gives Boston another option to help down the stretch at the big league level.

The 24-year-old made his first relief appearance on Tuesday night against Buffalo at Polar Park, where he allowed two runs on three hits while striking out two in 1 1/3 innings.

“It’s not a long-term thing,” WooSox manager Chad Tracy said to reporters earlier this week. “He’s gonna start. But if they need him in the bullpen, you can come out of there throwing 98, 99 mph and move your fastball three ways and throw strikes, like, we want to explore that.”

“Anything I can do to help the big-league team,” Sandlin told WooSox beat writer Tommy Cassell on Tuesday. “So, we’ll see how it goes moving forward.”

Sandlin’s fastball touched 98.4 mph during his outing on Tuesday night.

“It was awesome. I mean, the fans got into it right off the bat, especially after the first strikeout, so that kind of helped me build a little bit,” said Sandlin following his outing. “And then my parents were right there in the front row, so I could hear my dad screaming. And it helped me also calm down a little bit, too. That was nice.”

Boston promoted Sandlin and left-hander Connelly Early from Double-A Portland last week. Sandlin made his first Triple-A start last week vs. Lehigh Valley on Friday and allowed one run in five innings of work. His fastball topped out at 98.1 mph in that outing.

The Red Sox are preparing Sandlin to be a reliever similar to what the club did with left-hander Zach Penrod last season, in case they need him over the final two months. Boston has a “full layout” plan that he’ll execute before making a decision as to whether he’ll be promoted to the bigs.

“It’s just this slow progression of getting him used to doing that and more scheduling it out, rather than just, ‘Hey, you’re in the pen, go down there and wait for the phone to ring,’” Tracy said.

Sandlin offers six different pitches in his arsenal and regularly features them in outings. Tracy said it’s important to see how the righty responds between outings.

“He’s got a lot of different pitches,” Tracy said. “Actually so many that if you go to the pen, we’re going to pare that down.”

The Red Sox have a need for another bullpen arm down the stretch. Boston designated right-hander Jorge Alcala for assignment on Tuesday and recalled Isaiah Campbell to replace him on the 26-man roster.

The Sox acquired Alcala from the Twins on June 12 in exchange for minor league infielder Andy Lugo. In 19 games, the hard-throwing reliever pitched in 19 games, posting a 3.39 ERA with 18 strikeouts to eight walks in 16 1/3 innings with Boston. Initially, with a change of scenery, Alcala was successful for Alex Cora, allowing one run in his first 14 outings for the Sox. 

Since then, he’s regressed and imploded, resulting in the team using other relievers to clean up his mess. In his last five outings, he’s allowed five earned runs in 3 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits, four walks, and four homers over that stretch. Alcala had a meltdown on Monday night with the Red Sox leading 8-1, but quickly allowed the Royals to climb back into the game. He allowed back-to-back no-doubt homers to Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia and a double to Mike Yastrzemski. Overall this season, Alcala has pitched in 41 games, recording a 6.64 ERA with two holds with 46 strikeouts to 23 walks in 40 2/3 innings.

Sandlin’s big-time velocity is attractive out of the bullpen. He’s hit triple digits with his fastball, mainly in online videos while training in the offseason. His heater can miss bats across multiple areas of the strike zone. Sandlin’s fastball countered with his sinker and cutter, has been effective during outings in the minors.

“So when you really think about it’s like he can go three different directions with a fastball ... If those are effective pitches, you could probably go out there with just those three and be all right,” Tracy said. “But he also has a pretty good slider and change.

“So he’s got the arsenal to be able to do that,” Tracy said, adding that it’s about paring it down and throwing strikes.

Acquired by the Red Sox in a trade with the Royals during the spring last year for John Schreiber, the righty was another young pitcher brought into the new Red Sox pitching pipeline created by Craig Breslow. This season, prior to his Triple-A promotion, Sandlin owned a 5-4 record in 17 games (13 starts) with a 3.61 ERA and 86 strikeouts across 82 1/3 innings for the Sea Dogs.

Sandlin’s move to the bullpen creates a path for him to get to the bigs before the season comes to a close. Boston will also consider southpaws Early and top pitching prospect Payton Tolle as options for the bullpen as well. The southpaw will make his WooSox' team debut on Sunday, when he starts against the Buffalo Bisons at Polar Park. 

“I think we’re at the point where any opportunity we have to bolster the team and give us a better chance to win, we’ve got to be open to it, and whether that’s Sandlin, Early, both, or neither, I think those are options,” Breslow said. “We’ll take a look at the way that we think their repertoires could potentially play out of the ‘pen. Sandlin is a guy that comes to mind in that it’s really powerful stuff, and with maybe a simplified approach, we feel like he could come in and just kind of overwhelm hitters with the stuff. And those conversations are ongoing.”

It would make sense for the Red Sox to promote Sandlin to the bigs before the season comes to a close. He is Rule 5 eligible this offseason, and the club will need to protect him by adding the hard-throwing righty to the 40-man roster. If the Red Sox want to use Sandlin in the postseason, he will need to be added to the 40-man roster before September 1.

DESERVED THE L?

It wasn’t Lucas Giolito’s best outing on the mound Saturday night. The righty struggled with his command, including walking four straight hitters and forcing in the game-tying and go-ahead runs during the fifth inning of the Sox’ 5-4 loss to the Padres.

“I know that the way baseball works, the L doesn’t go next to my name, but it should,” Giolito said. “That was really bad.”

Giolito gave up a fifth-inning leadoff single to Fernando Tatis Jr. before getting three-time batting champion Luis Arráez to ground out and Manny Machado to fly out. From that point on, Giolito quickly lost control, walking four consecutive batters for the first time in his career.

“I lost feel,” Giolito explained. “I felt a little uncomfortable all day, but we were battling and pitching OK. In the fifth inning, I lost feel for my mechanics, and I just couldn’t make the adjustment.”

Giolito called his performance “inexcusable.”

“I truly believe that if I had just gotten out of that fifth inning and made the adjustment, then we would have won that game. Chappy (Aroldis Chapman) would have been pitching for a save instead of in a tie-game situation,” added Giolito.

The right-hander also refuted the idea that he was experiencing difficulty on the mound and locating his landing spot.

“I didn’t have any issues with the mound at all,” he said. “I got uncomfortable there, and I wasn’t able to make the adjustment. So we’ll dive deeper into it and see. I don’t know if I was rushing or over-striding. But yeah, I just lost the ability to throw strikes and that can’t happen at this level.”

So what exactly went wrong, resulting in six walks total in his outing?

His two primary pitches on Saturday were his four-seam fastball, which he threw 49% of the time, and followed that up with his slider 31%, according to Statcast.

“It’s terrible because I’m thinking (about) the implications of the game,” Giolito said. “We have a lead. Pitching well enough to protect that lead. If I get out of that inning sooner, maybe I get six (innings). If I get out of it at some point, it’s five (innings). We exit with the lead. I have so much confidence in our bullpen. They’re just amazing. So I know they would have done their job like they did after they had to come in and bail me out. It’s a game we could have won if I had just made that adjustment.”

His fastball averaged 92.7 mph, which was down from his yearly average of 93.4 mph. His velocity on his slider also dipped from 86.4 mph to 85.6 mph during his start.

“I was riding it (the fastball) pretty good,” he said. “I was happy with how it was playing but lost the feel for it. I mean, I couldn’t really land a slider either.”

SPECIAL PREGAME MOMENT

The Red Sox and Padres found a unique way to honor both the victims of the deadly Texas floods in July and continue to help those in need of aid.

Before Saturday night’s game in San Diego, players from both teams wore batting practice jerseys that were identical to the jerseys worn by four Texas high schools affected by the terrible flooding. The jerseys chosen by the teams were those worn by Kerrville Tivy, Center Point, Comfort, and Ingram Tom Moore high schools, all schools located in the Hill Country.

Bregman donned an Ingram Tom Moore jersey. He is no stranger to the state of Texas, spending his entire career with the Astros before joining the Red Sox back in February.

The jerseys will be auctioned off online next week, with proceeds benefiting the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund.

AROUND THE LEAGUE

- Pete Alonso hit his 252nd career home run on Saturday, tying Darryl Strawberry for the most in Mets history. Alonso accomplished this feat in just 963 games, 146 fewer than Strawberry.

- Jen Pawol became the first female to umpire a Major League Baseball game on Saturday. He was the first base umpire for the Braves and Marlins game. On Sunday, she will make history as the first female umpire to call a game from behind the plate. Pawol got called up from Triple-A for the Marlins-Braves series because of the doubleheader on Saturday.

“Just incredible,” Pawol said. "The dream actually came true today, and I’m still living in it. And I’m just so grateful to my family and to Major League Baseball for just creating such an amazing work environment. To all the umpires that I work with … it’s just amazing camaraderie. We’re having fun out there—we’re working hard, but we’re having fun. I was so thankful.”

- Shohei Ohtani reaches the 40 home run mark for the fourth time in his career.

- Braintree American Little League will represent the New England region and will advance to the Little League World Series tournament for the first time. They defeated Bedford Little League, 3-2 in eight innings, to secure a trip to Williamsport.

- Cal Raleigh is having a monster season; he has 44 homers and 96 RBI and is a legitimate MVP candidate.

- On this date in 2011, Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen became one of just four MLB players since at least 1901 to hit a homer, have three walks, score four runs, and steal two bases in a game.

- Jason Alexander, no, not the George Costanza actor, but the pitcher, will start for the Astros against the Yankees on Sunday. It will mark his second career start versus the Yankees; he pitched against them in 2022 when he was with the Brewers. He spent the entire 2024 season with Triple-A Worcester, recording a 7-6 record and a 4.42 ERA in 29 games.

- Former New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera was supposed to meet with Devin Williams on Saturday. That meeting never happened because the Hall of Famer injured his Achilles during the team’s Old-Timers’ Day game. His agent, Fernando Cruz, confirmed to Yankees’ beat reporters that Rivera will undergo surgery to repair the torn Achilles.

- Former Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina will be in uniform as a member of the team’s MLB coaching staff for their upcoming three-game series against the Cubs. It will be Molina’s first public appearance as a member of the Cardinals organization since he hung up his cleats in 2022.