It might not be an easy negotiation. It’s definitely not going to be cheap. It might even be a contract that brings some regret a few years down the road.
That’s all true, and yet none of it really matters.
The Red Sox cannot let Alex Bregman become the Adrian Beltré of this decade, a perfect fit (at third base, no less) who doesn’t stick around, a what-could-have-been one-and-done in Boston.
They need to get him signed, even if the terms sting a little, and even if the length of the deal brings pause.