Correa talks recovering from foot injury, Bregman leaving Astros

Like most of us, Carlos Correa was keeping an eye on Alex Bregman’s free agency. Unlike most of us, he’d been in Bregman’s shoes before.

Correa, one of the homegrown players around whom the Astros built their dynasty, was a member of three American League championship teams in Houston (2017, ’19, ‘21) and aided in taking home the Astros’ first World Series title in 2017. Despite that, he ultimately left for the Twins.

For Bregman, the Astros starting third baseman from 2017-24, things played out largely the same way. After a long process of rumored negotiations with several teams, the 30-year-old signed a three-year, $120 million deal with the Red Sox in February, just the latest franchise great to move on from Houston.

Correa, for his part, didn’t express much surprise in the Astros’ decision to let Bregman walk.

“We knew it was going to happen at some point,” he told SiriusXM MLB Network Radio on Friday. “And as players you want to explore the market and see what you’re truly worth, and that’s what Alex did, that’s what I did [too]."

But Correa’s looking ahead, and coming off a two-year stretch in which he was hampered by injuries, including issues with plantar fasciitis -- in his left foot in 2023, then the right in ’24 – he’s optimistic about the work he’s put in to prepare for a (hopefully) healthier 2025 campaign.

“I feel great, I feel ready to go. [I] spent the whole offseason getting the feet right and we’re in a great spot right now.” he said. “It's a great division. When you look at the pitching in our division, out of the top 10, top 15 strikeout leaders, we had about half of them in the American League. There’s a lot of great pitching, every team plays great defense. You look at what Detroit did down the stretch [in 2024], you look at what Kansas City did consistently throughout the whole year. Cleveland is always out there, and we’re going to be out there.”

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