Houston general manager Dana Brown says the door for re-signing free agent Alex Bregman is “cracked” open, but he acknowledges keeping the third baseman with the Astros would be a long shot.

Bregman coming back at this point would be a bit awkward because Houston has clearly conducted its offseason under the assumption that he was leaving. It traded star outfielder Kyle Tucker to the Chicago Cubs and got back infielder Isaac Paredes, who has played the strong majority of his games at third base.