Jose Altuve Refuses to Say Goodbye to Alex Bregman Amid the Quiet Bro Hugs Of Astros Elimination — Like Houston, Tuve Won’t Let Breggy Go Without a Fight

Instead of champagne showers and another golden era celebration, the Houston Astros’ season ends with quiet bro hugs. Teammates try to hug as many other teammates as possible, knowing too well that this is the last time some of them will ever share the same clubhouse. Yordan Alvarez moves into embrace Mauricio Dubon, probably his closest buddy on the team, and Dubon playfully waves the big man off. Alvarez and Dubon will still see each other plenty this offseason. Josh Hader, the $95 million closer who couldn’t hold the Detroit Tigers back in the eighth inning with the season on the line, and Jeremy Peña, the 27-year-old shortstop who’s still trying to rediscover that 2022 magic, pull each other close, slap each other on the back. Alex Bregman, the Astro who everyone wants to hold onto, stands towards the back, not used to this kind of procession.

Certainly not this early in October. Just a few days into the month that’s defined these Astros . . . and somehow it’s already over. The surest thing in Houston sports ever will not play another game in Minute Maid Park until March 27, 2025.

Excuse some of these Astros for not quite knowing what to do. Jose Altuve is still wearing his full uniform when he talks to the media a full hour after the last pitch. Altuve certainly isn’t ready to say goodbye. Definitely not to Alex Bregman, the third baseman he’s shared an infield, a clubhouse and a leadership burden with almost from the moment Bregman made his Major League debut in 2016.

“I don’t want to get to the idea of thinking about last game with Breggy,” Altuve tells the reporters packed around his corner locker, the one a short walk away from Bregman’s own corner locker, next to the entrance of the shower. “. . . I’m pretty confident he’s going to be our third baseman next year. . .

“In my mind, there’s not a chance that this is the last game.”

The Houston Astros’ history in this golden era screams otherwise. George Springer and Carlos Correa, beloved Astros playoff heroes and leaders, reached free agency and found themselves heading elsewhere. Astros owner Jim Crane refuses to burden the franchise with the kind of longterm, big money deals that Bregman and his agent Scott Boras are sure to rightfully seek. This Crane stance is one of the bedrock principles which has allowed the Astros to keep winning season after season after season.

But that does not make saying goodbye any easier.

And Jose Altuve looks all but ready to fight anyone who tells him that Alex Bregman is gone. The Astros third baseman is not a chess piece to Altuve. Forget that. Bregman is his compadre. His brother for life. In Altuve’s mind, the Astros might as well get rid of Orbit too if they’re not going to re-sign Breggy.

For the Astros just aren’t the Astros without Alex Bregman.

“Since when he got here the organization changed in a better direction.”Altuve says. “He makes this team way better. . .Hopefully, there’s a big chance to stay here. And not only that — to retire here.”

Tigers 5, Astros 2 with former Astros manager A.J. Hinch mind gaming Jim Crane’s franchise right out of the playoffs does not sound the death knell on this golden age of Astros baseball. No matter how many people outside of Houston gleefully pontificate that it does. Not with Hunter Brown and Ronel Blanco giving the Astros two elite pitchers for the future. Not with Yordan Alvarez showing so much heart and leadership potential, refusing to be sidelined for these playoffs despite a busted up knee that makes gingerly jogging his only option.

Not with this brotherhood. The one evident in that clubhouse scene of hugs.

“The brotherhood,” Dubon says when someone asks what he’ll remember most from this team. “We got guys pulling for each other and everything, A lot of bullshit outside. A lot of bullshit inside. But it’s something that everybody stayed together. And I think that’s sometimes what got us through the games.”

Jose Altuve looks all but ready to fight anyone who tells him that Alex Bregman is gone. The Astros third baseman is not a chess piece to Altuve. Forget that. Bregman is his compadre. His brother for life. In Altuve’s mind, the Astros might as well get rid of Orbit too if they’re not going to re-sign Breggy.

Cruel Finish, Together Team and Bregman Love

These Astros somehow got through a season that sees them stumble out to 7-19 start and fall 10 games back of the Seattle Mariners in the American League West on June 18th. Still making it to October. A.J. Hinch’s fearless managing, all those young Tiger arms and some of the cruel fickle nature of baseball itself ends the run in the best-of-three Wildcard Series long before an eighth straight American League Championship Series can be reached though.

“I made one mistake,” Josh Hader, the last Astros player to talk before the clubhouse is closed to the media with no sign of Kyle Tucker, says. “Obviously the walk (of Spencer Torkelson) hurts. But in general, the walk didn’t hurt me as much as that fastball in the middle of the plate. . .”

Tigers pinch hitter Andy Ibáñez sends that fastball rocketing down the left field line, driving in all three runs that make the difference. Hinch strikes again too. Ibáñez, who later jokes about having spent his first several seasons in the Big Leagues just watching the Astros in the playoffs, knocks the only sure thing in baseball’s era of utter unpredictability right out of the playoffs. Before October is even three days old.

It’s over? It’s really over. For this season, And maybe for Alex Bregman as a Houston Astro. .  . it’s over.

“I haven’t even really had the chance to process this,” Bregman says, his back against the Astros logo on the front wall of the clubhouse he may be leaving. “I was planning on being here tomorrow.”

All the Astros were. But there will be no winner-take-all Game 3 against the Tigers. Nothing but a lot of empty weeks in one of baseball’s most underrated ballparks.

Maybe this unexpected, sudden and cruel early ending — what every other consistent winning team in baseball’s experienced over the past decade (Dodgers, Braves, Yankees and Phillies included) — will make Astros fans appreciate this unparalleled run even more. These playoff games should be more treasured than they seem to be in Houston these days. Instead, they’re almost taken for granted, with grousing over MLB’s love of sticking the Astros in the early afternoon TV window and excuses tendered for why the crowd for these Wildcard games against the Tigers aren’t as frenzied as they used to be. Maybe seeing October end so early in H-Town will start shifting things back.

But probably not. Especially if Alex Bregman goes.

“Just one of the most impressive baseball minds, competitors I’ve been around in this game,” Justin Verlander, who’s played 19 seasons in the Majors, says of Bregman. “Just the ultimate teammate. He sees everything. He’s always doing whatever he can to help everybody around him get better.”

Bregman tells his teammates how much they mean to him, how much he appreciates their fight after this one. He stands in front of the team to do it. One last address from the leader who lifts everyone up?

Jose Altuve will be a Houston Astro for life. His wife Nina and their two young daughters are ensconced in the fabric of Houston. Altuve wants the same thing for Bregman, his wife Reagan and their toddler son Knox. So many of these Astros do.

“He makes everyone around him better,” Peña says of Bregman. “Just the way he prepares for every single game. The way he never gets tired. He never gets tired.”

Jose Altuve is getting tired of saying goodbye. It’s over? It’s really over. For this season, And maybe for Alex Bregman as a Houston Astro. .  . it’s over.

Mauricio Dubon pours himself a big glass of Crown Royal he pulls out of a locker to get through this clubhouse scene. And soon, some of his teammates join him. No one expected this finish, this sudden end to October. But that’s the game of baseball at its purest form. Saying goodbye to Breggy. That’s something else.

Excuse Astros fans if they’d rather live in Jose Altuve’s wonderful alternative universe. The one where Breggy comes back — and retires as a Houston Astro. Is that living in denial? Maybe. OK, probably. But it’s so much better than the reality threatening to intrude on everyone.