Astros third baseman Alex Bregman might very well be coming off the best year of his life, having gotten back on track with a second-half surge that helped Houston win its second World Series while his wife, Reagan, gave birth to the couple’s first child -- the aptly named Knox, whose father had quite a few (knocks) himself last year.

With momentum on his side on the field and in his personal life, Bregman is feeling the anticipation of the 2023 season with Spring Training around the corner. Bregman, you might remember, broke his left index finger in the Game 6 World Series win over the Phillies on Nov. 5, but he started swinging the bat around the beginning of January with no issues.

“Just excited to get to Spring Training,” Bregman said. “My finger’s feeling great.”

Bregman, who will turn 29 on Opening Day, slashed .259/.366/.454 with 23 homers, 87 walks, 93 runs scored and 93 RBIs in 155 games last year -- his first healthy season since his monster 2019 campaign in which he finished second in the American League Most Valuable Player voting.

Bregman posted a .907 OPS in his final 56 games of the regular season -- which coincided with the Aug. 1 birth of Knox -- and reached base safely in all 13 of the Astros' games in the postseason, hitting .294 (15-for-51) with five doubles, three homers and 11 RBIs with a .379 on-base percentage and a .948 OPS.

“I felt the best swinging the bat this offseason as I have in a long time,” Bregman said. “This has felt like the shortest offseason of my career, to be honest with you. It’s great. I never complain about a short offseason. It means you played for a long time.”

The Astros have advanced to the ALCS in each of Bregman’s six Major League seasons, winning four pennants and two World Series in that time. Winning in the big leagues is all he’s known. So it should be no surprise the anticipation level for the 2023 season -- one in which Houston is favored to win another pennant -- is high.

“I feel good going into the season; I’m excited,” Bregman said. “I can’t wait to get there and get started. To finish the year the way we did and to win it, it adds to the excitement.”

But first things first. Bregman will be among the Astros’ contingent traveling to Uvalde, Texas, as part of the team’s Caravan on Thursday and will be making an appearance at FanFest on Saturday at Minute Maid Park. He’s hosting the sixth annual Houston Sports Awards on Jan. 25 in Houston.

The Astros were able to come to contract agreements for the 2023 season with six of their eight arbitration-eligible players Friday, leaving right fielder Kyle Tucker and starting pitching Cristian Javier without deals. They signed relievers Phil Maton ($2.55 million), Ryne Stanek ($3.6 million) and Blake Taylor ($830,000), starting pitchers Framber Valdez ($6.8 million) and José Urquidy ($3.025 million), as well as utility man IF/OF Mauricio Dubón ($1.4 million) to avoid arbitration.

Tucker wants $7.5 million for this season, while the Astros offered $5 million. That’s a substantial difference, but they can continue to negotiate to get a deal done before going to arbitration, where a three-person panel will pick one of the numbers. Perhaps these negotiations could serve as a springboard to a long-term deal, something both sides explored last year with no success.

Tucker, who made $764,200 in 2022, is in his first year of arbitration after hitting .257 with 30 homers, 107 RBIs and 25 stolen bases in 150 games, while winning a Gold Glove. Tucker turned 26 on Tuesday and is the prime of his career, so expect the Astros to continue to try to lock up one of their young stars.

Javier, meanwhile, and the Astros aren’t far apart. Javier filed for $3.5 million, Houston offered $3 million. Expect the Astros to find a middle ground on Javier, who went 11-9 with a 2.54 ERA in 30 games (25 starts) in the regular season, holding opponents to a .170 batting average while striking out 11.74 batters per nine innings. He was dominant in the playoffs, going 2-0 with a 0.71 ERA and striking out 16 batters and allowing two hits and one run in 12 2/3 innings.

Two years after Craig Biggio became the first player with an Astros cap on his plaque to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, longtime teammate Jeff Bagwell learned he would join him. On Jan. 18, 2017, Bagwell was voted into the Hall of Fame with 86.2 percent of the votes by the Baseball Writers' Association of America in his seventh time on the ballot.

"I don't even know how I'm supposed to react," Bagwell said. "It's been a whirlwind. It's been fun and exciting. My family is very, very excited for this thing. ... I could not be more excited. It's a weird thing to be a Hall of Famer. I wrote it on a ball tonight, and it was kind of crazy. So it was cool."

Among the nine international free agents the Astros signed Sunday -- the first day of the international signing period -- were 17-year-old shortstop Camilo Diaz (No. 17 on the Top 50 International Prospects list) and 17-year-old outfielder Esmil Valencia (No. 21). Diaz's deal was for $2.25 million, and Valencia received $1.1 million, per a source. The Astros have a base signing pool of $5,284,000.

Here's what the Astros had to say about them:

Assistant director of international scouting Raymon Sanchez: “Camilo Díaz is a toolsy and dynamic shortstop with a plus arm and the athleticism to stay in the middle of the diamond. He has a big, strong build with present raw power, and projects to hit in the middle of the order with HR/RBI production. Díaz has the potential to have well-above-average tools across the board, and we are excited to add him to our system.”

Dominican scouting supervisor Alfredo Ulloa: “Esmil Valencia is a medium-framed outfielder who does it all on the baseball field. An above-average and explosive athlete, Esmil projects as a top-of-the-lineup hitter who can hit for average, power and steal bases. An above-average defender, Esmil plays center field and shows a 70-grade arm on the 20-80 scouting scale. We are excited to add what we feel is one of the better international talents to our organization.” 

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