The door to re-signing free agent Alex Bregman is “cracked” open for Houston, but keeping the third baseman with the Astros might still be a long shot, general manager Dana Brown said Saturday.

Speaking at the team’s FanFest, Brown talked at length about the possibility of re-signing Bregman, who has spent his entire nine-year career with the Astros.

“The interesting thing is when we made some trades and some moves this offseason, we never realized that Bregman would still be on the market at this time,” Brown said. “We’ve had some conversation and I could kind of leave it there, but we’ve had some conversations.”

He added those conversations were “positive” before he was asked if that means the door for re-signing Bregman remains open.

“I would say it’s cracked, right,” Brown said. “The fact that he’s still available, it just makes it interesting like, man, this guy is such a good player, he’s done so many wonderful things here. And so, we’ll stick with the cracked door and see what our conversations lead to.”

If Houston brought Bregman back, it would create a crowded situation in the infield. They traded outfielder Kyle Tucker to the Cubs for infielder Isaac Paredes before signing free agent first baseman Christian Walker this offseason.

“Our group is pretty set,” Brown said. “We made some moves and some trades and solidified our top five in our lineup and so it’s a long shot, but the fact that (Bregman’s) a free agent, we’ll have discussions about him like we have discussions about every other free agent.”

The day Walker was introduced in Houston, Brown said Walker would be the team’s first baseman and Paredes would play third. But Brown said Saturday that if Bregman were to re-sign he would play third base.

“I love watching Bregman play third base, so I can’t imagine putting Bregman or having (manager) Joe (Espada) put Bregman in any other position other than third base,” Brown said. “That’s his home. He puts on clinics when he’s playing third base, and he’s just as special as anybody, Gold Glove there and so I can’t picture him playing anywhere else.”

Bregman is a two-time All-Star who won a Gold Glove last season and a Silver Slugger Award in 2019 when he came in second in AL MVP voting.

NO DEAL FOR SKENES CARD

The young collector who scored a one-of-a-kind baseball card featuring National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes has turned down a trade offer from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Topps announced Friday that the 11-year-old from the Los Angeles area had declined the deal and instead was going to put the card — which features Skenes’ autograph and a patch from a game-worn jersey — up for auction.

The Pirates had put together a package that included 30 years’ worth of season tickets behind home plate at PNC Park and the chance to play a softball game on the field in exchange for the card.

Skenes’ girlfriend, LSU gymnast and influencer Livvy Dunne, also offered the card’s owner the opportunity to take in a game with her in a luxury suite at the ballpark during one of Skenes’ starts.

While the collector wrote in a journal entry shared by Topps that nabbing the card was a “dream come true,” that dream apparently did not include spending the next three decades attending games at PNC Park.

The team posted on X after the decision that it was “bummed” but offered to have the fan at a game sometime during the 2025 season.

Fanatics Collect, which will handle the auctioning of the card in March, said it will donate its proceeds from the sale to fire relief funds in the Los Angeles area.

The card could hold pretty high value considering the potentially bright future ahead for the 22-year-old former El Toro High standout Skenes, who finished third in NL Cy Young Award voting following a outstanding rookie season.

The first overall pick in the 2023 amateur draft out of LSU made his major league debut in May and put together one of the most impressive rookie seasons in recent memory. Skenes was selected as the NL’s starting pitcher in the All-Star Game after just 11 starts and finished 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 games.

NEW GIG FOR BLACKMON

Retired outfielder Charlie Blackmon is taking on a new role with the Colorado Rockies — special assistant to the general manager.

Blackmon will assist GM Bill Schmidt in all facets of baseball operations, the team announced Saturday. The 38-year-old retired last season after 14 seasons with the Rockies, for whom he batted .293 with 1,805 hits and 227 homers.

A four-time All-Star, Blackmon ranks first in franchise history in triples (68), along with second in games played (1,624), doubles (334), runs scored (996) and extra-base hits (629).

Blackmon was taken by the Rockies in the second round of the 2008 amateur draft after playing at Georgia Tech. He won the 2017 NL batting crown with a .331 average. He also helped the team to back-to-back postseason appearances in 2017 and 2018.