Alex Bregman’s Spanish language skills helping break barriers with new Red Sox teammates

For that, the Spanish-speaking Sox can thank Bregman’s mother.

As a high school freshman in New Mexico, Bregman wanted to play football but his parents were against the idea. His mother, Jackie, compromised by saying Alex could join the team if he aced his Spanish test.

One A-plus later, Bregman suited up and played a handful of games as a kick returner and running back before deciding to focus on baseball. But the Spanish stayed with him.

As a high school junior, Bregman played for Team USA in the Pan American Championships in Mexico and his language skills came in handy.

“I started talking to players from different teams like Mexico and Cuba and getting better with the vocabulary,” Bregman said. “I continued to work on it, but I didn’t really get to the point where it was pretty good until I got into professional baseball.”

As an Astros prospect, Bregman took a two-week trip to the team’s academy in the Dominican Republic to train with the players there. The organization’s idea was for the Houston prospects who had played in the United States to get a better idea what their counterparts from Latin American countries were experiencing.

“Coming from college, I felt like that was important,” Bregman said. “You got to see what it was like down there and meet your future teammates. It was a great experience.

“In baseball, we expect everyone to learn English as they move up. But we should probably do the same thing the other way and learn Spanish so we can communicate both ways. It only builds a stronger bond.”

Over time, Bregman worked on his Spanish with Astros teammates and now does with his new teammates with the Sox. During spring training, Bregman chatted with Devers when they took grounders at third base. He also gave some of the Spanish-speaking pitchers in camp feedback after he faced them in live batting practice.

“It’s just part of baseball for me,” Bregman said. “You want to be a good teammate. People in baseball come from different backgrounds but we’re all trying to accomplish the same goals.”

Sox manager Alex Cora did his part to foster team chemistry by hosting dinners during spring training. He looked up during one of the get-togethers and saw Bregman and Devers chatting away in a mix of Spanish and English.

“He’s good. I give him credit,” Cora said. “He speaks Spanish well.”

Major League Baseball mandates that teams provide a certified Spanish translator at every game to aid players communicating with teammates, coaches, and the media. Typically that person is a member of the public relations staff. In the past, translation was done by teammates or bilingual coaches.

Some Sox players, including Abreu and Devers, will chat informally with reporters but use a translator for group interview sessions when their remarks are on the record or will be broadcast on television or radio. Chapman and Devers take questions without needing translation but reply in Spanish. Narváez and Rafaela, who live in the United States, communicate easily in both languages and don’t use translators.

“To see Alex having conversations around the clubhouse, it’s important,” Cora said. “When we signed him, I said he was going to help us on and off the field. That’s an example. It helps us as a team.”

Wanting to play football all those years ago helped make Bregman a better teammate in baseball now.

“I’m glad it worked out the way it did,” he said.

Garrett Whitlock is a reliever. Period.

“We’re going to use him out of the bullpen,” Sox manager Alex Cora said in the final days of spring training. “No more back and forth.”

Whitlock had a terrific rookie season as a Rule 5 pick in 2021, posting a 1.96 ERA over 46 relief appearances for a 92-win team that advanced to the ALCS. In the three seasons that followed, the righthander made 23 starts and 34 relief appearances. A series of injuries during those seasons sidetracked what appeared to be promising career to a point where a frustrated Whitlock considered retirement.

At 28, he’s happy to come out of the bullpen and just pitch when needed. The plan is to use Whitlock in a multi-inning role to serve as a bridge between the starter and the high-leverage relievers Cora wants to employ late in games.

Opening Day was a perfect example. Garrett Crochet went five innings. In a 2-2 game, Whitlock retired six of the seven batters he faced and the Sox won the game on Wilyer Abreu’s three-run homer in the ninth.

At a time when starters are often limited to five or six innings, Whitlock could be an important bullpen piece. He used four pitches against the Rangers, leaning on a sinker that averaged 95.7 miles per hour.

“I’ll do whatever [Cora] asks. But two innings suits me pretty well,” Whitlock said. “That was how we approached it in spring training and it’s comfortable.”

A few other observations on the Red Sox:

▪ This is an important season for Trevor Story. At 32, he has played only 163 games the last three years because of injuries and hit .232 with a .693 OPS.

Story had four seasons with the Rockies with more bWAR than the 4.1 he has had over three years with the Sox.

Story is due $25 million for 2026 and ‘27 but has the right to opt out of his contract after this season and become a free agent.

He would have to have to have a monster season to even consider leaving $50 million on the table entering his age-33 season.

If Story stays with the Sox and continues to underperform, the team will then be faced with an expensive dilemma of how to clear him out of the way for Marcelo Mayer to play shortstop.

▪ As Kristian Campbell settles in at second base, keep an eye on how he works with first baseman Triston Casas.

Casas sometimes has a tendency to range too far off the bag, chasing balls the second baseman could better handle.

Campbell played 420⅔ innings at second base in the minors with 297 innings in the outfield or at third base. He’ll get some outfield time to allow David Hamilton to play second base.

Casas started a slick 3-6-3 double play on Opening Day. He had only four of those last season, as Globe colleague Alex Speier pointed out.

▪ Crochet became only the ninth pitcher in the last 125 seasons to make Opening Day starts for two teams before turning 26.

The previous was Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley. He started Cleveland’s opener in 1976 then started Game 1 for the Red Sox (against Cleveland) in 1979 when he was 24.

The Sox had acquired Eckersley in 1978 as part of a six-player deal.

Hall of Famer Red Ruffing started Opening Day for the 1929 Red Sox. He was traded to the Yankees in 1930 and started the first game of the 1931 season.

Ruffing was 231-124 with a 3.47 ERA over 15 seasons for the Yankees and was a member of six World Series winners.

The Sox traded Ruffing for outfielder Cedric Durst and $50,000. Durst hit .245 over 102 games for the Sox in 1930 and spent the rest of his career in the minors.

Jordan Montgomery is to the Diamondbacks what Pablo Sandoval was to the Red Sox — a huge waste of money.

The lefthander was a member of the 2023 Rangers, who beat the Diamondbacks in the World Series. He became a free agent and didn’t sign until late March when he agreed to a one-year, $25 million deal with Arizona.

The contract included a $22.5 million option for 2025 if Montgomery made 18 starts. He was 8-7 with a 6.23 ERA over 21 starts and picked up that option.

“Looking back, in hindsight, a horrible decision to invest that money in a guy who performed as poorly as he did,” Arizona owner Ken Kendrick said last fall, channeling his inner George Steinbrenner.

It somehow got worse for Arizona. Montgomery pitched only three innings in spring training then said this past week he would need Tommy John surgery for a second time. That ended his season before it began.

The Diamondbacks ultimately spent $47.5 million on a pitcher who performed 33 percent below the league average for one season.

To Kendrick’s credit, he gave the green light to Arizona signing Corbin Burnes for six years and $210 million.

Mike Trout (Angels) and Manny Machado (Padres) are the only active players who lead their respective franchises in career home runs. Pete Alonso opened the season with 226 homers, 27 away from passing Darryl Strawberry for the most in Mets history . . . Hard to believe but true: When Austin Wells batted leadoff for the Yankees on Thursday, he became the first catcher to hit leadoff in franchise history. Maybe they should have tried it sooner. Wells homered in his first at-bat and the Yankees beat the Brewers, 4-2. Wells also was the first catcher in history to homer batting leadoff on Opening Day. In case you were wondering, Christian Vázquez (2020), Jason Varitek (2004), and Carlton Fisk (1980) have batted leadoff for the Red Sox . . . What’s with all the illness going around baseball? Mookie Betts missed the two games the Dodgers played in Japan because of a stomach issue that led to him dropping from 175 pounds to 157. “My body’s been perfectly fine. It’s only been my stomach, literally only my stomach,” Betts told reporters. “I’ve been working out, doing everything perfectly normal. It was just hard to hold down food.” Betts returned Thursday and played nine innings at shortstop against the Tigers, going 1 for 3 with a walk and a run. He then homered twice Friday, the second one a three-run walkoff . . . Ichiro Suzuki’s first pitch for the Mariners on Opening Day hit 84 m.p.h. on the radar gun . . . Tyler O’Neill has homered on six consecutive Opening Days, the last three coming for different teams. “Mind-boggling,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said after O’Neill homered against the Blue Jays in Toronto. Yogi Berra (1955-58), Gary Carter (1977-80), and Todd Hundley (1994-97) shared the old record of four. Like any good Canadian would, O’Neill arrived at the clubhouse before the game with two boxes of Tim Horton’s donuts for his teammates . . . According to MLB, 13 players who were All-Stars last season changed teams. That includes Burnes, Crochet, Max Fried, Tanner Scott, Juan Soto, and Kyle Tucker . . . Luis Arraez is trying to become the first player to win four consecutive batting titles since Tony Gwynn (1994-97). Arraez won his previous three with the Twins (2002), Marlins (2023), and Padres (2024) . . . Former Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria donated his collection of 900 bobbleheads to the Hall of Fame. Some of them will go on display Memorial Day weekend in an exhibit called “Getting the Nod.” . . . The Rays said 3,000 signs of assorted shapes and sizes were installed at Steinbrenner Field to temporarily cover up Yankees logos at the ballpark ahead of their home opener Friday. Tampa Bay is playing at the 11,026-seat park this season after Tropicana Field was badly damaged by Hurricane Milton . . . The Giants started Heliot Ramos in left field on Opening Day. He was their 19th different left fielder in the first game of the season going back to 2007 when Barry Bonds started his final season. Bonds started in left field 12 years in a row from 1993-2004. Ramos was 1 for 4 with a two-run homer that capped an 11-pitch at-bat in the fourth inning. Mike Yastrzemski made his sixth consecutive Opening Day start for the Giants. The former St. John’s Prep star is in his seventh major league season after spending six years in the Orioles system without getting beyond Triple A . . . Worcester native Sean Burke worked six shutout innings for the White Sox in an 8-1 Opening Day victory against the Angels. The 25-year-old allowed three hits without a walk and struck out three. Burke played for St. John’s High in Shrewsbury and the University of Maryland before he was a third-round pick in the 2021 draft. He is 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA in five major league games . . . The Tigers removed the keyhole at Comerica Park, that thin stripe of dirt that ran from the mound to the plate. The Tigers had one at Tiger Stadium for its last season in 1999 then kept it at Comerica as a nod to baseball history. The players didn’t like it and persuaded management to put grass in. Arizona did the same at Chase Field a few years ago. No parks have keyholes now. Its purpose, decades ago, was to help hitters and umpires better define the strike zone . . . High A Greenville and Asheville are doing a good thing. The teams will play 24 times this season and for many of those “Ville vs. Ville” games, the players will wear commemorative jerseys that will be raffled off. All proceeds will benefit communities in the Carolinas still recovering from Hurricane Helene. Go to MILB.com/Greenville for more information . . . Just a thought: MLB should space out a few games on Opening Day so fans could watch games at 1 p.m., 5 p.m., and 8 p.m. over the course of the day . . . Nice touch by the Dodgers, who had Kirk Gibson throw out the first pitch at Dodger Stadium to fellow World Series walkoff homer hero Freddie Freeman . . . Happy birthday to Chris Sale (36) and Alex Bregman (31). But let us not forget about Josh Bard, who is 47. The catcher played parts of 10 seasons in the majors for five teams, including the Red Sox for seven games in 2006. Bard was acquired in January in a seven-player deal with Cleveland and opened the season as Tim Wakefield’s personal catcher. The Sox lost four of Wakefield’s first five starts as Bard was charged with 10 passed balls, four on April 26 in a 7-1 loss against Cleveland. Something had to be done and general manager Theo Epstein traded Bard and righthander Cla Meredith to the Padres on May 1 for catcher Doug Mirabelli, who caught Wakefield the five previous seasons and was a knuckleball specialist. With Wakefield scheduled to pitch that night against the Yankees, Mirabelli flew to Boston on a private jet and was whisked to Fenway Park in a Ford Explorer driven by a state trooper. He arrived just in time for the game, caught Wakefield, and the Sox beat the Yankees, 7-3.

Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him @PeteAbe.