HOUSTON -- With franchise icon Alex Bregman facing free agency coming off the Astros’ shortest postseason run in eight years, the club is staring at an interesting and challenging winter, as it tries to keep its window of contention open in the American League.

The Astros’ string of seven consecutive trips to the AL Championship Series ended abruptly when A.J. Hinch’s Tigers swept them out of the AL Wild Card Series on Wednesday at Minute Maid Park, where the Astros have lost seven postseason games in a row.

General manager Dana Brown and manager Joe Espada discussed the team’s offseason plans while meeting with reporters on Thursday morning at Minute Maid Park. The overarching message was that both believe the Astros could be in position to make another run at the World Series, if they make the necessary tweaks to the roster.

“First of all, one of the things we want to make sure we do is to get back deep into the postseason,” Brown said. “That’s going to be our vision, that’s going to be our focus. And we’re not taking anything off the table in terms of what we would do -- whether it’s making trades or signing a free agent.”

Bregman’s impending free agency will dominate Houston’s offseason -- at least until he’s off the market. Astros second baseman Jose Altuve urged the team to re-sign Bregman following Wednesday’s season-ending loss.

“That weighs heavily,” Brown said. “But ultimately, we will have some discussions with [agent Scott] Boras and also Bregman. We’ve had some small talk. But ultimately, we’ll have some discussions. We know what he means to this organization.”

Re-signing Bregman, the top free-agent third baseman on the market, won’t be easy. He will look for a deal bigger than the five-year, $100 million contract he signed prior to the 2019 season. Since Jim Crane bought the club 13 years ago, the Astros have been unwilling to commit to massive long-term deals -- a strategy which has so far been shrewd. Houston let George Springer, Carlos Correa and Gerrit Cole walk in free agency and still won a second World Series in 2022.

“I’ve talked a lot about how much I love the individual, the human,” Espada said. “I think what makes this team really good is the character of the people that we have in that clubhouse. And he’s one of the best I’ve ever been around. So I would love to have Alex Bregman playing third base for us next year.”

In addition to third base, the Astros will need a plan at first. Once they cut Jose Abreu in May, Jon Singleton got most of the at-bats at the position, though backup catcher Victor Caratini started both games at first base in the playoffs. Houston’s .651 OPS by its first basemen ranked 26th among the 30 clubs.

“I mean, this organization won the World Series with Yuli Gurriel at first base, and he didn’t have that great of a year,” Brown said, referring to the 2022 season. “And that’s not our benchmark. But ultimately as I mentioned before, we will do what’s best for this organization to try to upgrade at each position.”

Both Espada and Brown seemed committed to Chas McCormick and Jake Meyers in center field despite their offensive troubles this year.

“I think they both will do a little soul searching and find out, ‘What am I doing well, what am I doing right?’ And try to stick with it and not get too cute and make certain changes,” Brown said. “I think if you ask both of those [players], they know that they’re better and they should produce a lot more.”

Barring a trade, the Astros’ rotation will be in good shape next year, with Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco and Spencer Arrighetti. Luis Garcia is due back from injury at the start of the season, and Brown said Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy -- both of whom had Tommy John surgery -- are due back in July.

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Brown hinted that the Astros will look to upgrade the bullpen to take pressure off Bryan Abreu, whose 78 appearances were one shy of the league high for 2024. Closer Josh Hader appeared in a career-high 71 games.

“We’re going to have to give those guys somewhat of a breather, particularly when we go three out of four days with each of them,” Brown said. “So that can be taxing. High leverage, three out of four days, it gets tough on those guys.”