Chicago paid a steep price for its long-coveted star, but Alex Bregman’s consistency and elite approach is worth the $175 million investment.
The Chicago Cubs finally came to terms over the weekend on a contract with the marquee free agent who had eluded them all offseason.
In reality, it’s been years in the making. Third baseman Alex Bregman has been on the Cubs’ radar for a long time, and the front office has never hidden its interest in him. It took a massive commitment — five years and $175 million — to finally get the deal done.
That price tag is going to make some people uncomfortable. But premium free agents are never cheap, and Cubs fans can’t have it both ways. You can’t complain about the team not spending like a big-market club and then turn your nose up when they actually pay the market value for elite talent.
Is Bregman “worth” $175 million? Maybe not in literal value. But it’s hard to put a price on winning. There’s a good chance he won’t be a $35 million player in the fourth or fifth year of this contract. He’ll be 36 years old by then, and at some point his game will decline. That’s just reality.
But there’s no reason to expect that drop-off anytime soon.
The biggest reason to like this move is that Bregman is one of the most reliable offensive producers in baseball. The Cubs lineup was wildly volatile in 2025, but Bregman’s profile is the opposite of streaky. When you look at both his surface numbers and his advanced analytics, the production is rock solid and sustainable.
Over his last four seasons with the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros, Bregman has racked up 124 doubles, 92 home runs, and an .803 OPS. His OPS never dipped below .768 in any of those years, and he averaged 31 doubles and 23 homers per season.
The metrics back it up. Bregman has graded out as elite in chase rate, walk rate, strikeout rate, and squared-up percentage across that span.
That’s the profile of a hitter who understands the strike zone, doesn’t expand it, doesn’t swing and miss, takes his walks, and consistently hits the ball hard. He may not be the most physically imposing slugger in baseball, but the mental side of his game makes his production far more sustainable. On top of that, he still brings positive defensive value at third base, giving the Cubs more flexibility with Matt Shaw.
Free-agent contracts go bad all the time, usually because teams are gambling on upside and hoping a player ages well. That’s not a concern here, in my opinion. Bregman is about as safe as a long-term offensive bet gets.
For a Cubs team that needs to be all-in on winning a World Series, that’s exactly the kind of player worth paying for — even at $175 million.