The Alex Bregman Contract Looking Worse By The Day

The Chicago Cubs don’t often make huge splashes in free agency.

The big deals that come to most Cubs fans' minds over the last two decades are Jason Heyward’s eight-year, $184 million deal, Jon Lester’s six-year, $155 million deal, and Dansby Swanson’s seven-year, $177 million deal.

The Cubs are clearly very selective about which players they choose to pay. But they knew spending big on a big-time free agent this past offseason was imperative. The team just made the playoffs for the first time since 2020 and was going to be a serious contender in 2026. 

That led Chicago’s front office to be aggressive in landing three-time All-Star Alex Bregman in free agency. The Cubs signed him to a five-year, $175 million contract to be that veteran-type leader who could help them get back to the World Series. 

However, Bregman has not lived up to his contract in Year 1 by any means. 

While it is still too early to say that the Cubs made a mistake by signing Bregman, it is fair to say that the third baseman has been hugely disappointing in the first 2 1/2 months of the regular season. 

Bregman is slashing just .246/.331/.355 with six home runs, 10 doubles, one triple, and 22 RBI in his first 69 games with the Cubs. His bat speed is down 1.2 mph from last year (69.8 mph), and his quality of contact has been abysmal for most of the season. 

Just look at his at-bat in Tuesday’s loss to the Colorado Rockies. 

Bregman stepped up to the plate in the top of the third inning with the bases loaded, one out, and the Cubs trailing by five runs. Rockies starter Tomoyuki Sugano then proceeded to throw him a hanging slider in the middle part of the zone. 

Instead of doing some real damage on that pitch, he hits that hanging slider to shallow left field for a sacrifice fly. 

What has been really disappointing to start Bregman’s Cubs tenure has been his lack of power and struggles with runners in scoring position. Both of those areas have brought down this offense significantly. 

Bregman has only six home runs in his first 314 plate appearances. His OPS sits at .686 on the season, and both his barrel rate (5.4%) and expected slugging (.375) rank in the bottom 35% of the league. 

Then, there are his troubles in clutch situations. The veteran is batting only .182 (14-for-77) with 17 RBI and 19 strikeouts with runners in scoring position, has a .097 batting average (3-for-31) with two outs and runners in scoring position, and is slashing just .229/.316/.313 with 11 RBI and 12 strikeouts in high-leverage spots.

For a player who gets paid $35 million a season, those struggles with runners in scoring position can't be overlooked. He simply hasn’t been producing when the Cubs have needed him most. 

There’s a lot of pressure on Bregman to perform after the Cubs can give him all that money in free agency. He’s supposed to be the engine of this offense and come through in key spots.

Unfortunately, that has not been the case.