Alex Bregman is not in denial about how his Cubs career has started. He used the words “god-awful” and “terrible” to describe his own play, and he was not exaggerating.
The veteran third baseman went 0-for-5 with a strikeout on Sunday in Chicago’s 2-1 extra-inning loss to the Giants at Wrigley Field. His first three at-bats were quick outs leading off innings on a combined nine pitches. His fourth was the killer.
With the game tied and runners on the corners with no outs in the bottom of the eighth, Bregman swung at the first pitch he saw on a ball out of the zone and grounded into a double play with a 68 mph exit velocity. The Cubs never recovered.
He even made the final out of the game, popping out weakly to the Giants shortstop in the bottom of the 10th.
“I’ve been terrible. I need to play better,” Bregman told reporters after the loss, per ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. “Offensively, it’s been awful. I’ve failed many times in this game. I’ve struggled. I’ve started slow before, I’ve started fast before. When you’re struggling, there is only one way forward and that’s straight, head-on through it. It comes down to executing in the game. I haven’t executed all year. Runners in scoring position, I’ve been god-awful. I need to be better.”
That is not a player making excuses. That is a guy looking at the numbers and confronting them.
The Cubs signed Bregman to a five-year, $175 million deal in January. The decision has aged like milk. Through 65 games, he is hitting .243 with five home runs, 19 RBIs, and an OPS just under .670. His situational numbers are worse. His batting average drops to .173 with runners in scoring position.
The most alarming stat? Bregman leads the entire major leagues with 143 runners left stranded this season. That is the kind of number that ends offensive rallies and lineup coverage.
What changed? Probably not the swing or the eye. Bregman has always been a smart hitter who knew the strike zone. The Cubs are paying for a smaller version of him while expecting the Astros version that drove in 90-plus runs a year.
There is a real chance this is just a slump that ends in the next week. Bregman has hit before and will hit again. There is also a real chance this is what 32-year-old Bregman looks like for a while, and the Cubs are stuck with four more years of a deal they wish they could redo.
Owning the slump is the right first step. The next step is fixing it. The Cubs need their third baseman to be a third baseman, not a designated rally killer.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
