After an excellent first year with the Chicago Cubs, outfielder Kyle Tucker left for Los Angeles in the offseason. With the team suddenly in need of a Tucker replacement, Alex Bregman was brought in to provide stability and leadership to a franchise looking for another World Series title.
But the pairing hasn’t worked out so far. In his first season in Chicago, Bregman has been awful, hitting just .243/.327/.342 in 65 games.
His struggles reached a bit of a breaking point Sunday night, as Bregman went 0-for-5 and made the last out in the Cubs’ 2-1 extra-innings loss to the San Francisco Giants on “Sunday Night Baseball.”
After that performance, Bregman lit into himself, saying he’s been “terrible” and “awful” this season, per ESPN.
“I’ve been terrible,” Bregman said. “I need to play better. 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.”
He didn’t stop there, admitting he’s been miserable with runners in scoring position all season before concluding, “I need to figure it out.”
Bregman, 32, is in the first year of the five-year, $175 million contract he signed with the Cubs in January. Over his career, Bregman has been a strong and consistent hitter, with a career .271/.363/.473 slash line, a far cry from his current numbers.
If there’s a reason for optimism, Bregman said he had a few ideas on how he can improve moving forward. He said there were some mechanical changes he could make at the plate to get himself back on track.
While Bregman has never been a Statcast darling, his metrics are worse than usual this season. Bregman’s barrel rate, average exit velocity and hard-hit rate are all down compared to last season, as is his average bat speed. Bregman has shown the ability to overcome poor Statcast metrics in the past, so there’s still hope for a bounce back, but it hasn’t been the most encouraging start.
Despite that, the Cubs still sit two games over .500. While that would normally be a reason for optimism, the Cubs find themselves in a surprisingly tough National League Central this year. Both the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals are exceeding expectations, leaving the Cubs in fourth place entering play Monday.
Bregman returning to form at the plate would go a long way toward the Cubs moving up in the standings. While it hasn’t been a great start to his Cubs tenure, Bregman is a seasoned veteran, and has months to prove he was the right signing for the team.
After taking responsibility for his struggles, Bregman now needs to prove he can live up to those words and get back to form.
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