Alex Bregman is one of the best bats still on the free agent market, and his list of suitors has changed numerous times throughout the offseason.
Now, you can add one more potential interested party to the list, though they aren't exactly a clean fit for the 30-year-old third baseman.
.@MLBBruceLevine thinks the Cubs may be in on Alex Bregman if it's a 1-3 year deal. pic.twitter.com/eejn4hpspv
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) January 15, 2025
The Cubs have had an interesting offseason, trading for Bregman's longtime teammate Kyle Tucker while adding plenty of depth to the back-end of their rotation. However, they also gave away Cody Bellinger in what amounted to a salary dump, and they have yet to truly reinforce a bullpen that was streaky at times last season.
Signing Bregman, a two-time All-Star who just won his first career Gold Glove in 2024, to a short-term deal might make a lot of sense on paper, but it doesn't fit the M.O. of this Cubs front office.
Bregman would make Cubs better, but at what cost?
First things first, what Bruce Levine said on Marquee Sports Network bears repeating: Bregman is only coming to the Cubs on a short-term deal, if he comes at all.
Jed Hoyer, Carter Hawkins and the rest of the braintrust on the North Side of Chicago simply isn't going to hand out a nine-figure contract at this point in the offseason. Certainly not after trading away Bellinger for peanuts, and certainly not before extending Tucker.
As Matt Trueblood laid out brilliantly over at North Side Baseball, Bregman would indeed make the Cubs a better team in 2025. His defense (six outs above average in 2024) would be a marked improvement over what the Cubs got from their conglomeration of "third baseman" last year, and his presence in the middle of the lineup would give the Cubs one of the better one-through-five hitters in the sport.
Bregman isn't the same hitter who posted a 157 wRC+ in 2018 and 167 wRC+ in 2019, though he's routinely exceeded 4.0 WAR when healthy, and his wRC+ has settled in the 120-130 range over the past three seasons. Is that the profile of a guy worth $200 million over six years, as agent Scott Boras is reportedly asking for? No, but that's an eminently valuable guy, especially on a one or two-year deal.
The issue is that Bregman is 1) already over the age of 30; 2) tied to draft pick compensation after turning down the qualifying offer; 3) an expensive free agent; and 4) not a clean fit on the Cubs' roster.
When the Cubs traded for Tucker, they gave away incumbent third baseman Isaac Paredes (and top third base prospect Cam Smith). That moved effectively paved the way for top prospect Matt Shaw to take over at the hot corner. If Bregman were to sign on, Shaw would either need to be relegated to the minor leagues or the bench, neither of which would be optimal for his development.
More likely, the Cubs would try to trade Nico Hoerner for pitching, and move Shaw over to second base. That would open up third base for Bregman, but any defensive gains he would add at the hot corner would be wiped out from the loss of Hoerner at second base.
There are other maneuvers that can be done to fit Bregman in, but they would all involve some form of the Cubs moving an established veteran with a sizable contract out.
In all, Bregman is a very good player who would make the 2025 Cubs a better team. Considering that Kyle Tucker might not be around longer than a year, that sounds like a wise investment to make.
Knowing this Cubs front office, though, Bregman isn't arriving in Chicago any time soon. The draft pick compensation alone makes signing him for a year a questionable investment, as would the need to move money out to make room in the books for the longtime Astro.
Don't expect anything to come of this rumor. If anything, the Cubs are being tossed into this conversation as a strategy by Boras to pinch a few more pennies out of teams that are actually interested in Bregman.