Alex Bregman hasn’t been a Cub for more than a cup of coffee, but he’s already wearing out his welcome.
The $175 million man heard it from the Cubs broadcast team on Sunday as Chicago was down 1-0 in the top half of the sixth inning when Bregman came to the dish with a runner in scoring position.
“Ground ball to short, Adames bobbles it,” Jon “Boog” Sciambi says on the broadcast just before Bregman is tossed out at first base. “Bregman goes down the line, but he’s still thrown out.”
The Cubs would still wind up rallying back from 1-0 to win the pivotal NL Central matchup with the Brewers to win 4-3 and take two out of three games in Milwaukee.
Bregman certainly could have put more effort into getting down the line faster, as he was ball-watching and not head down, digging for first base.
“Could’ve gone a little harder… You don’t have to try and win an Olympic medal every time you get down the first base line, but you need to go a little harder than that,” color analyst Jim Deshaies said of Bregman.
Amid all the offseason bluster from teams trying to sign highly-priced players, the most coveted players have been disappointing, and perhaps none more so than Bregman.
Bregman starred for the Red Sox last season with an .821 OPS while hitting .273 and playing a gold glove caliber third base.
The results haven’t been the same in Chicago, as he’s putting up career-worsts with a .671 OPS and a .239 average.
Bregman’s struggles are not isolated to him, though, as many offseason big-money free agents have struggled this year and put up below-expectation numbers, including the Dodgers’ Kyle Tucker and Mets’ Bo Bichette.
Chicago has fought through it and played better baseball of late, and they just smashed the Mets in a four-game set, after which they fired manager Carlos Mendoza.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
