Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The Chicago Cubs expected more out of Alex Bregman when they signed him to a five-year deal this winter.
- Since a strong start, the Cubs have lost 19 of 25 games, falling from first place to fourth in the NL Central with a .210 batting average during the slump.
- Bregman, signed to a $175-million contract, is underperforming with a .250/.333/.353 slash line and five homers. The Cubs need him to lead, not follow.
The last time I spoke to him, Craig Counsell was irritated.
His Chicago Cubs had just lost their 11th straight game on May 27, falling to the Pirates 12-1 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Left-hander Jordan Wicks was the biggest culprit that night as he gave up five runs in the first inning and eight runs in 4 2/3 innings overall.
What bothered Counsell more was that the Cubs were 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base.
“Somebody has got to step up and get a big hit in big spots,” Counsell said. “There’s not much more to say after that. You’ve got to conduct a big-league professional at-bat at some point. Those are the at-bats you should want during a game, those at-bats that can make a difference. And you’ve got to deliver. It’s a league of production. If you don’t deliver, then we’ll be talking about the same thing again.”
Some things change, while others don't.
The Cubs have stopped hitting
Indeed, Counsell and the Cubs are still talking about the same thing. A prolonged slump has led them to lose 19 of their last 25 games, including an 18-3 drubbing by the visiting San Francisco Giants at Wrigley Field on Friday.
The Cubs were in first place in the National League Central by 3 ½ games on May 9. Now they have fallen to fourth place, 6 ½ games behind the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers.
The Cubs have hit just .211/.302/.333 during the 26-game stretch, averaging 3.3 runs a game. Prior to the skid, they had a .258/.354/.429 slash line while averaging an MLB-best 5.5 runs per game.
On May 8, the Cubs defeated the Texas Rangers 7-1 at Globe Life Park in Arlington, improving to 27-12. That had Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer dreaming big.
“That Friday game in Texas, I thought we looked like World Series quality at-bats in that game, and we played great,” Hoyer told reporters Friday. ‘We haven’t really played well since then. We need to get back to playing like that again. We need to do it fairly soon. We got way over .500. We cashed a lot of that in, unfortunately.”
There have been at least a few signs that the Cubs might be getting close to getting their offense back on track, including leadoff-hitting center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is on an 11-game hitting streak. He is batting .413 (19 for 46) during the streak with three doubles and five home runs.
On the other hand, shortstop Dansby Swanson is having a lousy offensive season, hitting .180/.285/.322 in 61 games while in the fourth season of a seven-year, $177-million contract. Swanson has batted .130 in his last 14 games.
Alex Bregman isn't producing
And the other player on the left side of the infield has also been a major disappointment. Third baseman Alex Bregman’s slash line is .248/.332/.349 in 64 games with five homers and 19 RBIs. Bregman has homered only once and driven in five runs in his last 23 games.
The Cubs signed Bregman to a five-year, $175-million contract as a free agent in the offseason with the hope he could push them over the top and into the World Series for the first time since 2016 after losing to the Brewers in an NL Division Series last year.
The Cubs nearly landed him during the previous offseason before he signed with the Boston Red Sox.
“Anyone who’s spent time around our office, around me, knew that this is a player that I’ve coveted for a long time,” Hoyer said on the first day of spring training. “Every account I’ve ever gotten with Alex -- from college, minor leagues, two organizations in the major leagues -- it’s that this is truly an incredible teammate, and someone that is focused every single day on us winning.”
No one has ever questioned Bregman’s competitiveness, but the Cubs need production from him, too. At 32, it is fair to think that Bregman is in the decline phase of his career.
Yet Hoyer remains hopeful Bregman will turn his season around.
“Water finds its own level,” Hoyer said.
The Cubs would embrace some leveling, as they have already had two 10-game winning streaks and one 10-game losing streak this season. The only other team in MLB history to do that was the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers.
If it's any consolation to the Cubs, those Dodgers reached the World Series that season, where they lost to the Houston Astros – and Bregman.
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