BREAKING: Cubs Sign Third Baseman Alex Bregman to Five-Year Deal

[TarzanJoeWallis]

10 minutes ago, Bertz said:

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/s/0odU2gzv51

Am I crazy or does this imply that the Cubs had their offer out to Bregman for several weeks?

Sounded to me like he was talking about the Red Sox, not the Cubs, when he was saying they had made an offer early in the offseason. 

[KCCub]

 

 

[KCCub]

20 minutes ago, Bertz said:

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/s/0odU2gzv51

Am I crazy or does this imply that the Cubs had their offer out to Bregman for several weeks?

Probably -

 

 

[Cuzi]

9 minutes ago, TarzanJoeWallis said:

Sounded to me like he was talking about the Red Sox, not the Cubs, when he was saying they had made an offer early in the offseason. 

Yes, However, he said there was another offer higher on the table and then and only then did the Red Sox go to 5/165. The 5/165 number has been rumored for at least a week.

I don't know if that higher offer was from the Cubs though. There were a few teams that seemed to gain a little more interest in Bregman after the Japanese market dried up.

[Cuzi]

1 minute ago, KCCub said:

Probably -

 

 

Really wish if they were willing to do this deal today, that they just did this horsefeathers last year and pushed a little harder to actually compete with Kyle Tucker.

[Jason Ross]

4 minutes ago, KCCub said:

 

 

It's clear these kinds of things matter to the Cubs. Matt alluded to Swanson in the same fashion in his article about Bichette and the Cubs and how the Cubs felt Swanson was a special case because of both his on the field play but his clubhouse presence. And I kind of get it; if you're hitching your wagon to someone for 5-7 years, you probably want to ensure that the player is going to be a positive in the clubhouse for those 5-7 years.

[Bertz]

12 minutes ago, TarzanJoeWallis said:

Sounded to me like he was talking about the Red Sox, not the Cubs, when he was saying they had made an offer early in the offseason. 

So the way I took AJ's story was this

- Sox made an offer early in the offseason

- Boras goes to the Red Sox and says "we have a better offer than that"

- Red Sox say "Sure, Jan"

- Boras goes back to the Red Sox like "no really we have a better offer than that"

- Red Sox up their offer to it's final form ($165 with crazy deferrals)

- Boras says that's not quite enough

- Red Sox scoff and say "fine then take it" and then he does

So like I'm wondering if the Cubs have had their offer out there for weeks (a month?) or if there's been multiple rounds of offers and the Cubs were just consistently ahead of the Sox.

Doesn't matter a ton either way, but would speak to Jed's aggressiveness.  Like if 5/$175 has just been hanging out there since like the winter meetings that'd be wild.

[Jason Ross]

5 minutes ago, Bertz said:

So the way I took AJ's story was this

- Sox made an offer early in the offseason

- Boras goes to the Red Sox and says "we have a better offer than that"

- Red Sox say "Sure, Jan"

- Boras goes back to the Red Sox like "no really we have a better offer than that"

- Red Sox up their offer to it's final form ($165 with crazy deferrals)

- Boras says that's not quite enough

- Red Sox scoff and say "fine then take it" and then he does

So like I'm wondering if the Cubs have had their offer out there for weeks (a month?) or if there's been multiple rounds of offers and the Cubs were just consistently ahead of the Sox.

Doesn't matter a ton either way, but would speak to Jed's aggressiveness.  Like if 5/$175 has just been hanging out there since like the winter meetings that'd be wild.

Based on how the Cubs have approached the offseason, it would seem a bit like the Cubs may have. You figure they pivoted from King pretty quickly, wanted to keep the AAV on Imai as low as possible, refused to do an opt-out deal there (higher AAV), signed guys like Tyler Austin, Jacob Webb and everyone on super cheap deals from essentially the WM's on. And Matt spoke about the Cubs looking to pair Imai with Bregman. 

[KCCub]

8 minutes ago, Bertz said:

So the way I took AJ's story was this

- Sox made an offer early in the offseason

- Boras goes to the Red Sox and says "we have a better offer than that"

- Red Sox say "Sure, Jan"

- Boras goes back to the Red Sox like "no really we have a better offer than that"

- Red Sox up their offer to it's final form ($165 with crazy deferrals)

- Boras says that's not quite enough

- Red Sox scoff and say "fine then take it" and then he does

So like I'm wondering if the Cubs have had their offer out there for weeks (a month?) or if there's been multiple rounds of offers and the Cubs were just consistently ahead of the Sox.

Doesn't matter a ton either way, but would speak to Jed's aggressiveness.  Like if 5/$175 has just been hanging out there since like the winter meetings that'd be wild.

I think the Sox original offer was something like 4/$135 and then upped to 5/$165 once Boras initially said they had a better offer on the table. I doubt the specific offer of 5/$175 has been there since winter meetings, but yea, do believe it's possible that the Cubs had their best offer in a few weeks ago and Bregman/Boras tried to get the Sox to top it. 

Edited January 12 by KCCub

[ILMindState]

22 minutes ago, KCCub said:

 

 

He's the new Justin Turner but not washed. This is also why they were reluctant to give Tucker the bag. Tucker is not really a leader type, he's seems kind of like a bland quite dude that is there along for the ride.

[Banks-Williams]

On 1/11/2026 at 1:02 PM, Gjfificifjdej said:

Most professional athletes are not the kinds of people I would want kids looking up to, this has been the case for my entire life. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy sports if I required the players on my favourite teams to be good human beings. I assume you didn’t watch any games last year because Tucker, another member of the sign stealing Astros was on the team?

Tucker was not on the 2017 team. And he barely played in ‘18-‘19.  He was a rookie  And there’s no evidence he knew about the cheating. His performance improved post 2019. 
 

I don’t ask for athletes to be perfect persons.  But stealing is a crime I won’t tolerate.  Too bad you don’t see that, or you’re okay with it. Bregman et al took the wealth of other players,  And they thought it was fun. Hoyer is a knucklehead for hiring a thief. 

[Banks-Williams]

On 1/11/2026 at 1:08 PM, Bertz said:

Something to keep in mind with adding Bregman to an already full lineup.  The level of health the Cubs got on the position player side last year was extremely fortunate.  And of course health aside if the bench had been less terrible each of those guys probably sits an extra 5-10 games organically.

Absolutely.  I was highly critical of Counsell playing his starters every day in the July/August heat in 2025.  I said he was doing a ‘69 Durocher.  Too bad he is not a student of history. He seems to be more concerned with studying his hair color and granting interviews. 

[Banks-Williams]

On 1/11/2026 at 11:27 AM, Jason Ross said:

The loser they just signed has been the 19th most valuable position player in baseball since 2022. I'd like it if the Cubs signed more losers like that.

He cheated his way to fame.  His performance is just above average outside the cheating years. Those years skewed his overall numbers.  Take a look at them before you say how great he is …

[Jason Ross]

Just now, Banks-Williams said:

He cheated his way to fame.  His performance is just above average outside the cheating years. Those years skewed his overall numbers.  Take a look at them before you say how great he is …

The cheating scandal was in 2017. How do you suppose that is reflected in the data from 2022 to now? 

[CubUgly]

3 hours ago, Hot Sauce said:

The Cubs have the ability to overpay where a good 2/3 of the league doesn't. This is absolutely how they should approach free agency and the players they covet. It's nice to see them act like the big market team that they are.

I can't say I'm always good with an overpay, but I'm typically more concerned with overpay in years more than $$$.  I'm good with both with Bregman, I agree with the Cubs that he will age relatively well. 

[KCCub]

38 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

The cheating scandal was in 2017. How do you suppose that is reflected in the data from 2022 to now? 

He was obviously still cheating duh. Especially the first half of last season where he had around a 160 wRC+ pre injury but stopped cheating post injury. 

I'm sure every other org was squeaky clean and wasn't experimenting with non traditional forms of sign stealing. We're only talking about billion dollar organizations here, they don't have a lot on the line...

[PeanutPunch33]

Getting Bregman + Cabrera are monster moves.  Great off season so far!

[CubinNY]

Get over the cheating horsefeathers. Baseball players have been cheating since Old Hoss Radbourn hawked a loogie on a Spalding and made it dance. 

There are guys cheating now, and we won't know about it until someone finds out. 

Just get over it. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

And while you're at it, find other ways to evaluate baseball players than Batting Average and Home Runs.

[jersey cubs fan]

1 hour ago, Jason Ross said:

The cheating scandal was in 2017. How do you suppose that is reflected in the data from 2022 to now? 

What’s his MAR in that timeframe? 
 

 

 

Morality Above Replacement 

[Hot Sauce]

2 hours ago, Jason Ross said:

It's clear these kinds of things matter to the Cubs. Matt alluded to Swanson in the same fashion in his article about Bichette and the Cubs and how the Cubs felt Swanson was a special case because of both his on the field play but his clubhouse presence. And I kind of get it; if you're hitching your wagon to someone for 5-7 years, you probably want to ensure that the player is going to be a positive in the clubhouse for those 5-7 years.

This is the kind of stuff that will sell me on a move I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about. Great to hear!

[imb]

the nsbb urge to argue with every coot who shows up talking about "whatever happened to batting average and sac bunts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[Rcal10]

3 hours ago, Jason Ross said:

It's clear these kinds of things matter to the Cubs. Matt alluded to Swanson in the same fashion in his article about Bichette and the Cubs and how the Cubs felt Swanson was a special case because of both his on the field play but his clubhouse presence. And I kind of get it; if you're hitching your wagon to someone for 5-7 years, you probably want to ensure that the player is going to be a positive in the clubhouse for those 5-7 years.

Which, IMO, is why I don’t think they were interested in Tucker. Not a bad guy, but not a leader and a bit of a loner. 

[Banks-Williams]

2 hours ago, Jason Ross said:

The cheating scandal was in 2017. How do you suppose that is reflected in the data from 2022 to now? 

Why would they stop after 2017?  The cheating wasnt revealed until late 2019.  Go on YouTube and watch the videos some sleuths put together sbout 2018-19. Altuve’s 2019 game 6 ALCS walk-off homer is highly questionable. Ken Rosenthal was bery suspicious and questioned him about why he prevented his teammates from removing his shirt.  Arrolis Chapman, the pitcher, believed he was cheating as well. The necklace beneath his shirt is believed to have contained a signaling device. Altuve gave some very strange answers when questioned about the fear of shirt removal (he’d removed it a few times before).  Go watch the videos, and you’ll be convinced they were cheating in 2019 up to at least the end of the ALCS. 

[Derwood]