Alex Bregman's Defense Has Been the Best Surprise of the Cubs' Season

William Contreras didn't hit it correctly, but he hit it hard. In the top of the eighth inning Thursday night, Ryan Zeferjahn had gotten the first two outs easily, and he fired a 98-MPH sinker that ran in and down toward Contreras on the first pitch. Overeager, Contreras swung hard but (inevitably) topped the ball, hitting it almost straight down in front of his own left foot. It left his bat at over 90 MPH, but most of that energy went straight into the ground.

However, in the unseasonable September heat and near the end of the game, the area around home plate was hard and bouncy. The ball shot 30 feet in the air and sailed down the third-base line. Nine times out of 10, that batted ball is foul, but something about the spin and the bounce kept this one fair. It didn't land until it was about 10 feet past the third-base bag, and when it did, it was still fair. It was the kind of oddball schtoinker that threatens to be the spark from which a wildfire rally starts. Fortunately for the Cubs, Alex Bregman was there.

Bregman read the soaring bouncer perfectly, picking a short hop on the run and throwing almost immediately across the diamond to retire Contreras and end the inning. It looked like a good play; it was actually a great one.

That's pretty much par for the course for Bregman this year. As I wrote two months ago, his defense has never been better, but the places and ways in which he's improved are so subtle that they're often missable. He doesn't look like the second-best defensive third baseman in the game every time he takes the field, but that's what he's been this season. He's mostly been good at third throughout his career, but somehow, at age 32, he's improving, instead of losing value with the leather.

Dansby Swanson and Bregman communicate and cooperate brilliantly on the left side of the infield, but that's only part of the story. Bregman has learned to better utilize his tools on defense, too. He's playing a bit deeper and a half-step closer to the line this year than last season, and after two years of improving mostly on the strength of cleaning up plays to his right, he's now excelling by ranging well to his left. As the above attests, though, he can still get to and play balls on the line, too. Playing deeper is the real key to everything. It means he has more time to flag balls down and more momentum behind him when he goes from fielding the ball to throwing it. 

Speaking of throwing it, though, that's the most fun change to observe. A few years ago, Bregman has a good chance to field the ball above, but throwing out the runner is a lot more iffy. He's not a big guy; he still doesn't have even average raw arm strength. However, he's gotten a whole lot more accurate—including knowing when to put more oomph on one, and when bouncing the throw makes sense or doesn't. Beginning in 2024, Bregman cleaned up his throws to first. His on-target rate (the percentage of his throws that arrive within a five-foot fan around first base and between 1 and 7 feet above the ground) is a career-best 84.5% this season; he was in the mid-70s from 2021 through 2023.

On plays like the one he made Thursday night, even if Bregman got the tricky footwork and pick right, past versions of him wouldn't have made life so easy for his first baseman; there's a good chance the runner would have ended up being safe. 

In the modern game, almost no one is better than ever at age 32. So far, though, it looks like Bregman might be the exception. His makeup is off the charts; that's always been part of the appeal. Watching him make plays like that one (amid one of the hottest streaks of his career at the plate, no less), however, it gets easier to remember that makeup isn't just about keeping the clubhouse a happy place. Bregman's focused, intelligent, obsessive work has made him worth 13 Defensive Runs Saved this year. That's as big a reason why the Cubs are a virtual lock to make the playoffs as the fact that he's broken out of his early offensive funk and become the third heat of the Chicago offense. He's winning games for the team in every way possible.

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