Alex Bregman Owns Lack of Execution, Understands Fans Booing Performance

No one believed Alex Bregman was going to recapture the offensive prowess of his first five seasons, but the Cubs were willing to pay for his leadership and professionalism. Even putting up something like a 115 wRC+ with 3.0 fWAR or so, both career lows for a full season, would have been acceptable in light of the third baseman’s other presumed contributions. Between his tutelage of Pete Crow-Armstrong and his familiarity with winning on the biggest stage, Bregman was meant to usher the Cubs from also-rans to leaders of the pack.

Instead, the Cubs are sitting in a third-place tie, just two games above .500 and 7.5 games behind the division-leading Brewers. They haven’t won a series in over a month and they’re among the bottom three teams in MLB when it comes to runs scored (95, 28th), average (.212, 29th), slugging (.333, 29th), and wOBA (.290, 29th). That can’t all be blamed on Bregman, of course, but earning the highest AAV in club history painted a bigger target on his back.

So when the would-be star carries just a .173 batting average and 22 wRC+ in 84 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, people are going to get a little testy. For context, that latter mark is worse than all but four of 190 qualified MLB hitters. Bregman went 0-for-5 with a strikeout in Sunday’s loss to the Giants, lining into a crucial double play in the bottom of the 8th that squandered a chance to push across the go-ahead run from third.

To be fair, that failure was more a matter of Kevin Alcántara‘s baserunning gaffe than Bregman’s broken-bat flair to first. Not to stray too far from the subject matter, but I’m still baffled by Craig Counsell‘s usage of Alcántara. While smarter baseball minds than I explained that he was called up to be a short-side platoon bat, I maintain that his skillset is not suited to situational usage. He’s got big power with lots of swing-and-miss, and big speed with what appears to be limited baserunning prowess.

Unless Alcántara is going to be in the lineup regularly, I really don’t see the purpose in having him on the roster at all. But what’s really baffling is why Counsell would choose to deploy the young outfielder as a pinch runner despite the fact that he’s already been chastised at least twice for poor decisions and/or laziness on the bases. The manager opted for Miguel Amaya as the pinch hitter for Moisés Ballesteros when the Giants went with a lefty, then subbed Alcántara as a runner when Amaya walked.

One egregiously large lead and a big secondary that wasn’t decreased when Bregman hit that soft liner, and the Cubs’ rally was effectively killed.

“I’ve been terrible,” Bregman said after the game, per Jesse Rogers. “I need to play better. Offensively, it’s been awful. I’ve failed many times in this game. I’ve struggled. I’ve started slow before, I’ve started fast before. When you’re struggling, there is only one way forward, and that’s straight, head-on through it. It comes down to executing in the game.

“I haven’t executed all year. Runners in scoring position, I’ve been god-awful. I need to be better. If I’m better over the last how many games, we probably win the majority of them.”

The part about not executing all year is not quite right, as Bregman had gone through a nice stretch for the last three weeks of May. Even so, his .298 average over 91 plate appearances came with just two homers and five runs driven in. His .099 ISO stands as the lowest of his career by far and is less than half of his overall .202 average, plus he’s walking less and striking out more.

That kind of performance falls short of even the most pessimistic expectations, and it’s why Bregman was unceremoniously serenaded following that double play. Some of the ire was no doubt directed at Alcántara, or just the Cubs in general, but Bregman’s role dictates that he wear more of the blame than those around him.

“Those can be directed at me because I haven’t come through with guys in scoring position,” Bregman offered. “I have plenty of chances. Guys are getting on-base in front of me all the time.”

The “I” there may as well be “we,” as the Cubs simply haven’t done a good enough job of bringing runners home. Their beleaguered pitching staff can barely hold it together in most games, so you’d think holding an opposing offense to just one run in regulation would be enough. Nope, not quite. Something has to change at some point, but we’ve been saying that for weeks now and it’s looking more and more like mediocrity might end up being aspirational.

It’s kind of a cop-out to look at this team and say that the solution is for the Cubs to play better, but that’s really all there is to it. Most of these guys simply aren’t playing as well as they can or should be, and it’s getting a little late in the season for a big turnaround. There are 96 games left, though, so it’s not time to start shoveling dirt on the grave just yet.

Now it’s time for Bregman and company to start digging up.