This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
CHICAGO -- The play could easily be overlooked, given that it happened when the Cubs were already in the midst of a blowout win over the Pirates on Friday afternoon. Still, it offered a snapshot of a specific area in which Alex Bregman has excelled this season.
In the sixth inning of the Cubs’ 12-2 win, Rafael Flores Jr. chopped a pitch from Cubs lefty Shota Imanaga to the left side of the infield. Bregman was swiftly on the move, ranging to his left to collect the grounder in front of shortstop Nico Hoerner. The third baseman then fired the ball on the run to complete the slick out.
“He’s played an incredible third base,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said.
Bregman’s offensive performance this season has been well documented and dissected -- especially considering his cold start and incredible turnaround -- but he has quietly pieced together one of the best defensive showings of his career. It has been the type of defense that could very well net him a second career Gold Glove Award.
Entering play on Sunday, Bregman was tied with San Diego’s Manny Machado for first among Major League third basemen in both Outs Above Average (+8) and Fielding Run Value (+6), per Statcast. Bregman’s 12 Defensive Runs Saved were second to only the Giants' Matt Chapman (15), while his 8.7 Defensive Runs Above Average rating on Fangraphs led MLB third basemen.
“I take a ton of pride in that,” Bregman said of his defense. “Minus maybe the first week or so, I feel like I’ve been one of the elite defenders in all of baseball. And I feel like we’ve got a team of elite defenders. I feel really good on that side of the ball as well.”
Out of the gates this season, there were a handful of plays that Bregman felt he should have finished, but he quickly won over the coaching staff with his willingness to look into how to make the corrections. Bregman praised Major League coach Jonathan Mota, who works with the team’s infielders, for helping shore up his defensive play.
“In Alex’s case,” Cubs bench coach Ryan Flaherty said, “the trust level in the coaches [came from] him admitting he was not right in the first [few] weeks of the year. There were balls going past him that he, himself, was saying, ‘This isn’t me.’ There’s some trust in knowing he recognizes what’s happening and he’s going to fix it.”
Where Bregman has improved the most has been on lateral plays to his left -- like the gem he pulled off against Flores on Friday. Six of his Outs Above Average have come via plays in that category, marking the most of his career. He has also had +3 OAA on balls he has had to run in to collect.
When Bregman picked up a Gold Glove Award with the Astros in 2024, he posted a +8 Fielding Run Value, and he is closing in on that career-best mark once again. The +8 OAA this season to date is tied with ’22 and ’24 for the most in his career.
With other Gold Glove winners around the diamond -- Pete Crow-Armstrong in center, Ian Happ in left, Dansby Swanson at short and Hoerner at second -- Bregman has fit right in with what has been the best defense in baseball.
“The organization values defense,” Flaherty said. “Obviously, the guys like Pete [stand out], but someone like Bregman, he’s had a huge year defensively. I think the organization expects players to be able to play good defense. We put a lot of emphasis on it.”