Alex Bregman’s Bat Appears Postseason Ready, Cubs Still Unsure of Role

One week after suffering multiple facial fractures when he was struck by a foul ball while waiting on deck, Alex Bregman went 4-for-4 with a pair of home runs and a double to key the Cubs’ win against the Red Sox in Tampa. Man, what a weird sentence that was to write. Using a helmet with an extended C-flap on the left side to provide better protection for his face, Bregman hit more homers than the rest of his team managed over the final six games of the season.

That’s very good news for the Cubs, who limped into the postseason and must now face the Padres in a ballpark that is not as conducive to the longball as they’d prefer. Having Bregman back near the top of the lineup, really back and hitting like he has been throughout the second half, makes the lineup far more dangerous and not as one-dimensional. Kind of a big change from Friday in Boston.

Bregman served as the DH in the series opener, batting third and going 0-for-4 with a strikeout. He did show a little promise, however, hitting a 97 mph fly to left after two bits of weaker contact in his first two trips to the plate. It’s understandable that he was being a little tentative, and he was able to identify a flaw in his stance with help from Cubs staffer Ben Martin.

You may remember Martin, the team’s assistant director of major league development, as the one who went through some deep-cut clips with Bregman earlier in the season. Whether it was a defense mechanism or just accounting for the different visual provided by his altered helmet, or both, something was off in that Friday game.

“[We were] trying to figure out what felt a little weird the first game back,” Bregman told MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian and other reporters in Tampa. “I was kind of looking uphill and kind of [leaning] back. So I kind of got a little bit more into it, into a little bit more of an attacking posture today. It felt better.”

As for how he and the Cubs feel about putting him back at third base, well, that’s another story. Bregman says he wants to be back out in the field, but Craig Counsell isn’t necessarily sold on the idea. They don’t call it the hot corner for nothing, and playing defense means having less protection than what is offered by the helmet with double C-flaps that Bregman wears now when he reaches base.

“We’ll just kind of see how he feels every day,” Counsell said. “I think he’s improving every day, but he’s got multiple face fractures, and it’s been [a week]. So we’ll just see how he feels. One thing I’m thinking about is the risk of more exposure. I think his at-bats are the most important thing that we can get.”

I tend to agree when we’re talking about a player who finished the season with 5.6 fWAR, tied with Randy Arozarena for seventh in MLB. Most of that came after the All-Star break, as Bregman’s 3.7 fWAR trailed only Pete Crow-Armstrong (4.7) for the most in baseball. Bregman’s surge in the finale pulled him ahead of Elly De La Cruz and edged out Fernando Tatis Jr. by about 15 thousandths of a point.

Tatis has likewise been on a tear after getting off to a slow start that saw him go homerless over his first 238 plate appearances of the season. He’s hit 25 since then, just one more than Bregman in the same period. Then again, Tatis got 27 more PAs than his counterpart. While this Wild Card series isn’t an individual battle, the outcome could hinge on the performances of a few star players.

Sure, we usually see an unlikely hero or two stepping up in these big moments. But when you have teams so clearly defined by a handful of superstar players, this is the time for them to remain well out in the forefront. Bregman has played in the postseason in each of his 10 full seasons, only missing as a rookie with Houston. He chose the No. 3 jersey to signify his desire to win a third World Series title, and he’s going to need to do some heavy lifting to get that done this year.

I don’t think anyone, present company included, is giving the Cubs a realistic shot at capturing the crown in 2026. That said, most probably didn’t believe Bregman would have gotten back on the field, let alone as an impact hitter, just a few days after that freak injury.