Is the All-Star break coming at a bad time for the Cubs’ Alex Bregman?

BALTIMORE — Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso, two of baseball’s biggest free agents last offseason, had a quick conversation at first base Tuesday night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Both players are represented by agent Scott Boras, who finalized Alonso’s five-year, $155 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles in December and then closed Bregman’s five-year, $175 million deal with the Chicago Cubs in January, raising expectations in each market.

Although Alonso has done his part with 20 home runs and 62 RBIs, the Orioles are an underachieving team with a sub.-500 record, still waiting for a young core to step forward.

While Bregman has not yet lived up to the hype, the Cubs are still a playoff contender planning to buy at the Aug. 3 trade deadline. Beyond Bregman’s baseline as a Gold Glove third baseman with a strong on-base percentage and clubhouse presence, there are signs he’s finally starting to get into a good offensive flow.

Which makes you wonder: Is the All-Star break coming at a bad time?

“It’s funny, I was talking to Alonso about that,” Bregman said after Tuesday’s 5-2 win over the Orioles. “He’s like, ‘You feeling better?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, and in five days, you get the All-Star break.’ Oh, perfect.”

Feels don’t matter as much as results, though, and the Cubs will need more from Bregman (seven home runs, 35 RBIs, .678 OPS) to challenge the Milwaukee Brewers in the second half of the season and bring playoff baseball to Wrigley Field.

Bregman was supposed to be a finishing piece to last year’s 92-win team. While narrowly missing a sweep with Thursday afternoon’s 3-2 loss to the Orioles, this current group has already shown impressive resiliency amid pitching injuries and lineup inconsistencies.

Bregman isn’t looking for a chance to decompress next week. He wants every swing recorded — in the indoor batting cages, during batting practice on the field, on top of all the tracking technology used throughout a 162-game schedule. He has a personal hitting coach and a training facility in Arizona.

That reputation for precision and diligence influenced the organization’s evaluation of Bregman, 32, a two-time World Series champion with the Houston Astros whose adjustment period has lasted longer than anticipated.

Bregman’s conversations with the club’s hitting group — hitting coach Dustin Kelly, assistant hitting coaches John Mallee and Juan Cabreja, assistant director of major-league development Ben Martin, plus like-minded teammates — are continuous.

“He’ll be obsessed with it the four days we’re not playing,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “He’s going to be sending people videos during the break. That’s just who he is. That’s how he finds answers.”

Bregman went 0-for-4 in Wednesday’s 9-7 victory, ending a 12-game on-base streak, but the box score didn’t tell the entire story. He hit a sacrifice fly deep enough to score one run and advance two other runners, keeping the line moving during a five-run sequence in the seventh inning.

In Bregman’s first at-bat that night, Orioles left fielder Taylor Ward made a crashing catch at the wall. In Bregman’s last at-bat, he hit a line drive toward Baltimore third baseman Blaze Alexander with a 103 mph exit velocity. At times, there can be some elements of bad luck.

Certain fundamentals of Bregman’s game remain solid to exceptional, in terms of walk and strikeout rates, plus chase, whiff and squared-up percentages. Statcast places him between the 74th and 94th percentiles in those categories.

Yet the Cubs are paying Bregman to hit the ball hard, in the air and into the seats. Even if hitting with runners in scoring position can be a little fluky, the club needs more than a .190 batting average (20-for-105) in those situations.

“It’s not up to his expectations,” Kelly said. “He’s just not satisfied with where he’s at right now. He knows he’s better than what he’s shown.”

The Cubs targeted the final two weeks before the All-Star break as a building block, hoping to lay a foundation for the remaining 60-plus games. During this nine-game stretch so far, Bregman has collected eight hits, six walks and eight RBIs. He also hit his first home run in almost three weeks, which will be remembered for a cryptic thumbs-down gesture.

Before Wednesday’s game, Bregman and Kelly bounded up the dugout steps after an indoor hitting session, then stood together by the batting shell, demonstrating the lower half of a batting stance. Bregman’s swings in the cage were recorded as usual.

“We’re looking for certain moves, and a certain kind of timing and rhythm,” Kelly said. “And when one isn’t right, he wants to take a look at it and kind of figure out where it broke down. And then the ones that are right, we’ll take a look at it. It’s kind of like burning that into the system. We’re going to keep patterning it.”

Bregman isn’t the only Cubs hitter who places a heavy emphasis on video. Seiya Suzuki, for example, uses a similar process of recording as many swings as possible for study and reference. But Bregman takes it to an extreme, in a way that still keeps him connected to the group.

“His attention to detail on the offensive side, and just kind of his obsession with being a hitter, is definitely on a level I’ve never seen before,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “That wouldn’t work for a lot of guys, but it just comes from a true place of joy and love for the game. He’s able to take that seriously, but also make fun of himself and other people and keep things light.”

As the Cubs packed up inside the visiting clubhouse at Camden Yards after Thursday’s loss, only a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds separated them from the All-Star break. A weekend at Great American Ball Park, a hitter-friendly venue, could create a little more momentum before a mini-vacation.

Even if they’re trying to relax anywhere other than a baseball stadium, Chicago’s hitting coaches will almost certainly be hearing from Bregman soon.

“I want to keep playing, but it is what it is,” Bregman said. “It’s starting to get back to being better. Just got to keep focusing on the stuff that I can control, which is the work every day, and that’s it.”

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