In it to win it: Bregman has been target of Cubs, Hoyer for years

Alex Bregman wasted no time clearing up misconceptions about his new team Thursday.

“I know the Cubs organization is focused on winning and I'm looking forward to doing that and winning a championship here,” the free-agent third baseman said.

Well, that's a relief. There were certainly reasons to question the Cubs commitment to spending the past few months. At the GM meetings, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer talked about Kyle Tucker in the past tense, as if there was no hope of keeping last year's prized acquisition.

Then the Marquee Network announced layoffs, which suggested the Cubs television network wasn't meeting monetary expectations, and the situation started to take on a 2020 tone. After the pandemic season the Cubs clearly faced some sort of cash crunch, because they laid off roughly half the front office, let Kyle Schwarber walk away and did a salary-dump trade of pitcher Yu Darvish.

The ensuing rebuild turned out reasonably well, more or less. But bringing on Bregman was finally proof the Cubs did have plans to reinvest all that ticket and beer revenue. Conveniently, it happened just before this weekend's Cubs Convention.

At Thursday's news conference, the Cubs made it sound like this was the plan all along. They swung and missed on Bregman before last season but put in another phone call when he opted out of his deal with the Red Sox.

“I thought it was trending (the Cubs') way probably from the beginning of the offseason,” Bregman said. “They expressed right away that they wanted me. They made it extremely clear that they value what I valued.”

Obviously, Bregman values winning. He's riding a streak of nine consecutive seasons making the playoffs, all with the Houston Astros until last year. He's played in four World Series, won two and logged 102 playoff games at the age of 31.

Bregman’s best years as an MLB hitter were in 2018 and ‘19, but he’s relatively consistent in recent seasons. He said he chose to wear the No. 3 with the Cubs because he wants that third championship.

The dedication to winning is why the Cubs were so intrigued. Hoyer talked about steps Bregman has already taken to get to know teammates and coaches. The New Mexico native has a reputation for getting to the ballpark early and taking a seat in the video room, so he can help formulate a winning game plan. He learned Spanish to be a better leader in the clubhouse.

Hoyer had a bit of a front-row description of Bregman's exploits because of former Houston manager A.J. Hinch. They had a brief run working together in the Padres front office before Hinch took over the Astros in 2015. Bregman made his major-league debut the following season.

“I talked to A.J. a lot about Alex over the years,” Hoyer said. “Just the incredible intensity every single day in the video room, in the cage, trying to develop a plan to win that night. So I felt like I had pretty good inside knowledge of what he brings.”

Bregman has been eyeing Chicago as well. Growing up in Albuquerque, most everyone was a Bears fan because of New Mexico native Brian Urlacher. Bregman said sometime around 2016 he made a sports trip to Chicago with his dad and uncle. The trio went to Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks games in a span of a few days.

Bregman re-created that experience this week. He's already been to Blackhawks and Bulls games, and he is planning to attend Sunday's Bears-Rams playoff battle.

News that Bregman was joining the Cubs broke during the fourth quarter of the Bears-Packers game last Saturday. Bregman said just before the game was about to start, momentum with the Cubs picked up. His wife, Reagan, started looking for housing options in Chicago, and once the move was official, Bregman headed off down the street to visit one of his Arizona neighbors, Cubs pitcher Jameson Taillon.

“We talked about the Cubs, talked about all the guys on the team, talked about the organization,” Bregman said. “Just hearing how excited he was, and the rest of the guys were, it was awesome.

“Dansby (Swanson) texted me maybe five seconds after it went through. He was excited. He was at a wedding, I called him, we talked for a second. Talked to PCA (Pete Crow-Armstrong) and (Ian) Happ and a lot of the guys that have been here over the last few days.”

Bregman said he even got positive reviews about the Cubs from a pair of former Astros teammates — Tucker and pitcher Ryan Pressly. Tucker's not coming back, and Pressly was let go on Aug. 1, so those are impressive endorsements.

Regarding the future of third baseman Matt Shaw and second baseman Nico Hoerner, Hoyer suggested Shaw could be a super sub and play all over the field like Kris Bryant back in the day. Hoyer never used the words, “We're not trading Hoerner” but stressed how much the Cubs value him, which was already obvious.

For now, the goal is for Bregman's attitude to rub off on everyone at Wrigley Field.

“I feel like to be the best in this game, you have to win,” he said. “It drives me every single day, every time I show up to the ballpark, and I'm looking forward to doing that here.”