‘I’ve been terrible’: Alex Bregman blames himself for the Cubs’ downturn

Alex Bregman sat at his locker inside the quiet Wrigley Field clubhouse late Sunday night, waiting for a group of reporters to approach. Once viewed as the missing piece to complete this Chicago Cubs team, he stood up and shouldered all of the blame.

“I’ve been terrible,” Bregman said after a 2-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants that lasted 10 innings. “I need to play better. Offensively, it’s been awful.”

Jed Hoyer’s front office targeted Bregman as a free agent with the idea that the All-Star third baseman’s championship experience and middle-of-the-order presence would boost the lineup. In signing a 32-year-old player to a five-year, $175 million contract that includes $70 million worth of deferred money, the Cubs went far outside their comfort zone.

In theory, Bregman’s calming presence and competitive nature would also help even out the season’s inevitable highs and lows. In reality, the Cubs haven’t won a series since early May, falling to 7½ games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central.

Right now, Bregman feels like he’s dragging his teammates down.

“I’ve failed many times in this game,” Bregman said. “I’ve struggled before. I’ve started slow before. And when you’re struggling, there’s only one way forward, and that’s straight, head on, through it. You get after it in your work. It comes down to executing in the game, and I haven’t executed all year. Runners in scoring position, I’ve been god-awful.”

Overall, in terms of OPS+, Bregman has been close to a league-average hitter, but the Cubs are obviously paying him to do more. He’s produced only five home runs, two of them in the first two games of the season. Situationally, he’s batting .178 (13 for 73) with a .448 OPS with runners in scoring position.

“I need to be better,” Bregman said. “If I’m better over the last however many games, we probably win the majority of them. I’ve had plenty of opportunities with guys in scoring position. I need to be better, plain and simple.”

With this offensive malaise lingering, the Cubs escaped with only two walk-off victories during this 2-4 homestand against the Athletics and Giants, two series against sub-.500 teams that represented an opportunity to shift momentum.

In total, the Cubs scored seven runs over their 29 innings against the Giants. A microcosm of this teamwide funk came Sunday night when pinch-runner Kevin Alcántara made a glaring mistake.

Stationed at third base with another runner at first base and no outs in the eighth inning, Alcántara ran halfway toward home plate when Bregman hit a line drive at Giants first baseman Rafael Devers, who immediately threw over to third base for the double play.

With the frustration building, scattered boos echoed throughout Wrigley Field when Bregman popped out to Giants shortstop Willy Adames to end the game. The same Cubs team that posted a 15-0 stretch at the Friendly Confines in April and May is now getting regularly booed at home.

“Those can be directed at me because I haven’t come through with guys in scoring position,” Bregman said. “I have plenty of chances. Guys are getting on base in front of me all the time. I feel like we got traffic out there all the time, so it’s time to start coming through. It’s past due.”

At the same time, Bregman said he “100%” expects to get back on track. A player with a well-known reputation for being a baseball gym rat also understands that it is all just talk until he starts getting results.

“Some mechanical things are off that are setting everything off, and it’s putting me in between,” Bregman said. “I’m out in front on soft, and late on fastballs. I haven’t covered anything from the middle of the plate in all year, any hard in. I’m getting too disconnected, too separated.

“We looked at a lot of stuff before the game today, and worked on a lot of stuff before the game today. The work was the best it’s been all year. But none of that matters at all. I got to come through in the game when it matters.”

© 2026 The Athletic Media Company. All Rights Reserved. Distributed by New York Times Licensing.