The Boston Red Sox got a lot of heat throughout the offseason as they watched Alec Bregman walk to the Chicago Cubs, but did they actually make the right decision?
Now, the 2026 Major League Baseball season is still very young, so it's too early to speak in absolutes, but the Bregman deal hasn't been great for the Cubs. Bregman inked a five-year, $175 million deal with Chicago that also has a full no-trade clause. He's 32 years old now and hasn't gotten off to a hot start in 2026.
Through 15 games, Bregman is slashing .213/.290/.328 with a .618 OPS. He has two homers, one double and six RBIs. That's a big step back from what he did with Boston last year when he slashed .273/.360/.462 with 18 homers, 62 RBIs and 28 doubles in 114 games played. Bregman looked like an MVP candidate before he hurt his quad in May. Then, his offense never fully returned.
Again, he has played in just 15 games so far this season. It's too small a sample size for absolutes. But at this point last year, he was slashing .290/.338/.484 with an .822 OPS. On top of that, he had two homers, 12 RBIs and six doubles.
When you see big deals like Bregman got this past offseason, you expect the end of the deal to not be great financially. Bregman is under contract for five seasons. He's going to be 36 years old during the 2030 season, his final year under contract with Chicago. You expect the numbers to likely take a hit by then, but you give out big deals like that with the expectation that the short term will be really good.
If this version of Bregman stays, it's going to look like Boston avoided a disaster of a contract in the long run. It's been just about two weeks. He'll likely turn it around, but the deal doesn't look great so far and the Red Sox look better for not handing it out. Imagine how Boston fans would be if the club gave him $175 million to then struggle? It would've been brutal.