On Alex Bregman
What does this mean for Matt Shaw and Nico Hoerner?
Last Saturday night was wild. As the Bears’ comeback over the Packers was beginning to develop, news broke that the Cubs had signed third baseman Alex Bregman to a five-year, $175 million deal. I wrote about some of the particulars of the contract at CHGO, which you can take a look at in full here, but there are a few things I want to highlight and expand on.
Number one, the makeup of the contract:
According to multiple reports, the Cubs inked Bregman using a strategy they had avoided thus far: Deferred money. Of the reported $175 million Bregman will earn over the next five years, $70 million of it is deferred. That is expected to push the Cubs’ present-day commitment to under $35 million a year for Bregman, which will also keep them below the first tier of the luxury tax threshold. That is significant because it leaves room for the Cubs to add further this offseason or to take on money via trade in July, should they choose to go over the luxury tax.
Deferring money isn’t a brand-new strategy (look up the terms of Bobby Bonilla’s contract with the Mets from 1999, for example), but never before had teams been deferring money at the scale that they have the past few years. Doing that has given the Dodgers an incredible advantage, and slowly other organizations are beginning to follow suit. I’ve written about it here before, but my opinion is that in order to combat what the Dodgers are doing, you have to start playing the same game. And teams like the Cubs can afford to do that.
Now that they’ve dipped their toes in these waters with Bregman’s contract, it might signal a shift in financial philosophy from the top of the organization. I’ve never thought the Ricketts were outright cheap, though at times I’ve thought they were overly frugal with their investment in the roster. But in this case, they outbid the Red Sox for Bregman and used a contract structure they had previously balked at. That’s probably a good sign for frustrated Cubs fans.
The contract structure also keeps the Cubs from going over the first tier of the luxury tax threshold, and it (maybe) keeps money open for more spending this winter or for taking on money in a trade at the July trade deadline. I say maybe because the contract structure could be there just so they can avoid paying the luxury tax penalty and nothing else.
The other noteworthy thing to consider now that the Cubs have signed Bregman is what it will mean for two other infielders: Matt Shaw and Nico Hoerner:
