Alex Bregman Ready to Mentor Pete Crow-Armstrong with ‘Nerdy Approach’
Alex Bregman’s reputation precedes him as a hard-working baseball junkie. A major reason the Cubs signed him to a five-year, $175 million deal is the mentorship he can offer the team’s young core.
While appearing on David Kaplan’s podcast, Jed Hoyer discussed how Bregman wanted to align with the organization’s hitting plans when speaking with different prospects. As Hoyer says in the interview, that’s not normal.
Alex Bregman🙌🙌💯💯💯 pic.twitter.com/pPVwSBkpJw
— David Kaplan (@thekapman) January 29, 2026
During his time in the major leagues, Bregman has seen a tremendous amount of success. He has a career 133 wRC+ and 43.1 fWAR, along with 209 home runs across 1,225 games. He has won two World Series and appeared in 102 playoff games. Throughout his 10-year career, Bregman has missed the playoffs only once, in 2016, when he appeared in just 49 games for the Houston Astros.
As those accolades make clear, Bregman has been there and done that. With the Cubs entering a strong competitive window, Bregman’s experience will be very helpful throughout the long season.
On Thursday, Ken Rosenthal published an article in The Athletic about Bregman’s leadership and how impactful he will be in the Cubs’ clubhouse. I encourage you to check out the piece in its entirety, as Rosenthal spoke with several players to gather stories about their past experiences with Bregman.
One player mentioned in the article is Pete Crow-Armstrong, who is looking to build off a 2025 season in which he clubbed 31 home runs and posted a 5.4 fWAR. One of Crow-Armstrong’s biggest issues last season was his plate discipline and swing decisions. His chase rate of 41.7 percent ranked in the second percentile across baseball, and his walk rate was not much better.
He’s entering his age 24 season, so there is PLENTY of time to grow. Crow-Armstrong is set to be one of Bregman’s ‘projects’, with a focus on his swing decisions.
“He’s excited to see my OBP go up and my swing rate go down,” Crow-Armstrong told Rosenthal. “It’s everything that everybody else probably wants to see. But the way he talks about it is really cool. It’s a nerdy approach to hitting, but it’s never overcomplicated.”
If Bregman is truly able to help Crow-Armstrong with these issues, the Cubs center fielder is going to have quite the season. It’ll be exciting to see who else Bregman is able to help as the Cubs push for their first NL Central title since 2020, and their first in a full season since 2017 (yes, it’s been 9 years).
