Article: What is Alex Bregman Doing Differently Since Returning?

[Finley Rogan]

It has been nearly a month since Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman returned from an injury that took him out for 43 games. Bregman was a lone bright spot on a struggling team when he went down. By the time he was set to return, the Red Sox had turned the season around, and now, they have gone 13-9 in games Bregman has played in since the injury and look likely to make the postseason. 

In 226 plate appearances before getting injured, Bregman was slashing .299/.385/.553 with 11 home runs. Since his return he has slashed .295/.368/.474 with three home runs across 87 plate appearances. The only significant difference in those two slash lines is the nearly 80 point drop in slugging percentage in the post-injury games. That's no fluke: Bregman is hitting the ball about four miles per hour softer compared to his pre-injury stint. The potential decline in power will not break Bregman's season, but it would be nice to see him raise the slugging percentage closer to the elite level it was at in the early months.

Bregman still leads all qualified Red Sox hitters as he carries a 148 wRC+. He also leads the team in wOBA, and is second in K%, SLG, and ISO. His ability to avoid strikeouts has been especially key as the Red Sox offense has been the third-most prone in MLB to punching out. A key to Bregman's torrid early season was his percentage of batted balls that were pulled in the air. Bregman has an elite Pull AIR% of 29.5 this season, the highest mark of his career and one of the best in baseball.

As we can see above, Bregman has seen a decrease to both his fly ball and pull percentages since the injury. This is explanatory of the slight power drop. For Bregman to return to his early season power, he needs to pull the ball in the air more—simple enough, right? Well, perhaps not, especially since Bregman's approach has slightly shifted in conjunction with this power outage.

The third baseman was striking out 18.6% of the time before his injury, which is well above his career average of 13.6%. Since his return, Bregman is below his career number, as his strikeout rate sits at 11.5% in that stretch. It could be that Bregman had to sacrifice some strikeout evasion to find his early season power, though if he is still feeling the effects of his quad injury, a higher-contact, lower-power Bregman is still an extremely valuable player.

Defensively, Bregman has remained average, sitting at -1 OAA. Though he won't win a Gold Glove again, Bregman’s return to third base has brought stability to a position that experienced none while he was out. The same goes for his position in the lineup—it is comforting for fans to know Bregman will be slotted between second and fourth in the batting order every night. 

Overall, Bregman remains one of the very best players on the Red Sox. It is nice that the offense is no longer completely on his shoulders thanks to the emergence of players like Roman Anthony and Wilyer Abreu. However, Bregman is a player who thrives with pressure, and his performance should improve as the season winds down and the stakes grow. Hopefully, the Red Sox can get to a place in the postseason where they can find out just how clutch Bregman really is.

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His power outage is probably due to the right quad injury. He's still noticeably slower and any decrease in lower body strength would take away from his pull air potential. He may be intentionally adjusting his approach because of his quad.