Alex Bregman validates Tigers' offseason inaction with sad sack comments amid Cubs slump

Tigers fans desperately wanted to see the front office add a bat over the offseason ... unless it was Alex Bregman.

Yes, Bregman was one of the best bats available on a relatively weak free agent market in the 2025-26 offseason. Yes, the Tigers had been prepared to give him a contract worth almost $30 million a season just the year prior. Yes, they might've been better off with him in the lineup.

But Bregman had already spurned the Tigers once, and Scott Harris made it abundantly clear that he had no interest in reopening that wound when Bregman reentered the free agent market after a single season with the Red Sox.

For better or worse, Tigers fans loved that Harris and the front office were unwilling to sacrifice their pride to sign a guy who would've only ever come to Detroit to cash the checks.

There was always the possibility that Bregman would go on to put up another All-Star season and force Tigers fans to wonder about what could've been, but thankfully, that hasn't been the case at all this season.

Bregman is hitting .243 with a .669 OPS with the Cubs through 65 games, and he was unafraid to give a frank review of his performance since signing a five-year, $175 million contract with Chicago.

Alex Bregman's failures with Cubs should make Tigers fans even more relieved he said no to Detroit

The Tigers' offense was so bad throughout the month of May that, in another world, it might've been impossible for fans to deny that Bregman would've helped. But he hit .261 with a .688 OPS last month, so it seems more likely that he would've exacerbated Detroit's issues and made their nosedive feel even worse.

Harris' responses to continued questions about the Tigers' stance on Bregman were highlights of his tenure for the fans, who have always been quicker to criticize him than to laud him. The Tigers want to sign players who want to be Tigers. Bregman was well within his right to take the biggest offer from the Red Sox, but it told Detroit all they needed to know.

Even if the Tigers were still struggling in June, even if they continued to struggle through the rest of the season and never lived up to the potential everyone thought they had — you'd still be hard-pressed to find a Tigers fan who genuinely believed the front office should've swallowed their pride and tried to sign Bregman. And now, the numbers back us up.

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