Tigers fans have to laugh at Alex Bregman’s embarrassing early struggles with Red Sox

Every piece of information that's come out about the Tigers' pursuit of Alex Bregman since he ended up signing with the Red Sox has made him impossibly easy for Tigers fan to hate. Detroit offered him the seven years he was looking for and even got close to his $180 million asking price, but he still signed with Boston. He said, "We thought we were going to be in Detroit the entire time," but he still signed with Boston.

If Bregman isn't met with boos every time he comes to the plate in the Tigers' and Red Sox's scheduled three-game series at Comerica in May, it'll be a miracle.

Of course, the Tigers have gotten along pretty well without him. They became the first team in the American League to reach 10 wins, while the Red Sox are posting a losing record and losing a game against the Rays to the tune of 15 runs on Monday.

So where is Bregman in all of that? Unfortunately, he had the night of his life on Tuesday, when he went 5-5 for the first time in his career with two homers, but before that, he'd already wracked up four errors on defense and had been batting .160/.241/.200 with seven strikeouts over his last seven games.

Alex Bregman's rough start with the Red Sox has Tigers fans pointing and laughing

Bregman faltering on defense is especially funny, given all of the preseason drama around him, Rafael Devers, and the team about who was going to play third base (the Red Sox ended up moving Devers into a full-time DH role). In just 19 games, Bregman has already committed nearly half of the errors he committed in 142 games last season, and a fourth of the errors Devers committed at third last year.

The Red Sox got a win over the Rays on Wednesday in large part thanks to Bregman, but it was only their third win in their last nine games, and they have the worst run differential in the AL East.

All of this makes the Tigers' current success even sweeter. The Tigers have used three different players at third base so far this season — Andy Ibáñez, Zach McKinstry, and Javy Báez — in Matt Vierling's absence; it's far from ideal, but McKinstry and even Báez have been contributing offensively.

It'd be taking things too far to say that the Tigers never needed Bregman, but there's no reason why we can't indulge in a little schadenfreude after he sputtered.