{"id":516325,"date":"2026-01-12T06:26:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T06:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/516325\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T06:26:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T06:26:20","slug":"inside-alex-bregmans-red-sox-departure-as-he-celebrates-175m-cubs-contract-with-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/516325\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Alex Bregman\u2019s Red Sox departure as he celebrates $175M Cubs contract with wife"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Bears mounted a thrilling NFL postseason comeback<\/a> Saturday night, the Cubs finalized the blockbuster free agency signing of Alex Bregman.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 31-year-old seemingly wasted no time in celebrating his new deal, as his wife, Reagan, took to Instagram with a picture of a smiling Bregman shortly after the news of the five-year, $175 million pact, taking one of the premier bats in free agency off the board.<\/p>\n

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\u201cProud,\u201d she wrote in the post bearing a heart emoji, showing Bregman toasting with a margarita.<\/p>\n

\"Bregman\u2019s<\/p>\n

Bregman\u2019s wife, Reagan, posted on Instagram shortly after reports emerged of his deal with the Cubs. reaganelizabeth\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Bregman\u2019s decision to bolt Boston after just one season came down to two major factors: a no-trade clause and deferred payments in his contract, according to MassLive.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Red Sox reportedly made a competitive offer, a five-year, $165 million deal, but a major sticking point was Boston\u2019s refusal to include a full no-trade clause, which the Cubs did.<\/p>\n

As The Athletic\u2019s Ken Rosenthal <\/a>reported Sunday, Bregman\u2019s deal with the Cubs will see $70 million of the $175 million deferred, which is expected to bring the contract\u2019s annual value somewhere in the range of $30-$31 million.<\/p>\n

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Boston was interested in a similar arrangement, but MassLive noted that the Red Sox\u2019s plan for the terms of deferrment was another holdup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ball is in his court,\u201d Red Sox manager Alex Cora <\/a>said Saturday, hours before the agreement was reported.<\/p>\n

Bregman, who signed a three-year, $120 million deal with opt-outs after every season, hit the open market after just one year in Beantown.<\/p>\n

The two-time World Series champion slashed a strong .273\/.360\/.462 with 18 home runs in 2025, but was limited to 114 games due to a right quadriceps strain.<\/p>\n

\"Bregman<\/p>\n

Bregman spent the 2025 season with the Red Sox. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n

After spending his first nine seasons with the Astros, Bregman will now join his third team in three seasons \u2013 and pivot attention to remaining high-profile free agents Bo Bichette<\/a> and Cody Bellinger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Injury concerns aside, Bregman signifies a major boost for Chicago\u2019s lineup \u2013 and marked a banner evening for Chicago sports.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Bulls and Blackhawks winning their games, the Bears staged a dramatic 18-point comeback against the rival Packers during Saturday\u2019s NFC wild-card matchup.<\/p>\n

Bregman acknowledged the win, posting a \u201cDa Bears\u201d flag on his Instagram story.<\/p>\n

Reports of Bregman\u2019s signing emerged just before the Bears\u2019 comeback, which made for an interesting night, according to Cubs general manager Carter Hawkins.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is interesting that you never do a deal on a Tuesday afternoon at 3 o\u2019clock with everyone in the office,\u201d Hawkins said Sunday on Sirius XM\u2019s MLB Network Radio<\/a>, not addressing Bregman directly as the deal had yet to be made official. \u201cIt always feels like it\u2019s a Saturday night, always feels like it\u2019s your anniversary or some holiday or something going on in the city as it relates to the other sports teams.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLook, we\u2019re looking to add to our team, we\u2019re looking to continue to put ourselves in position to play deep into October. Adding premium players is certainly a good way to do that and there\u2019s a lot of really good options out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Bears mounted a thrilling NFL postseason comeback Saturday night, the Cubs finalized the blockbuster free agency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[72,5,88,141,48,2542,138,1365,161,4,7894,89,2543,7965,68308,4271],"class_list":["post-516325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-red-sox","tag-alex-bregman","tag-baseball","tag-bo-bichette","tag-boston","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-bostonredsox","tag-chicago","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-cubs","tag-mlb","tag-packers","tag-red-sox","tag-redsox","tag-the-astros","tag-the-bears","tag-the-cubs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115880708368409335","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}