Saturday, June 21

TORONTO -- As the calendar flipped to May on Thursday, Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman experienced the rarity of not having to go back to the drawing board.

This notoriously slow starter is off the best start of his career (by far). And that has reinforced to him that the work he put in over the winter and in the spring has paid significant dividends.

For someone as competitive as Bregman, going into May on a high note is only going to push him to keep at it.

“I feel like there's still room for improvement in a lot of areas,” Bregman said. “I feel like some days it's consistent and some days it's not, but it’s just more so falling in love with the process of the work before the game, and just going out and having fun on the field.”

The cumulative March/April stat line that Bregman posted from 2017-24 demonstrates that he didn’t have much fun.

In 176 March/April games covering 761 plate appearances with the Astros, Bregman’s batting line was .248/.355/.381.

This year has taken a dramatic twist. Bregman enters May as one of the American League’s top hitters. He is second in the league in OPS (.985), third in slugging (.584), tied for third in RBIs (24), third in batting average (.328) and ninth in OBP (.401). He also has seven homers, the most he’s hit in March/April.

Bregman is one of just four Red Sox players to have as many as 41 hits and seven homers in their first 31 games with the franchise. The others are Manny Ramirez, Eduardo Núñez and J.D. Martinez.

Bregman’s final two seasons in Houston represented the two worst starts of his career, In 2023, he slashed .219/.354/.343 with three homers and 12 RBIs over his first 127 plate appearances. Bregman would rather not even think about last year, when he sunk to .216/.283/.294 with one homer and 10 RBIs in 113 plate appearances.

Bregman recovered well enough to finish the 2024 season with 30 doubles and 26 homers while winning his first career Gold Glove Award. But the “start slow, recover nicely” narrative was getting old to Bregman, and it's not one he wanted to repeat as a prized acquisition for a new team.

“We looked at a lot of different things, whether it's the timing or the mechanics or the setup or the load or how I was getting into the hitting position, what time I was getting into the hitting position,” Bregman said. “And then obviously kind of got a baseline there of when it was at its best, and worked every single day, put my head down, got in the cage, and got with our hitting coaches and gotten after it."

While many people theorized that Bregman would have an uptick this season simply playing half of his games at Fenway, a park his swing is suited perfectly for and a venue he has thrived at throughout his career, Red Sox manager Alex Cora thinks there’s much more to the veteran right-handed hitter’s performance than that.

“He worked hard in the offseason. He felt like last year he was off, especially early in the season, swinging more and swinging at the edges of the strike zone,” Cora said. “You look at the numbers now, the on-base percentage is over .400, he’s hitting the ball hard, hitting the ball the other way too. He’s a complete hitter, and like I said in the press conference, it’s more than hitting at Fenway. This kid, he understands what he needs to do to be successful, and so far, so good.”

Bregman’s fit for the Red Sox so far has been perhaps even more seamless than expected.

“He has been one of the best teammates,” credited Rafael Devers, the longest-tenured player on the Red Sox. “I obviously feel comfortable hitting in front of him. He's a great hitter and a great person, as well.”

And for once, Bregman can also enjoy the fact he’s off to a great start.

Judging by what I see on social media, and hear from friends and family members, the No. 1 topic for Red Sox fans these days revolves around when top prospects Roman Anthony (No. 2 in MLB Pipeline’s Top 100) and Marcelo Mayer (No. 3 for Red Sox, No. 11 overall) will be promoted from Triple-A Worcester.

The man who will eventually decide when those anticipated arrivals take place is chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. So I asked him for his thoughts on this delicate balancing act.

“It's exactly that,” said Breslow. “It's a balancing act trying to look at what’s best for the development of the individual players, what's best for the organization. We have identified development opportunities for those guys. We want to make sure we see that through.

“There is likely to come a time when the best development environment for those guys is here with our Major League team, and we'll figure things out. Obviously my job is to balance those things, and sometimes it's easier to do than others, but having really talented guys on the cusp of contributing in the Major Leagues is a great position to be in.”

Currently, there is no obvious path in Boston’s everyday lineup for either Anthony (an outfielder) or Mayer (a shortstop).

“The alternative to that would be that it’s so obvious where these guys slot in, and even if they weren't ready, there [would be] this urge to rush,” said Breslow. “That's actually not the position you want to be in. We’ll balance all of those considerations, and as those guys continue to progress and meet their development goals. That’s what’s most important.”

When will catcher Connor Wong (left pinkie finger fracture) be activated?

“We’re shooting for the weekend”,” said Cora, who added that early-season surprise Carlos Narváez will continue to get his share of playing time behind the plate once Wong returns.

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