Major League Baseball’s playoffs are coming soon and Alex Bregman will be a part of it.
Of course he is.
Bregman made baseball history Thursday, Sept. 24 when the Chicago Cubs clinched a National League wild-card berth with a victory over the Miami Marlins. And for the 10th consecutive year, injured eye willing, Bregman will take part in the postseason, this time with a twist.
Bregman, the Cubs’ 32-year-old third baseman, will become the first position player to play postseason baseball 10 consecutive seasons with multiple teams. In fact, he’s done it with three ballclubs – eight straight years with the Houston Astros and then the past two with the Boston Red Sox and Cubs, as he settled for good in Chicago by signing a five-year, $175 million contract in January.
And it seems like wherever Bregman goes, October baseball follows.
Texas loves him anyway
Bregman was a two-time All-Star and two-time champion in Houston, the brash young slugger in his first full season when they won the 2017 World Series, the MVP runner-up when they lost the 2019 Series in seven games.
After bearing much of the scorn for the club’s 2017 sign-stealing scandal, he was the chastened veteran on the 2022 squad that won a second World Series, this time without a cloud of controversy to follow.
Yet Bregman’s chops as a club cornerstone gained greater veracity a year ago, when he left the Astros and, combining his production with his baseball smarts and clubhouse gravitas, lifted the Red Sox to the postseason for the first time in three years as the Astros missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
Those vibes were as attractive to the Cubs as Bregman’s career .846 OPS when they pursued him after he opted out of his contract with Boston. And it’s all come together in Wrigleyville: Thanks to a second-half surge, Bregman has hit 26 home runs, posted an .804 OPS and produced 5.4 WAR, second only to presumed MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong on the Cubs.
“Anytime Alex Bregman is playing an Alex Bregman brand of baseball, it’s just good for the program,” Crow-Armstrong told USA TODAY Sports last month.
And if he manages to play just days after suffering a gruesome eye injury, the legend will only grow.
Heroes of the fall
Bregman’s postseason constancy has put himself among some legendary and curious October stalwarts.
Unsurprisingly, the consecutive postseasons list is littered with alumni from the three dominant playoff groups of the wild-card era: The 1990s Atlanta Braves, the late-century New York Yankees and the current batch of Los Angeles Dodgers.
Yankees closer Mariano Rivera tops the list, appearing in 13 consecutive postseasons from 1995-2007, followed by Derek Jeter, whose 12-year streak began a year after Rivera’s playoff debut.
Catcher Jorge Posada and Braves Hall of Famers Chipper Jones and Tom Glavine all played in 11 consecutive postseasons. As did lefty reliever Mike Stanton, who did it with four teams – the Braves, Red Sox, Yankees and Texas Rangers – between 1991-2002.
Who let him in?
Bregman, longtime Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen and Hall of Famer Greg Maddux all reached 10 consecutive postseasons. Current Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman and longtime third baseman Justin Turner are at the nine-year mark, Freddie winning a World Series championship with Atlanta in 2021 and two more in L.A. the past two seasons.
Retired Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw leads the “but for” category: He pitched in eight consecutive postseasons from 2013-2020, and would have made it 13 in a row if not for injuries in 2021 and 2024. Same with Braves Hall of Famer John Smoltz – he was present for all of Atlanta’s 14 consecutive division titles yet underwent Tommy John surgery in 2000.
And several likely 2026 participants had streaks broken thanks to one unlucky season – such as slugger Kyle Schwarber, who’d be working on a 12-year streak with the Cubs, Red Sox and Phillies if not for the 2019 Cubs missing the playoffs. Same with Mookie Betts, ticketed for his 10th postseason in 11 years with the Dodgers and Boston, missing only in ’19 with the Red Sox.
The wild-card format – which began in 1995 and expanded in 2012 and 2022 – makes this list unavoidably modern due to the expanded access it affords. Still, some players from past eras were near-constants in the playoffs.
Mr. October himself, Reggie Jackson, reached the postseason 10 times in 12 years from 1971 to 1982, winning four World Series with the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees, and then, just for kicks, reaching the 1982 ALCS with the California Angels.
The great Yogi Berra was a 10-time World Series champion, but his longest consecutive streak of playoff runs was five years. Yet reaching the World Series 14 times in 17 years, when only two teams reached the playoffs, remains a stunning feat.
So perhaps Bregman - even with 102 career postseason games, 19 homers, 91 hits and a .791 OPS - has a little more work to do to match some of the legends of October. Yet from Houston to Boston to Chicago, he’s leaving little doubt that wherever he goes, winning follows.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alex Bregman's wild MLB playoff streak has star in rare air – injured face willing
