How Has Alex Bregman’s Card Market Changed in His First Year with the Cubs? – Bleacher Nation
How Has Alex Bregman’s Card Market Changed in His First Year with the Cubs?
Sep 01, 2026
Sep 01, 2026
Collectibles
David Banks-Imagn ImagesChicago Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images
David Banks-Imagn Images
The combination of Alex Bregman’s scorching second half, yet another three-homer game, and the uptick in collectibles coverage around here all came together to make me a little curious about Bregman’s card market.
A big-time prospect with a whole lot of early-career success, Bregman fit the mold of a guy who probably saw a whole lot of hype early – and then things sold off to find a bit of a stasis.
Turns out, that is the case, but that mid-career sell-off was much deeper than I would’ve expected. Here’s his index at Card Ladder, which basically tracks the value of his card market by indexing a sample of his best cards to 1000 and going from there:
Now, some of that pre-2020 dip was a macro thing in the market, and some of the spike was a COVID-era pop in the card market. But after those macro moves, it was just kind of a flatlined market for a guy who was on at least a Hall of Very Good trajectory. What gives?
I think there are probably at least three things at work, the first of which is just the macro stuff I mentioned. Not a lot of guys were really popping between 2021 and 2024. Second, I have to believe the lingering questions about the sign-stealing scandal were hovering over the perceived value on the affected players (Will it dash Hall hopes? Will future collectors ding them further in hindsight? Are the numbers questionable? etc.). Third, there’s just a general trend for Very Good Players: when there’s still a chance they could become a transcendent, inner-circle, forever-star type, their market is buoyed significantly by speculation (like paying a huge multiple on a pre-profit hyper-growth startup). Once it becomes clear that a path like that is no longer possible, there’s a broad, long-term sell-off until the floor is found.
The story in 2025 and 2026 is almost entirely about the team movement. When a star player goes to a new team, there’s almost always an uptick in sales volume, because you have a new base of fans and collectors (and speculators) participating. You can see the bump there when Alex Bregman joined the Red Sox before the 2025 season … and then a MASSIVE bump when he joined the Cubs. The difference there is partly because the Cubs are the Cubs, but largely because it was a big five-year deal so there was more confidence there would be a longer-term connection to the Cubs and Cubs fans.
What is perhaps most interesting to me is how much of Bregman’s market increase has held even past that initial pop. There was always going to be SOME fall-off as the bump got a little bubbly (there’s a top somewhere), but it was probably steeper because of Bregman’s rough first half. Still, there was a nice rebound at mid-year, right alongside Bregman’s performance, the net of which is his market is up about 50 to 60% from where it was before he signed with the Cubs.
That’s a pretty impressive and significant move for a Very-Good-But-Not-Super-Elite-Established-Veteran, and is roughly on par with the overall move in the Baseball Index at Card Ladder. Given that outlier players and cards are what really move that index north, I think it’s impressive when a guy like Bregman keeps pace. Guys like Dansby Swanson or Randy Arozarena (or pick your preferred similarly-aged, similarly-veteran, etc. player without some specific hook) have stayed flat this year despite their good seasons and growth in baseball overall.
Long story short? The year in Alex Bregman cards has been a good one, moving mostly in parallel to (1) the overall baseball market, and (2) his performance with the Cubs.
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Brett Taylor is the Lead Baseball Writer at Bleacher Nation. You can find him on X at @Brett_A_Taylor, on Bluesky at @Brett-Taylor, and on LinkedIn here.
Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
