Alex Bregman

And when we talk about these leadership qualities and intangibles, and you mentioned the young core players on this team, how important, with that stability, can you kind of proceed knowing you have Pete Crowe, Armstrong, Matt Shaw, and Kate Horton, and young players that are going to be kind of looking up to you as part of this deal?

No, it's super important.

Like I said earlier, my

I mean, two most important things to me are my family and winning baseball games.

And from the beginning of the offseason, the Cubs expressed to me that they wanted me to be here.

And they were committed to that and committed to my family.

Yeah, I cannot wait to get to work with all the guys on the team in that clubhouse, and hopefully we can win a lot of baseball games and build something really special for a long time together.

Alex, how different was this process this winter versus a year ago when it, you know, lagged into spring training, and what did you learn from that that made this, you know, potentially easier?

Yeah, it was definitely a little bit different.

I felt like...

I felt like everything was coming a lot quicker, coming quicker together.

I know free agency is a tough process and I was definitely thankful for the guidance from Scott and my family.

It was great to get a deal done now and in spring training, that's for sure.

No, I'm looking forward to it.

Just to be around the excitement.

Obviously it's,

It's January, but to already have that excitement is awesome.

I'm looking forward to seeing all my teammates, seeing all the fans.

It's a good way to get the new year started and get ready to get down to Arizona and get going.

Well, I feel like communication is key.