Cubs' Alex Bregman and Dansby Swanson's careers have run parallel — now they've converged for a second time

MESA, Ariz. — Survey third baseman Alex Bregman’s and shortstop Dansby Swanson’s teammates, and they’ll all mention how much the two enjoy talking hitting.

In the clubhouse, the batting cages, the dugout — pretty much anywhere on the Cubs’ spring-training campus — they can be spotted chatting with teammates or coaches while moving through mechanics and cues.

But for two veteran players who have known each other since college and share that same fanatical approach, they come at those conversations from wildly different directions — Bregman analyzing every detail of his mechanics, Swanson looking for a consistent feeling.

“We are very similar and different,” Swanson said in a conversation with the Sun-Times. “I think that’s why it’s so cool.”

Swanson and Bregman have long been linked together, through parallel tracks. They were taken Nos. 1 and 2 overall in the 2015 MLB Draft. They debuted the next year and appeared in that All-Star Futures Game. They played against each other in the 2021 World Series, when Swanson’s Braves beat Bregman’s Astros.

Before all that, however, they were teammates on the 2014 USA Baseball collegiate national team, setting up a sweet reunion when Bregman signed a five-year deal worth $175 million with the Cubs this offseason.

“We had so much fun that summer,” Bregman said. “It’s one of those memories in the game that you’ll never forget, of going out and competing for your country. So if you asked him, too, we both look super fondly back on that time.”

Both playing SEC baseball, Bregman was LSU’s shortstop, and Swanson was at second base for Vanderbilt that year. They became a double-play tandem for the United States’ college squad.

“It’s great playing up the middle with somebody who’s just a superstar,” Bregman said of Swanson.

That team traveled to North Carolina, the Netherlands and Cuba for five events, playing teams that had traveled from all over the world, including Japan and Chinese Taipei.

“That was my first time playing baseball against different countries and cultures, really,” Swanson said. “So to be able to have that experience was pretty unique and special.”

As the years went on, Swanson and Bregman kept in touch periodically. They always had “competitive respect for one another,” as Swanson put it. But there wasn’t an opening for them to play together again until last spring.

Bregman’s free agency was dragging on longer than expected. And the Cubs’ third-base situation was murky after they included Isaac Paredes in the trade with the Astros for right fielder Kyle Tucker.

“When certain guys are obvious fits for what we want to be, it’s not too hard to lobby,” Swanson said.

Swanson’s lobbying fell in line with president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer’s thinking. But Hoyer’s attempt to sign Bregman, even after persuading ownership to expand the budget, fell short.

When Bregman opted out of his Red Sox contract to hit free agency again this past offseason, the Cubs made sure they didn’t whiff again.

“It was pretty cool to share the infield with him [in 2014],” Bregman said. “Now we get to do it again.”

Now, both obsessed with winning, they’re intent on pushing this Cubs team deep into the playoffs. And now, a dozen years later, they’re far more polished versions of the players who led the collegiate national team to an 18-8-2 record.

“He’s someone that is going to be really good for me, just being able to ping thoughts and ideas off of,” Swanson said. “And someone that can help understand me, and me understand him. And us having that dialog with one another is going to be really helpful for, I think, both of us.”