Bregman’s Foul Ball Leaves the Cubs a 10-Day Problem

Alex Bregman left a 9-1 Cubs win in Cincinnati on Sunday after a check-swing foul hopped off the dirt and struck him in the left cheek. He went to a hospital for X-rays and CT scans, then posted a photo with the left eye swollen shut. Chicago is 87-69, tied with San Diego atop the National League Wild Card, and a 10-day injured list would run into the series that starts Sept. 29.

Manager Craig Counsell said the club wanted a clean hospital report before anyone talked about October. The Cubs are off Monday, Sept. 21, and host Miami on Tuesday at Wrigley Field.

A Check-Swing Hop Found His Left Cheek

The Cubs already led 5-0 with two outs in the top of the fourth at Great American Ball Park when Michael Busch, batting left-handed, checked his swing on a 1-2 pitch from Reds right-hander Luis Mey. The ball chopped into the dirt near home plate, kicked up, and hit Bregman on the left cheekbone under the eye while he stood in the grass several feet in front of the on-deck circle.

Bregman covered the left side of his face and jogged toward the visitors’ dugout. Blood showed as a trainer walked him down the steps. Busch dropped the bat and crouched, then tried to talk about a baseball game that no longer felt like one.

It just happens so fast. [Mey] is throwing the ball hard and it comes off hard. Any time it enters the head area, it’s always a scary thing. We try to focus on the game, but it’s tough. Hopefully he’s OK, first and foremost.

Michael Busch, Cubs first baseman, after the game in Cincinnati

The hop looked worse on the clip that moved Sunday night because Bregman was not standing in the painted disk. He had taken the usual on-deck walk-up, out on the grass, to time the pitcher. A checked swing that dies in the dirt has a lane there that it does not have when the next hitter stays in the circle.

SUNDAY AT GREAT AMERICAN

1. First inning: Bregman singles home a run, his 89th RBI of the season, in a 1-for-1 start.
2. Third inning: He walks and scores as Chicago builds the 5-0 lead.
3. Fourth inning, two outs: Busch’s check swing hops off the dirt and strikes Bregman in the left cheek.
4. After the play: Matt Shaw pinch-hits, draws a walk, and stays in at second base, with Pedro Ramirez moving to third.
5. Final: Cubs 9, Reds 1. Bregman is taken for X-rays and a CT scan.

He is 32, a two-time World Series champion, and in his first season in Chicago after a $175 million, five-year deal signed in January. The season line after Sunday sat at a.262 average with 26 home runs and 89 RBIs and 157 hits.

Counsell Wanted the Hospital Report First

Counsell did not dress up what he had seen. He said the ball hit the left cheekbone, essentially under the eye, that Bregman had a cut there, that he was bleeding from the nose a little, and that the swelling was already obvious.

He got hit in the left cheekbone essentially, under the eye. I don’t know anything more than that right now. He was bleeding from his nose a little. There’s some swelling. It’s a terrible, terrible accident. We hope he’s OK.

Craig Counsell, Cubs manager, postgame in Cincinnati

Counsell said he first thought the ball had broken Bregman’s nose. The club checked him for a concussion and sent him for scans to look at the cheek and the bone around the eye. He also said he had not thought about a long absence and a postseason roster, because the first job was a good report from the hospital.

Pete Crow-Armstrong, whose 170 hits lead the club, put the same order on it. “You just hope your friend is OK,” he said. “That’s the news that I’m hoping for. But scary stuff. Such a rarity.”

Later Sunday, Bregman posted an Instagram photo that showed the left eye swollen shut, bruising, blood on the cheek, and packing in the nose. The caption read, “Thanks for all the messages yall. I’ll be back.” Counsell expected him on the team plane back to Chicago that night.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The contact: A Busch check-swing foul hopped off the dirt and hit Bregman in the left cheekbone under the eye.
• The first look: A cut under the eye, a bloody nose, and fast swelling, with scans ordered for the cheek and the bone around the eye.
• The travel plan: Counsell expected Bregman to fly back with the club on Sunday night.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The scans: X-ray and CT results had not been released through Monday, Sept. 21.
• The roster move: Chicago had not placed him on the injured list and had not said whether he would be available Tuesday.
• The concussion watch: The club checked him after the play; later symptoms can still show up a day later.

Further word from the Cubs is unlikely before Tuesday, when they open the last homestand of the regular season against the Marlins.

A 10-Day List Would Swallow the Opener

If the scans are clean and the swelling comes down, Chicago can sit Bregman for a night or two and keep him on the 26-man roster. That path leaves him eligible the minute the doctors clear him, including Tuesday against Miami if the face allows it.

The other path is the injured list. For a position player, that list requires at least 10 days out. A club can backdate the stint at most three days, and only to the day after the player’s last game. Bregman last played Sept. 20, so a stint opened on Monday, Sept. 21, would run through Sept. 30. He would next be eligible on Oct. 1.

MLB’s playoff calendar has the best-of-three Wild Card Series on Sept. 29, with the Division Series set for Oct. 3. Sept. 29 would be day nine of a Monday IL stint. Chicago would be starting a playoff round without the third baseman it paid $175 million to install.

That is why the hospital visit is also a calendar problem. Sitting him without the list costs a roster spot for a few days and keeps October open. Using the list frees a 26-man slot for Shaw or Ramirez and, unless the scans force it, risks the first round. Counsell’s line after the game, that wellbeing comes first, is the only order that makes sense until the pictures come back. The roster choice sits right behind those pictures.

A fracture around the cheek or the eye socket is a different week. Facial breaks have kept hitters out until they can take live pitching again, and a third baseman still has to see hard hops. Soft-tissue swelling can look as ugly as a break on a phone photo and still clear. The selfie is not a diagnosis.

Chicago’s Infield Shuffle After the Fourth

Shaw was the first man in. He pinch-hit for Bregman, walked, and finished the game at second base. Ramirez slid over to third and closed out the 9-1 win there. Those are the two names Chicago will keep using if Bregman is down for any stretch of the last week.

Neither has Bregman’s October history. He won two World Series in Houston and spent 2025 in Boston before the Cubs paid to put him on the left side of their infield. Shaw and Ramirez can catch the ball. They cannot replace a 26-homer, 89-RBI season with six games left and a Wild Card seed still in play.

The Cubs would rather finish as the No. 4 seed, which brings home field in the Wild Card Series, than as the club that spent the last week patching third base. They also just need to get into the field. A short sit, if the scans allow it, is the version of this week that keeps both goals in reach. A list stint that runs to Oct. 1 does not.

Foul Balls Keep Finding Faces Off the Field

The on-deck grass and the dugout rail keep producing the same kind of night. Batters wear a helmet at bat and on the bases. The next hitter, standing in front of the circle to see the pitcher, is in a lane a bounced foul can still use.

THE SAME LANE, OTHER FACES

• April 2026, Baltimore: Orioles manager Craig Albernaz took a 70.6 mph foul off Jeremiah Jackson in the dugout opening, then listed at least seven fractures in the cheek and orbital area plus a broken jaw. He skipped surgery, ate baby food for six weeks, and could not blow his nose because one break sat by the eye.
• June 2025, Tampa Bay: Rays reliever Hunter Bigge was carted off after a 105 mph liner from Adley Rutschman hit him in the dugout. He had surgery for multiple facial fractures.
• Last summer, Cleveland: David Fry broke bones in his face bunting a fastball, a different play with the same result around the eyes and cheek.

Albernaz was back in the dugout the next day. Bigge needed an operating room. Bregman’s Sunday sits on that spectrum until the Cincinnati scans say otherwise. The common piece is not a pitch in the box. It is a ball already off a bat, in the dirt or in the air, finding a face that is watching the game from a few feet away.

High school and college rules put a helmet on the on-deck hitter as a matter of course. Major League language still writes the requirement around the batter and the runner. Players still creep forward. Sunday’s hop used that extra grass.

Six Games, Then the Wild Card Series

Chicago’s 9-1 win left the club at 87-69. The Padres are 87-69. The Phillies are 86-70. Arizona is 82-74, four games behind Philadelphia and five behind the Cubs, with six games to play. The Cubs hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over San Diego, Philadelphia, and Arizona, which is why they sit first among the Wild Card clubs even while tied with the Padres in the loss column.

A Cubs win Tuesday would finish the magic number of 1 and lock a playoff berth. They could have done it Sunday if Arizona had lost to the Yankees; the Diamondbacks won 8-4 instead. Milwaukee, Los Angeles, and Atlanta have already clinched the three division titles. The Wild Card Series still starts Sept. 29.

NL WILD CARD AFTER SUNDAY

The remaining Cubs schedule is three games against Miami at Wrigley on Sept. 22, 23, and 24, then three at Boston on Sept. 25, 26, and 27. That is the whole runway. If Bregman is only swollen, Tuesday is the first date that matters. If the CT shows a break, Shaw and Ramirez have those six games and, unless Chicago eats the 10-day list, a best-of-three after that.

Counsell will take questions again before the Marlins series. The scans, the swelling, and whether the club even considers the injured list will be on the table then. Bregman already wrote the line he wants. The pictures from the hospital still have to match it.