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Ian Happ has been a blessing for the Cubs all year. Drafted 9th overall in the 2015 MLB draft, Happ was known for his ability to create contact as he batted .369 in his final season with the Cincinnati Bearcats, which was the highest in the American Athletic Conference. He also lead the conference in OBP and slugging percentage. Happ was ranked as the 20th best prospect in the draft, but a position player with the ability to play multiple positions made him an attractive target for Theo Epstein to snag at 9th. Happ was often compared to Ben Zobrist, a switch hitting Swiss Army Knife kind of player that you can put basically anywhere on the field and he’ll get the job done. While his 25 career home runs in college aren’t as impressive as Kris Bryant’s (54) or Kyle Schwarber’s (40), the previous first round picks from 2013 and 2014, he has been able to improve his power throughout every level of the minor leagues and has continued to impress as a rookie in the majors.
Ian Happ made his debut May 13, 2017 and hasn’t moved down since. In 107 games, Happ has a .322 OBP and an .822 OPS to go along with 22 home runs. His 22 home runs are 4th best on the Cubs while his OPS is 6th. Among rookies, he is overshadowed by the incredible season Cody Bellinger is having. Happ is still 5th among National League rookies in home runs and 7th in OPS, which is great for someone who spent 26 games in Iowa playing AAA. To put in perspective how solid Ian Happ has been this season, Kris Bryant had 28 home runs while posting a .858 OPS in 2015 and was the runaway Rookie of the Year. Kris also finished with what will likely be around an extra 35-40 games played his rookie year. I’m not saying Ian Happ is the next Kris Bryant, but the thought of him playing a full season is exciting. Happ is averaging around one home run every five games, which projects to just over 32 home runs over the course of a year. 32 home runs to go along with the offensive production of Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant. Willson Contreras, Javy Baez and Kyle Schwarber is a recipe for success. Finding room for him to play next year is the hard part. I think the best plan moving forward is to have Happ take the spot of Zobrist next year and turn Zobrist into more of a Tommy La Stella kind of player. Zobrist and Happ played a similar amount of time this year, mostly due to Zobrist missing time due to injury, but I see Happ taking over as more of an everyday player next year. I don’t think Happ should consistently start over Javy or Addison Russell in the infield or Almora/Heyward or Schwarber in the outfield, so that leaves Zobrist as the odd man out. Zobrist is owed $28 million over the next two seasons from the Cubs, but he isn’t an everyday player anymore. 2016 was a phenomenal year for him on all levels. He was an all-star, he posted really solid numbers across the board and was the World Series MVP, delivering the most important RBI double in Chicago Cubs history. 2017 has been brutal for Zobrist, as he has been battling a wrist injury for a great portion of the season. His WRC+ (83), OBP (.322), OPS (.694) and AVG (.233) are the lowest they’ve been since 2007, while his BB/K% (0.80) and BB% (11.3%) are lower than his career averages. It’s probable that his wrist is the main reason why he’s struggling so much this year, but we can’t expect too much of a turnaround from a fully healthy Ben Zobrist. He’s 36 years old and his best days are behind him, while Happ’s ceiling is still rising. I think that Zobrist can still be a contributor to this team and be a great leader, but his days of being an everyday player should be over.
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Kyle MalzhanFounder who is an aspiring journalist who covers the Chicago Cubs daily. Archives
April 2020
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