Chicago Cubs: 1984 – A retrospective of a classic year

After what seemed like decades of misfortune and woe, everything changed for the Chicago Cubs in 1984, when they found success in an unlikely place.

The history of the Chicago Cubs certainly has some bright spots, many of them coming in the past few years. The team’s history is long and arduous, forcing us to break down parts of years or even decades to understand what went right or wrong.

For the Chicago Cubs, the 1984 season was a sort of reprieve from the previous 12 seasons of below-average baseball. The team was coming off a string of seasons finishing right at or below .500. The season before, they finished a balmy 73-89. So what exactly was the catalyst for all of a sudden posting a 91-win season and an eventual NLCS bid?

The club seemed destined to turn their luck around when then-GM Dallas Green, began making a flurry of moves in the offseason. Trades swirled around, bringing fresh faces to the Windy City. Everything was suddenly clicking on all cylinders and the Cubs, for one spectacular year, were back.

Chicago Cubs: Whirlwind of transactions

The offseason began when the team shipped off a player-to-be-named and a 23-year-old minor league pitcher named Stan Kyles to the Oakland Athletics for a reliever by the name of Tim Stoddard. For the Cubs, Stoddard provided 92 innings, pitching to a 3.82 ERA. That year, he posted a career-high strikeout rate and a decreased HR/9. Stoddard also appeared in the second-most amount of games, behind only closer Lee Smith.

Green began wheeling and dealing guys left and right in an attempt to bring as much value to the club as possible. The number of transactions Green was making brings into thought the modern day GM, and most importantly Seattle Mariners GM Jerry DiPoto, who is infamous for continually making trades. It became a reality for the Cubs in a bid to contend.

Midway through the first part of the season, the Cubs made a  couple of season-defining trades. To bolster their starting rotation, they shipped off the infamous Bill Buckner to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Mike Brumley and Dennis Eckersley. The Cubs also sent Bill Campbell, Mike Diaz to the Philadelphia Phillies in a deal where they acquired Gary Matthews.

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Brumley never amounted to anything for the Cubs. However, Eckersley would help to anchor an uup-and-down starting rotation. That year for the Cubs, he started 24 games, finished 10-8 with a very respectable 3.03 ERA. He threw two complete games in that span, pitching to a 3.40 FIP and a 3.2 fWAR.

Throughout the season, the Cubs continued to wheel and deal. In a move that would have repercussions for a long time, they traded then 23-year-old rookie Joe Carter in a seven-player swap.

Among the return, Rick Sutcliffe became the most excellent piece of the bunch. Carter went on to win the American League MVP a couple of short years later. For Sutcliffe that year, he drove the rotation with his Cy Young-winning season, finishing 16-1 with a 2.69 ERA, and seven complete games.

Matthews, meanwhile, was a wrecking ball for the Cubs in 1984. He played in 147 games, slashing .291/.410/.428 with 14 HR and 82 RBI. The slugging outfielder produced a .381 wOBA, 135 wRC+, and a 2.8 fWAR. That year, he finished fifth in the National League MVP voting.

Chicago Cubs: Production from the unlikeliest of sources

The 1984 Cubs starting lineup boasted the likes of Ryne Sandberg, Gary Matthews, Ron Cey and Leon Durham. A fairly formidable group. That being said, much of the success for the Cubs that season was found in unlikely places.

The first was outfielder Thad Bosley. In a platoon role, Bosley saw action in 55 games that year, totaling 112 plate-appearances. In that span, Bosley slashed .296/.375/.418 with two home runs and 14 RBI. He also posted an above-average wOBA of .353 and wRC+ of 116. He became a consistent player for the Cubs for a couple of seasons before being shipped out and fading out of baseball a couple of years later.

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Richie Hebner was a second prominent producer for the club who nobody batted an eye. Hebner was a 36-year-old journeyman third baseman who spent the bulk of his career with the Pirates. After leaving Pittsburgh, Hebner jumped between the Phillies, New York Mets and Detroit Tigers before landing with the Cubs for his final two seasons.

That year, he played in just 44 games, however, saw 91 plate-appearances and slashing .333/.407/.444 with 2 HR and 8 RBI. Hebner also managed to produce a way-above-average .380 wOBA and 135 wRC+. It would be the final year of his career, as Hebner went out in style while helping the team in a big way to the postseason.

The final guy of the underrated group is Jay Johnstone. Similar in a sense to Hebner, Johnstone was a whopping 38 years old, his second-to-last season in the big leagues. Because Johnstone was a platoon guy as well, he saw just 52 games. The veteran did, however, record 82 at-bats, making the most of them.

While not hitting a single home run across the span and driving in only three runs, Johnstone still slashed .288/.350/.370 with a .308 wOBA. As a 38-year-old, not too shabby. While the production is also not as great as Bosley or Hebner, Johnstone still found a way to keep his average up enough to help out the club.