Chicago Cubs: Whatever happened to these former Cubs?

Did you ever wonder to yourself, ‘What happened to that guy?’  Let’s look back at some fairly possible former Chicago Cubs players and where they wound up.

Players on professional sports teams, including our Chicago Cubs, come and go. Sometimes they leave on good terms, sometimes on bad. Then there are guys who leave a team and just kind of disappear. No formal retirement announcement or try to find their way back to the majors by bouncing around between organizations. Often the question comes up, “Whatever happened to that guy?” in those scenarios.

So many players have played in the majors at some point and it is really hard to keep track of them all. Though it can be surprising when a notable All Star-caliber player just fades away without any trace of what happens to him. Some may want it that way and some are just so past their primes nobody really cares what happens to their careers.

There are certainly plenty of former Cubs players that fans sometimes wonder what happened to them. For this list, we will look at guys who fit this bill within the past decade or so. It will not include no-name guys necessarily, but players who had a positive impact on the team or was once a highly touted prospect. A number of them were on a postseason team or were thought to be of a bigger plan down the road.

Chicago Cubs: Harden was a key piece for the 2008 team

On July 8, 2008, former Cubs GM Jim Hendry called Oakland to acquire veteran starter Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the Athletics in exchange for Sean Gallagher, Matt Murton, Eric Patterson and an unknown prospect named Josh Donaldson.

Harden was having a great season for Oakland and the Cubs wanted to add reinforcements to their rotation. He certainly did not disappoint as he pitched to a 1.77 ERA, 3.08 FIP, 11.3 K/9 and 0.97 WHIP in a dozen starts on the North Side in 2008.

He gave up three runs in 4 1/3 innings in his Game 3 start in the NLDS against the Dodgers, where the Cubs got painfully swept. Harden pitched again for the Cubs in 2009 and had an overall average season sporting a 4.09 ERA, 1.3 WHIP and 4.35 FIP in 26 starts.

After that Harden fell off the map. He pitched a season with Texas and made only 18 starts as he sported a 5.58 ERA and 1.67 WHIP while dealing with injuries. Harden then returned to Oakland where he pitched most of his career in 2011 and pitched to a 5.12 ERA in 15 starts.

His final MLB game was on September 25, 2011 against the Angels at only 29 years old. The veteran righty gave one last go with the Twins organization before the 2013 season after having shoulder surgery in 2012 but was eventually cut. That was the end of his pro baseball days.

While that 2008 trade for Harden began well for the Cubs, it ended up being considered one of the worst trades for the Cubs of the decade considering Donaldson evolved into an MVP.

Chicago Cubs: Soto was a productive presence behind the dish

For four and a half seasons, Geovany Soto was the number one catcher for the Cubs. While his MLB debut took place in 2005, he had his first official full-season as a Cub in 2008. The then-25-year-old rookie slashed .285/.364/.504 with 23 homers, wRC+ of 120 an OPS+ of 119 and a 3.5 fWAR. His efforts got him a nod in the All-Star game at old Yankee Stadium and NL Rookie of the Year honors.

Strangely enough, 2008 was not even his best season. A lot of folks forget that his 2010 season saw a career-high fWAR (4.4), wRC+ (137) and OBP (.393) among other stats. In between those years, he had a few down seasons but overall hit .252/.342/.445 with 77 homers and 264 RBI. His tenure on the North Side ended when the Cubs dealt him to Texas in 2012.

Soto bounced around through the rest of his MLB career, including stints with the Rangers, Athletics, Angels and White Sox. His last MLB action was on May 7, 2017, as a member of the White Sox at the age of 34.

Soto had resigned with the Sox (after playing with them in 2015) and played in 13 games in 2017 before missing the rest of the season with elbow surgery. As of right now, he has yet to officially retire.

Chicago Cubs: Colvin was the star that never was

For fans who suffered through the 2010-2011 seasons, many will recall the young slugger by the name of Tyler Colvin. The former 13th overall pick hit 20 homers, slugging .500 with an .816 OPS in his first full season in 2010.

Unfortunately, his season ended on September 20 in Florida when a shattered bat flew in the air and stabbed him in the chest while coming down the third base line. Luckily he was not seriously hurt, but it just missed being much worse.

Colvin really struggled in 2011, hitting just .150/.204/.316 with six homers in 80 games. Theo Epstein traded him prior to the 2010 campaign in the now-infamous Ian Stewart trade. He had a solid 2012 season in Colorado hitting .290/.327/.531 with 18 homers in 136 games, but never played more than 57 games in a season in the majors again.

Since leaving the Rockies in 2013 he had a brief 57-game stint with the Giants in 2014, followed by short-lived stints with the Marlins, White Sox and Dodgers organizations. He never played on the MLB squad with any of those teams. Colvin has played some independent ball with the Long Island Ducks and the Criollos de Caguas of the Puerto Rican Winter League.