Top 5 Chicago Cubs players feeling the heat in the final month

Chicago Cubs: Hoping Zo can turn back the clock one last time

2. Ben Zobrist – Zobrist never wanted to leave the team but every professional knows that you can’t mind the shop, if the home-life isn’t squared away.  Just 26 games into the season, the Cubs put their veteran on the restricted list, allowing him to attend to family matters.

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Zobrist never thought he would have the opportunity to return to the Cubs this season. Especially in an ‘every game counts’ scenario, which the Cubs have been playing since spring training. Interestingly enough, the two-time champ returned to the Cubs and spoke to the media wearing a “Level 5” t-shirt reminding fans of Joe Maddon’s levels of player progression.

Maddon’s fifth and final level of professionalism is a player that only wants to win and help his team win with no personal mandates. While most fans think Zobrist will jump back into the lineup like riding his bike to the stadium, he knows his time is coming and his success will depend upon scoring or making plays in high stress situations.

If the 38-year-old utility man is successful, fans will once again be trolling around Gallagher Way in Zobrist jerseys and who knows what might happen in 2020 free agency? But if the vet cannot perform in his return to the Cubs it will most likely be an abrupt ending to a storybook career.