Chicago Cubs: Giving the players their final letter grades

(Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
(Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
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Chicago Cubs
(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Chicago Cubs: This has brought a lot of nightmares to Cubs fans…

Craig Kimbrel: D

Those last few appearances basically put the Cubs on ice. Woof. The numbers are pretty ugly. We did eventually see flashes of the old Kimbrel, but the injuries piled up. Lets see how he responds with a normal offseason, I refuse to give up on a generational reliever.

Pedro Strop: D

Really hurt to see one of the most consistently good relievers the Cubs ever had take a huge dive. Hamstring issues and age really caught up to him. Still, nothing can take away what he has done for this organization.

Steve Cishek: C

Started off like his normal self then fell apart toward the end of the year. A lot of innings on that arm the past two years, he could be another guy who is simply past his best days.

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Kyle Ryan: B

For most of the season he was pretty dang efficient. He then ran into major struggles toward the end of the season. The walks got to be an issue (4.3 BB/9) but the 3.54 ERA was overall solid.

Brandon Kintzler: A

Fact is he was the best and most consistent reliever on the team in 2019. 2.68 ERA, 3.56 FIP, 1.035 WHIP and 54.7 percent groundball rate in 57 innings. Dude got it done.

Tyler Chatwood: B-

Hey, he came up pretty big coming into relief spots this year. Got a lot of swings and misses and saw the fastball sizzle in the upper-90s. Take what you can get from him at this point.

Rowan Wick: A

An incredibly nice surprise. 2.43 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 9.5 K/9 in 33.1 innings. Lets see if he is the real deal moving forward.

Alec Mills: A

This kid has some promise and has made the most of his MLB time so far.

Derek Holland: F

The experiment did not work, which probably did not surprise a lot of fans. Holland has had a number of solid seasons as a big leaguer, but this was not one of them.

There could be a few other guys that could have made this list, but there is only so much room and these are the players who were really part of the team in the final months. A number of good grades, but too many bad/mediocre ones. Not enough good grades to make the postseason.

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