Chicago Cubs: Top five moments from this season

Chicago Cubs: Big Nick Energy did all he could to spark the Cubs in 2019

Has there ever been a deadline trade that worked out so well for a club and a player than the one that brought Nicholas Castellanos to the Cubs on July 31, 2019? When the Cubs traded away Paul Richan and Alex Lange to the Tigers in exchange for two months of Castellanos, most fans were only a little excited about a trade for a guy who had really good numbers against left-handed pitchers, but was supposedly a very bad defender and a guy without a whole lot of power.

Fast-forward a month or two to the present and most Cubs fans can’t picture the 2020 team without a re-signed Castellanos penciled in the two-hole. All Castellanos did in his two months as a Cub (51 games) was hit 16 home runs, drive in 36, collect 68 hits, score 43 runs, hit 21 doubles, hit .321 and put up an OPS of 1.002. That’s pretty much MVP type stuff right there extrapolated over the course of a season.

Castellanos not only brought a whole lotta hitting to Wrigley Field, he was not as big a butcher as some made him out to be in right field, and his pervasive energy and smile quickly made him a fan and clubhouse favorite. Suffice it to say that Castellanos was not the reason for the Cubs’ collapse in September.

He also gave the Cubs fans numerous memorable moments and made himself boatloads of money in the process. While no one knows if the Cubs 2020 lineup will feature Castellanos or not, he did everything he could to prod and push the 2019 version to as many wins as he could and no one in Chicago will ever forget him for it.

The 2019 Cubs may have been disappointing in terms of final outcome, but hopefully these moments, along with the other walk-offs, Kyle Hendricks 81-pitch “Maddux,” and others brought some smiles to every fans’ face. More importantly, let’s hope for more happy moments and a more successful season in 2020.