Chicago Cubs: Ranking the greatest players of the decade – #10-1

Here we count down the greatest Chicago Cubs of the 2010s, concluding our list by ranking the top ten Cubs of the decade – including the best of all-time.

The 2010s featured both the lowest of lows and the highest of highs for Chicago Cubs fans. The decade started with the end of the Jim Hendry era, in which the former general manager made a couple of last-ditch efforts to turn a failing franchise around. It didn’t work out, however, as the team finished under .500 in both 2010 and 2011.

Then, Theo Epstein took over before the 2012 season and made sweeping changes. The franchise bottomed out in 2012, as the team started its painful rebuild and finished 61-101. The team slowly improved over the next few years before the front office brought Joe Maddon in to manage the up-and-coming roster. With a few big additions, the Cubs went 97-65 in 2015 and made it all the way to the National League Championship Series.

With some more tweaks to the roster, the team went 103-58 in 2016 and survived a tough postseason to win their first World Series championship in 108 years. The rest of the decade, by Chicago Cubs standards, was pretty good, as the team finished over .500 every year and made the postseason two additional times.

Along the way during this past decade, we’ve seen many great players come and go through the north side of Chicago. Putting together a list of the 50 greatest was a challenge, as players played varying amount of years with the team and contributed in different ways, both on and off the field. However, after much work, I have put together my list. Today, we conclude with numbers 10-1.

Click here for numbers 50-41; click here for numbers 40-31; click here for numbers 30-21; click here for numbers 20-11.

Chicago Cubs: No. 10: Kyle Schwarber

It still feels like Kyle Schwarber hasn’t reached his full potential yet. The Chicago Cubs have been patient with him amidst many calls to trade him to the American League so he can be a designated hitter. Still, he earns this spot on the list for what he has done so far, especially in the postseason.

Schwarber made his debut with the big league club in the middle of the 2015 season, as the team was looking for a way to spark its offense without making a major trade. Schwarber was good for the Cubs in 2015, slugging 16 home runs and driving in 43 in just 69 games. He became a hero in the postseason, hitting five home runs to already become the franchise’s all-time postseason home run leader.

Unfortunately, a horrific injury during the first week of the 2016 season slowed Schwarber’s ascent, though he became a hero again when he came all the way back to play in the World Series, batting 7-for-17. The former first-rounder showed potential to be a good all-around hitter, but since that World Series it hasn’t materialized as well as we’d hoped. In 2017, despite hitting 30 home runs, he batted just .211.

In 2018, Schwarber hit .238 with 26 home runs, and he struggled for much of the first half of 2019, renewing calls to give up on him. However, the left-handed slugger showed some signs of life in the second half of 2019 and got his average for the year up to .250, with career highs in home runs (38) and RBIs (92). His OPS of .871 was also a career-high.

If the young slugger continues to develop as a hitter in 2020 and beyond, and he continues to at least be adequate in left field, he could easily make the Cubs’ top ten players of the 2020s, ten years from now.

Chicago Cubs: No. 9: Alfonso Soriano

Alfonso Soriano became a lightning rod of Chicago Cubs fans’ anger when the team quickly bowed out of the postseason in 2007 and 2008 then descended quickly after that. Indeed, his massive eight-year contract that he signed before the 2007 season made him an easy target. However, when we look at the numbers, though Soriano wasn’t a superstar with the Cubs, he actually put together a nice run with the team.

Despite playing on some bad clubs, and despite already collecting his big paycheck, give Soriano credit for continuing to put in a good effort early in the 2010s. In 2010, he hit 24 home runs and drove in 79, and in 2011 he hit 26 home runs and drove in 88. However, his best year with the Cubs was during that dreadful 2012 season: He set highs for his Cubs career in home runs (32), RBIs (108), and OPS (.821). He got off to a good start with the Cubs again in 2013: In 93 games, he hit 17 home runs and drove in 51.

In the second year of their big rebuild, the Cubs were finally able to trade Soriano during the 2013 season, to the New York Yankees. Soriano played out the rest of his contract with the Yankees in 2014. Cubs fans will not remember Soriano’s time with the Cubs fondly, but the signing wasn’t a total disaster, either.

Chicago Cubs: No. 8: Starlin Castro

Starlin Castro came up to the Chicago Cubs in 2010 with lots of hype. Though he wasn’t around when the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, he still had a nice six-year run with the club.

Castro made a big splash right away, homering and driving in six runs in his big league debut in Cincinnati on May 7, 2010. Castro didn’t show a lot of power that year, only homering two more times, yet he proved to be a skilled hitter, finishing the year with a .300 batting average. In 2011, Castro batted .307 and led the league with 207 hits. He also stole 22 bases.

Castro was up-and-down over the next four seasons but still put together a nice Cubs career. He batted .281 in his time in Chicago and led the league in at-bats three times. It was nice to see Castro get to play in the 2015 postseason, and he hit a key home run in Game 3 of the NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals.

After the 2015 season, with Javier Baez and Addison Russell emerging as middle infield options, the Cubs traded Castro to the New York Yankees. He spent two years there before spending 2018 and 2019 with the Miami Marlins. Though it doesn’t seem likely, in a previous article I threw out the idea of maybe bringing Castro back to play second base in 2020.

Chicago Cubs: No. 7: Pedro Strop

Relief pitchers usually only make headlines when they have a bad outing. Indeed, many Chicago Cubs fans have been quick to criticize Pedro Strop any time he has given up runs over the years. Still, when we look at everything he’s done for the Cubs since 2013, we have to put him in the top ten on this list.

Strop had a nice 2012 pitching in relief for the Baltimore Orioles, but after a rough start to 2013, the Orioles gave up on him and traded him to the Cubs (along with Jake Arrieta). The right-hander quickly found it again for the Cubs and has been arguably their most reliable and consistent relief pitcher of this generation. Check out these ERA totals from 2013 to 2018: 2.83, 2.21, 2.91, 2.85, 2.83, & 2.26.

Strop had a rough 2019, posting an uncharacteristic 4.97, and since he’s a free agent there is speculation that he may have pitched his last game with the Cubs. If it is the end, it’s been a great run: a 2.90 ERA in 373 innings.

I hope that his difficult 2019 doesn’t spoil his legacy as a great Cubs reliever, and I hope Cubs fans will remember him for more than just wearing his hat crooked but rather as a staple of these winning teams.

Chicago Cubs: No. 6: Javier Baez

It was recently announced that Javier Baez would be on the cover of MLB The Show 20. That speaks volumes to how he has emerged as one of the game’s most exciting players for the Chicago Cubs.

We tend to forget that there was a lot of talk about giving up on Baez a few years ago. He split 2014 and 2015 between the majors and minors, and given his whopping strikeout totals, many of us wondered whether he could be a productive major league player. The middle infielder proved his doubters wrong in 2016, spending most of the year with the big league club, but his big coming-out party was in the postseason, where he wowed a national audience with his bat, glove, and baserunning.

In 2017, Baez batted .273 for the second straight year, upping his home run total from 14 to 23 and his RBI total from 59 to 75 over 2016. But 2018 was his breakthrough year at the plate, hitting 34 homers and driving in 111 while batting .290, earning second place in NL MVP voting. All the while, he continued to dazzle at second base.

In 2019, Baez had another great year at the plate, though it was cut short due to injury. He also moved to shortstop and continued to be one of the game’s most dynamic defenders. Baez is still young enough and still has enough room to get better that it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him at least this high on the list of the top Cubs of the 2020s ten years from now.

Chicago Cubs: No. 5: Jake Arrieta

We just mentioned Pedro Strop at no. 7 on this list, as he came over in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles in 2013. Here at no. 5, we have the other player that came over in what turned out to be a lopsided trade for the Chicago Cubs in Jake Arrieta.

For whatever reason, Arrieta just couldn’t put it together in Baltimore, but the light turned on as soon as he came to the north side of Chicago. The right-hander made nine starts for the Cubs in 2013 after the trade and posted a solid 3.66 ERA. But in 2014, he really broke through, making 25 starts and posting a 2.53 ERA, good for ninth in NL Cy Young award voting.

Then came 2015. While Arrieta was great in the first half, he had a second half for the ages: In 15 starts, he pitched 107 1/3 innings and gave up just nine earned runs. Overall, he finished with a 1.77 ERA on his way to winning the NL Cy Young award. Arrieta topped that off by pitching a complete game shutout in the NL Wild Card game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Arrieta wasn’t as good the next two years but still was solid, making a combined 61 starts and posting ERAs of 3.10 and 3.53. After the 2017 season, he left as a free agent for the Philadelphia Phillies, his status as a Cubs hero fully intact.

Chicago Cubs: No. 4: Kyle Hendricks

Kyle Hendricks might not get the national attention that other pitchers of his caliber do, but Chicago Cubs fans have sure taken notice. In an age where everyone is throwing harder and faster, Hendricks is a throwback in the mold of the great Greg Maddux.

The Cubs acquired Hendricks in 2012 in the Ryan Dempster trade with the Texas Rangers, and ever since Hendricks has made the Rangers look foolish for making that trade. The crafty right-hander made a big impression in his first taste of the majors in 2014, posting a 2.46 ERA in 13 starts.

Hendricks made 32 starts with a 3.95 ERA in 2015, but in 2016 he was as big of a reason as any why the Cubs won the World Series, leading the league in ERA at 2.13 and finishing third in NL Cy Young award voting. Fans will never forget his masterful performance in Game 6 of the 2016 NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers as the Cubs won the pennant that night. Hendricks also pitched well after he was given the starting assignment in Game 7 of the World Series, though he didn’t get a decision.

Since that magical 2016 season, Hendricks has quietly gone about his business, posting ERAs of 3.03, 3.44, and 3.46. Hopefully, he has many more great years in a Chicago Cubs uniform ahead of him.

Chicago Cubs: No. 3: Kris Bryant

By age 24, Kris Bryant had already accomplished just about everything that one can in the game of baseball: The Gold Spikes Award for college’s best player. Rookie of the Year. National League MVP. And World Series champion with the Chicago Cubs.

The Cubs were fortunate to get Bryant with the second overall pick in 2013, as the Houston Astros, picking first, selected pitcher Mark Appel, who never made it to the big leagues. Bryant seemed to have the majors figured out right away: In 2015, he won NL Rookie of the Year batting .275 with 26 home runs and 99 RBIs. Then in 2016, he hit .292 with 39 home runs and 102 RBIs, winning NL MVP largely on the fact that he was willing to play both third base and outfield to help the team.

Bryant has still been a solid player over the past three years, though injuries have slowed him down a little. Overall, in his five-year career, the right-handed slugger has been an All-Star three times, finished in the top 11 of MVP voting three times, hit at least 26 home runs four times, and had an OPS of over .900 three times. As I noted in a previous article, his clutch statistics have gotten a lot better over the past few years.

As Cubs fans, we can’t help but feel like there’s much more for Kris Bryant to accomplish. If he’s able to stay healthy, and the Cubs can sign him long-term, Bryant could become an all-time Cubs great.

Chicago Cubs: No. 2: Jon Lester

I understand that one could make the case that either Jake Arrieta or Kyle Hendricks was the best Chicago Cubs pitcher of the decade. Yet I have Jon Lester ranked as the highest pitcher – and no. 2 overall – because of what his arrival meant for this franchise along with what he has accomplished in a Cubs uniform.

The Cubs battled a few different teams to obtain Lester’s services prior to the 2015 season, and when the left-hander chose the Cubs, it was perhaps the club’s biggest step forward (except for bringing in Joe Maddon to manage) in becoming a contender. In his five years with the team, Lester has made 32 starts every year (except for 2019, when he made 31) and has been, for the most part, the anchor that the rotation needed.

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Lester was solid in his first year with the Cubs in 2015, posting a 3.34 ERA. However, just like many of the Cubs’ players, 2016 was when he really shined. His 2.44 ERA helped him to place second in NL Cy Young award voting, while he posted a 2.02 ERA in six postseason appearances. Lester wasn’t quite as good in 2017 or 2018, though he still was a reliable starter who also pitched well in the postseason.

Lester showed signs of age in 2019 and wasn’t as effective as he’s been in the past. However, I think just about any Cubs fan will tell you that his contract was worth it and that he’s perhaps the best free agent signing in Cubs history.

Lester has one year left on his contract with the Cubs (although there is a team option for 2021). It’s looking like his best days are behind him, though thanks to what he helped to accomplish with the Cubs, he will always be a legend on the north side of Chicago.