Chicago Cubs: Decade’s top five single season performances

Chicago Cubs: With a lot of talented players came a lot of great single seasons from a number of guys over the past 10 years. Which ones were the best?

With the decade coming to a close we can continue to look back at the best and worst of the Chicago Cubs in the 2010s. No doubt it was the best decade of our lifetimes seeing four postseason teams and a World Series victory. With that came some great individual performances from players, some of which we had not seen in a while.

Every decade the Cubs have had their All-Stars, MVP candidates, Cy Young candidates and Gold Glove winners, but this decade saw some truly masterful performances over 162 an beyond. Some get talked about all the time while other can get lost in the mix. That can sometimes come when the stories around the team are even bigger than individual performances like they have been in recent years.

With that said, part made a lot of the great individual seasons this past decade so special is that they were part of something bigger. For many years as a Cubs fan we watched the likes of Ernie Banks, Andre Dawson, Sammy Sosa and Derrek Lee be winning or in the mix for MVP awards in lost seasons. This decade was different. So lets look at a top five list of best individual seasons by Chicago Cubs players from 2010-2019.

*NOTE: These are players that played mostly-full to full seasons with the Cubs. Not players coming over in late July.*

Chicago Cubs: Davis was historically good for the club

It was a month after the Cubs won the 2016 World Series when Theo Epstein traded away Jorge Soler for Kansas City Royals closer Wade Davis. The Aroldis Chapman closing days were always going to be brief, so they needed someone new for 2017. Davis was one of the best closers in baseball and he showed he still had more in the tank in 2017.

Not only was he the Cubs lone representative in the 2017 mid-summer classic, he was key in their stretch run in the regular season and the postseason. His regular season saw him finish with a 2.30 ERA, 3.38 FIP, 1.14 WHIP, 12/1 K/9, and converting 32/33 save opportunities. The one blown save was against Milwaukee in September, which ended a great run of converting saves on the season. Fans felt comfortable in the ninth inning knowing he could lock it down.

Davis was also a primary reason they made it within three wins of another pennant. He grinded through those final innings in Washington in the winner-take-all game 5 of the NLDS. Striking out Bryce Harper to end the series capped off a crazy and exhausting night. His multi-inning save in game 4 of the NLCS helped the Cubs avoid a sweep against the Dodgers.

While he was only a Cub for one year, his impact for the team will be remembered for a while.

Chicago Cubs: A Cy Young finalist twirls gem after gem

There was plenty of standout performances by Chicago Cubs players in their championship season. One was Kyle Hendricks in what ended up seeing him as a Cy Young finalist for his efforts in 2016.

Hendricks quietly had the lowest ERA in the majors among qualifiers at 2.13 in 190 innings (30 starts). Along with that he posted a 3.20 FIP, 0.98 WHIP and 8.1 K/9. This season also included a career-high 4.2 fWAR, .205 average against and 48.4% groundball rate. He finished third in Cy Young voting that season. This really helped put The Professor on the map.

Going just beyond the regular season we cannot forget his efforts in the 2016 postseason, including that pennant-clinching game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. His ERA in the World Series (two starts) was 1.00. It really is a shame his efforts did not get him an All Star nod at least, but on the other hand World Series ring is better. He was a huge part of that run.

Chicago Cubs: There was no doubt El Mago had his most magical run in 2018.

While the ending of the 2018 season was bitter and gross, Cubs fans will always cherish what Javier Baez did that season. The young infielder was entering his prime and he took the league by storm as he was a front-runner for the MVP for much of the season before bowing out to Christian Yelich in the voting.

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With so many ups and downs in that 2018 season, one of the main reasons they won 95 games was Baez. He finished with a slash of .290/.326/.554 with 34 homers, .881 OPS, 131 wRC+, 2.9 UBR, and 5.3 fWAR in 160 games. Baez was far and away the best player on the team that year. Honors during the season included a trip to the All Star game and participating in the Home Run Derby.

Also remember his RBI double in the Wild Card game was the only run the Cubs run driven in during their very brief postseason appearance that year. It pretty much summed up the 2018 right there. While El Mago was popular before 2018, this season really boosted his popularity among the fanbase and in baseball in general.

Whether a long home run, stealing home or an amazing diving play, Javier Baez had something in store seemingly every day in 2018. It was such a treat to watch.

Chicago Cubs: What Jake Arrieta did in 2015 was historic

While there is certainly an argument for Kris Bryant’s 2016 season being number, this list is going to give that to Jake Arrieta‘s 2015 Cy Young season.

What Arrieta did in 2015 was historically good. He became must-see TV every time he took the mound. The Cubs were rising back up into contention and Arrieta became one, if not the biggest, stories of that team. His no-hitter in Los Angeles on August 30th exposed his greatness that year to a national audience and his name became bigger around baseball.

Numbers wise? 1.77 ERA, 2.35 FIP, 0.86 WHIP, 9.3 K/9, 1.9 BB/9, .184 average against, and a 7.0 fWAR in 229 innings pitched. Three of his 33 starts were complete-game shutouts. Put this in perspective; Arrieta, a pitcher who goes every five days, had an fWAR just 0.9 behind what Bryant did in 2016.

Go a step further and just look at his second-half stats: .148/.204/.205 slash against with a 0.75 ERA and 113 strikeouts in 107 1/3 innings. In his final 23 starts (from June through October 2nd) the Cubs went 20-3 and he pitched to a 1.21 ERA in that time frame. From August 4th through the postseason the Cubs lost only one game he started, which was game 2 of the NLCS in New York. Speaking of postseason…who can forget that complete-game shutout in the Wild Card game against the Pirates?

So many crazy historical numbers and that is why Arrieta’s 2015 was our number one. What is your list?