Chicago Cubs: Five players who would benefit from a mulligan

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Chicago Cubs, Todd Hundley (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

What if we gave five Chicago Cubs players a chance to start over on their Cubs careers? Here we look at five potential candidates.

The Chicago Cubs have had a lot of star players over the years who had memorable careers. Then there are those players who probably wish they could have a mulligan. Here, we look at five such players, starting with a catcher whose career didn’t quite go as planned.

Chicago Cubs: Todd Hundley

This wasn’t how it was supposed to turn out. Todd Hundley‘s father, Randy Hundley, is a Chicago Cubs legend. Todd Hundley had built a reputation as one of the game’s most prominent power threats from behind the plate. His 41 home runs with the New York Mets in 1996 at the time was a record for a catcher. In 2000, in just 90 games, he went deep 24 times.

That’s why a lot of fans were excited when the Cubs signed Hundley to a four-year, $23.5 million free-agent contract before the 2001 season. With a big hole at the catcher’s position, it was a signing that made a ton of sense for both sides.

It did not go well right from the beginning. Hundley became upset when his teammate, Damon Buford, wouldn’t give up #9 so he could wear it. Then, manager Don Baylor chose Joe Girardi to start at catcher on Opening Day, liking the matchup better, and Hundley complained.

It took Hundley five games to get his first hit and 17 games to hit his first home run. He didn’t hit a single home run between May 6 and June 18 before going down with an injury. By the end of the season, he was batting just .187 with 12 home runs.

2002 didn’t go much better, as he batted .211 with 16 home runs. At one point, he complained that it was too cold to hit at Wrigley Field early in the season. He was booed mercilessly by the hometown fans, and during one home game, he was caught flipping off fans while rounding the bases after hitting a home run. Hundley later claimed it was aimed at some Cincinnati Reds fans.

Both for his attitude and his struggles at the plate, it would have been nice for Hundley to get a do-over. The good news is that the Cubs later traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers for two key 2003 players, Eric Karros and Mark Grudzielanek.

Chicago Cubs: Mark Prior

During this quarantine, I’ve been re-watching some games from the 2003 season. It’s amazing how hard that manager Dusty Baker rode the young Mark Prior down the stretch that year. In six September starts, the then-23-year-old right-hander made at least 124 pitches in five of those starts. Then, in three postseason starts, he made 133, 116, and 119 pitches. This would be unheard of in today’s game.

Of course, it’s been debated to death whether Baker “overused” Prior that year and whether that contributed to all the injuries that ended his career way too soon in 2006. What we do know is that Prior was one of the most hyped pitching prospects in MLB history, not just Cubs history. His career should never have ended with only 657 innings pitched and 42 wins.

I think most Cubs fans have nothing against Prior; he simply couldn’t stay on the field during his brief career. Still, it would be nice if he could get another chance at it. Would he, Baker, or the Cubs’ coaching and training staff have done anything differently? I don’t know the answer to that.

I did consider Kerry Wood for this list, as his career too wasn’t all that it could have been due to injuries. However, he did have a much longer career than Prior did, re-made himself as an effective reliever late in his career, and is still beloved by Cubs fans. It could have gone much better, but it was still a good ride for the big Texan.

Chicago Cubs: LaTroy Hawkins

I’ve always felt bad for LaTroy Hawkins. I believe he tried his hardest, and overall his numbers during his one-and-a-half year stretch with the Cubs weren’t terrible. However, he failed to come through in some of his most essential outings, and because of that, he remains vilified by Cubs fans to this day.

Hawkins was a dominant relief pitcher for the Minnesota Twins in 2002 and 2003, and before the 2004 season, the right-hander signed a free-agent contract with the Cubs. It was supposed to be one of those moves that put the team over the top after the near-miss in 2003. With Joe Borowski going down due to injury, Hawkins stepped in as closer and converted 25 saves and posted a nice ERA overall of 2.63.

Yet Hawkins also blew nine saves, including two big ones down the stretch as the Cubs fell out of the NL Wild Card race. The September 25 game in which he gave up a three-run home run in the ninth inning to the New York Mets, for me, remains among the most devastating regular-season losses I’ve ever seen. He continued to blow a few games in 2005 before being traded to the San Francisco Giants; later, he returned to Wrigley Field to chants of, “Hawkins Sucks!” He stayed in the league for another decade, bouncing around to several different teams.

On the one hand, it would be nice if Hawkins could get a second chance at being a Cub. On the other hand, maybe he wouldn’t want to do it over again after what the fans put him through. In any case, it’s a significant example of how cruel that baseball can be.

Chicago Cubs: Adam Greenberg

Those who are fans of the movie Field of Dreams will remember the story of Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, a player who got into one-half inning of action with the New York Giants in 1922. He played in the outfield, never got a ball hit to him, and never got to bat. It was a story about coming so close to your dreams but never being able to live them.

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Adam Greenberg, in a way, is like the Graham character. The Cubs drafted the outfielder in the 9th round of the 2002 amateur draft, and he slowly worked his way up the Cubs’ minor league ranks. The 24-year-old earned a callup in 2005 and made his first MLB plate appearance on July 9 in Miami against the Florida Marlins.

It would be his only Cubs plate appearance.

On the first pitch, Valerio de Los Santos drilled Greenberg in the head. Greenberg had to come out of the game immediately – Carlos Zambrano pinch-ran for him. Greenberg suffered a concussion and struggled once he started playing in the minors again. The Cubs released him for good in 2006, and he bounced around with several teams until 2012.

That was when a group of fans started an online petition to get Greenberg another major league at-bat, and at the end of the 2012 season, he got into a game with the Miami Marlins. Though he struck out, it was hailed as a positive ending to an otherwise sad story.

Had Greenberg not been hit by that pitch, who knows what would have happened with his career. He didn’t project to be a major league star, but perhaps he could have hung around for a little bit and made a name for himself. We’ll never know.

Craig Kimbrel / Chicago Cubs (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: Craig Kimbrel

We’ll conclude this list with one player who – assuming we get to start playing baseball again this year – will have a chance to redeem himself in Craig Kimbrel. Until last year, Kimbrel was one of the most dominant closers of his era. He’s led the league in saves four times, currently at 346 for his career, while he boasts a ridiculous career ERA of 2.08.

Kimbrel was a free agent during the 2018-2019 offseason, and he was unable to get a deal until June 7, 2019, when he signed a three-year deal worth $43 million. It seemed like a ton of money for a relief pitcher, but he was expected to be a big difference-maker on what appeared to be a good team that just needed some relief help.

Whether due to the layoff or to some other reason, Kimbrel’s first season with the North Siders was a disaster. In just 20 2/3 innings, he gave up 15 earned runs – including a staggering nine home runs. He took the loss in two of the four games that the Cubs lost at home to the St. Louis Cardinals late in the year, which put the final nail in the coffin of the Cubs’ 2019 season.

Next. Ranking the best closers of the past 25 years. dark

I’m sure that Kimbrel – and Cubs fans everywhere – would love it if Kimbrel could start over. However, as mentioned above, the good news is that there is still time for him to turn it around. Understandably, there is skepticism that he can return to his once-dominant form after such a disaster of a 2019 season. For the Cubs to have any chance to contend in 2020 (whatever the season looks like), they’ll need Kimbrel to be the stopper we were expecting.

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